bicrom abroad

floating goddess, dancing indians

puja's over in cal and it's certainly been an experience: i'm glad i was here, but i can also fully understand why hordes of bengalis leave the state or hide in their flats over the five day frenzy. the sheer size and audacity of some of the pandels (marquees to house the figures of the gods) is staggering, as are some of the murti (the figures) themselves... special praise goes to one of the north cal pujas which inverted the normal imagery of durga as fearsome warrior vanquishing the demon, replacing all weapons with doves and promoting a message of peaceful understanding as opposed to bloody vengeance: i think durga's lion may even have been licking the demon. for every individual and impressive display however there were a fair few that were relatively banal and unimaginative, neither original nor traditional. it was the relative rarity of genuine invention, coupled with the sheer mass of people, that made this a once every decade affair for me.
the highlight of the puja was the final day, when the murti are taken to the ganges and thrown in to float away downstream. while this sight is intriguing in itself, it's the journey from the pandels to the ganges that is most enjoyable, as everyone dances and sings their way through cal as a farewell to durga for the year. we hitched a ride on one of the open top trucks travelling with my cousin's local murti, jammed precariously into the back with a happy gang of dancing buds and a drummer. i've had a few ropey journeys in my time but this was right up there, especially as lamby and i were standing at the very back of the truck: the upshot of this average decision was that every time (and this was frequent) the driver had to slam on the brakes, we were flung backwards in the general direction of a fairly unhappy encounter with the calcutta roads. still we made it there and the sight of all the divine figurines floating serenely down the river, leaving behind all the noise and confusion they'd created, was a surprisingly touching one.
any road journeys over the last few days have been punctuated with groups of people taking their murti to the river... some of the dancing is unbelievable, like wobbly knees on speed. it's amazing how people can lose it so completely, although in my view it's less symptomatic of religious fervour as sexual repression: you have to get that energy out somewhere.
last day today, am off to cambodia tonight. to be honest i'm eager to get going again. cal has been fun but it isn't the reason i left england for so long, and i want to get right back on it.

posted by bicrom @ 7:51 am

earthquake de minimis

at about 9am on saturday morning i suddenly became aware of my bed vibrating. presuming this was some treat laid on for customers, admittedly more generally of the female persuasion who tend to like that kind of thing, i turned on my side and went back to sleep. it was only when watching the bbc a few hours later that it became apparent that what i'd felt wasn't some cheap, if novel, guesthouse trick to make people stay longer, but rather a very faint manifestation of the monster earthquake centred in pakistan. so my do nothing days in delhi had produced my very own earthquake story, and what's more one of the best possible kind (involving nothing remotely like danger to me).
delhi had been a good place to spend a couple of days, although friday afternoon at jama masjid was one of the less pleasant experiences of my life, and i was ready for cal during durga puja, a four day festival that i've not been able to go to since 1986. having relocated my sis and lamby, we landed in a city already in full puja swing. the streets are packed with amazing temporary constructions,over elaborate figures of gods and goddesses, and people: everywhere you look a brown, sweaty mass of people, all pushing and shoving to get nowhere in particular. it's actually quite disconcerting... i've been on the road a while now, but only in india is the concept of personal space so forsaken. if one more little chap stabs his hand into the small of my back in the misguided belief this is going to cause some kind of red sea-easque parting of the masses in front of me i'm going to deck him. either way, cal at the moment is certainly a sight to behold, although i can barely see it past the vast belly that i have gained in the two weeks i've been eating with lamby. i'll lose it all in cambodia, that's what i say.

posted by bicrom @ 8:31 am