Real Durgas

The arena was bustling with energy; echoing with youthful chatter and laughter over the lively garba music and the rhythmic beats of dandia. College students of all ethnicities were dressed in finest kurtas, lehengas, ghagras and chaniya-cholis, dupattas and shawls in exotic designs. The colors and patterns were so brilliant that it felt like they had borrowed the vibrant autumn hues of reds, yellows, oranges and the remaining bit of green from the New England Fall outdoors and added to their already spectacular palette! Beautiful young students dancing and twirling and maneuvering the two large concentric circles, their prettified dandiya sticks matching the beats as they moved gracefully around a majestic image of Goddess Durga slaying the demon Mahishasura. The scene reminded me of my teenage years - different country, different generation, different population - yet the same nine magical nights of Navratri!

The chilly, yet festive evening was a reminder that colder weather and shorter days signal the beginning of the holiday season and festivals in many cultures. For Indians, autumn brings the first celebration of the season with Navratri, a nine night festival (nav means nine, ratri means night) honoring nine manifestations of the Goddess Shakti or Durga. It is celebrated in special ways in different parts of India. In western India it is celebrated with Garba and Dandiya dancing, in eastern India it is celebrated as Durga Pujo, in southern India with Golu, Koluvu or Habba figurine decorations, and in north India with Ashtami Pooja as a special honor for young girls meant to represent the Goddess Shakti (or energy) on Earth. 

We have been fortunate to be a part of a cosmopolitan culture that introduced us to the variety of ways of celebrating holidays, including Navratri. Durga Pujo from eastern India is a five day festival which starts on the sixth day of Navratri and ends on the tenth day, called Vijayadashmi. The main Goddess revered (in the middle in the Pujo picture above) is Parvati with her children, the Goddesses of Wealth (Lakshmi) and Knowledge (Saraswati) on each side, and on far two sides are Ganesha (the god of good beginnings), and Kartikeya (the god of war). Our connection with the culturally active Bengali community is through their plays and theatre in which our friends (pictured left) play an active role. Pujo plays incorporate progressive themes around Goddess Durga.   


In the South Indian tradition, friends invited us to get blessings from Goddess Durga and visit the Golu or Koluvu decorations. The dolls decorated on the steps of Golu/Koluvu have fascinating stories. Some dolls have been passed down for generations; others added new every year. Some depict incarnations of favorite deities; others display stories. Some are traditional; others modern. There are nature scenes, harvest scenes and animals. There is sometimes a theme like the one I visited was designed like an Indian flag. Besides the fun decorative dolls and scenes, the other fun aspect of this tradition is guests dressing up in the traditional Indian sarees and jewellery, in shades of the auspicious color of that day, and getting together for an evening of singing, dancing, gossip, prasadam of sundal (pulses) and other goodies, and lots and lots of pictures! Now we reminisce and are grateful for the pre-covid grandeur of festivities, and spend this year praying for return to normalcy.

Navratri cannot be complete without the North Indian tradition of a special celebration on the eighth or the ninth day for little girls. For at least a decade, in our home away from home, a group of friends in our community in the US, have made this day iconic for us all. They invited the girls and their Moms, prepared special food consisting of Halwa-Puri-Chana, gifted the girls special treats and performed a ceremony to mark the girls as the feminine power representing the Goddess.  The little girls in our community grew up knowing about and being grounded in this tradition, with Navratri and especially “Ashtami” being a very special day, as a friend very aptly put in her article. Older and wiser, the girls now ask about Goddess Durga, and her significance. Durga (Shakti) assumes various forms that manifest strength and courage to confront and transform whatever demon she faces. 

There are so many fun ways to celebrate Navratri, yet each one has a common theme - that of the victory of the powerful Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura; one profound, empowering message symbolizing the victory of good over evil. The story is supposed to have happened about 1.3 billion years ago. One may question the timeline, though the story is uplifting with Durga projected as the epitome of an empowered woman. The demon Mahishasura underestimates the capacity of a woman to kill him. Of course no such woman exists on earth, so a warrior woman was created - conceivable of raising a modern day, empowered young girl to achieve her full potential. I believe the Goddess’ multiple arms indicate her being multi-talented and her skill with specialty weapons that are gifted to her. Having a lion as a vehicle symbolizes that she has already tamed the ferocious animal who would assist her in battle. The demon being a shapeshifter, it wasn’t some easy peasy battle either, which went on for more than nine days. Ultimately, this all powerful demon, with a boon that he could not be killed by a man, was slayed by the all powerful woman.

Beyond the symbolism, I can’t help but appreciate the path that the festival of Navratri, and the strength of this powerful Goddess, carves for all the women and girls who believe they too can stand up to any demons that present themselves in the form of constant challenges. Every once in a while we come across women, real life Durgas, who take the extra steps to conquer the demons around and within, with strength, fortitude and courage. It fills my heart with pride and hope to see elements of Goddess Durga in real women around me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Local Impact

Image
“What’s up with the orange ribbon on your mailbox post?” I was glad for the question, as that was precisely the purpose of the tied up piece of ribbon.  The Orange Ribbon Campaign , a student led initiative started by the Luce family of Boxborough, amplified by AB Together Against Hate and AB United Way (ABUW), is a show of support and solidarity towards Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities. Recently two Black members of our town school committee experienced blatant racial attacks with use of slurs - on two separate occasions - during meetings held over zoom. There has been a widespread support for the orange ribbon initiative. “We realize that a ribbon campaign will not change hearts and minds or discriminatory practices, but we hope to amplify the many voices and groups that need to be heard” states the campaign. When a member of our community, Ananya Rao , reached out for 20 volunteers, the spots were full within no time. I was motivated by the fact that the ...
Read more

The Flight of an Empty Nester

Image
I settled down on the couch by the fireplace, wrapping myself with a warm blanket and a mug of hot ginger tea in hand, when my whatsapp notification dinged with a photo of my cousin Seema, receiving a trophy for a marathon run. Before I had a chance to read the details, our dog Smokey started pawing me vigorously - his unwavering, piercing stare reminding me that it was time for his walk. Six o’clock on a dark, cold, winter evening isn’t my favorite time to walk. However, it can be very difficult to explain to a dog, eager for his evening walk, about the lethargy of a cold, winter evening, that us humans experience. With the image of my marathoner cousin in the back of my head, and the love for my demanding doggie, I quickly gulped down the tea, admonishing Smokey to be patient.  Following the advice of a good friend, who was a dog owner before us, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, I layered myself with warm clothing, ready to face the bitter wind chill o...
Read more

The Undeniable Roots

Image
The grocery store was out of ginger root today. Usually ginger is a grocery item I can safely find in abundance, always filling up its designated area to capacity. On regular days, it seems like I am the only one stuffing my produce bag with four or five large roots. Ginger is an essential ingredient in Indian cooking. And those fond of the real Indian chai (tea) won't have it without a generous helping of ginger; it is known to fight colds and coughs and is supposed to bring warmth. I wasn’t surprised that today, with everyone guarding against COVID-19, the produce aisle which normally carries ginger was full of artichokes. If stores could be out of toilet paper, being out of ginger made way more sense. The sudden popularity of this root, which is such an integral part of my Indian roots, started me thinking of my roots. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I sit here, about 7500 miles away, across most of the Atlantic ocean, Europe and the middle-east, concerned abou...
Read more

74th Indian Independence Day

Image
Proud Indian Americans looked on with their heads held high as they witnessed the Indian Flag being raised at the Acton town hall, accompanied by Jana-Gana-Mana, the Indian National Anthem. The Indian Flag will fly for twenty four hours at the Acton Town Center to commemorate India’s 74th Independence Day, on August 15th 2020. This is happening for the first time in the history of Acton, thanks to the leadership of the Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Sahana Purohit, a Finance Committee member, who stepped  up promptly in response to IAGB (India Association of Greater Boston http://www.iagb.org ) initiative to hoist the Indian flag in 35 New England cities including Nashua, Connecticut and Maine towns. In Acton, the occasion was graced by prominent town representatives such as Massachusetts State Senator Jamie Eldridge, Massachusetts Representatives Tami Gouveia and Dan Sena,  Acton Board of Selectmen (BOS) Chair Jon Benson and Vice Chair Dean Charter, Selectman David Mart...
Read more

Youth Junction

Image
Six years ago, after completing his business degree (BBA), a young apprentice started his business journey in the newly inaugurated family garment store called Youth Junction. There was excitement around this new store in the small farming community of Timarni, Madhya Pradesh, India. Now fashion-seeking youngsters did not have to make a four hour hike to nearby cities of Bhopal or Indore for trendy outfits. For the Gadres, especially Siddharth, Youth Junction is a bold endeavor; a family dream come true. Siddharth has been managing the store with his Dad, Upendra, for the past six years. On first meeting, Siddharth comes across as a shy youth, but once you get to know him better, he has much to share with you. Siddharth is an iron-willed lionheart. For the past 25 years, after thousands of physical therapy sessions; after a couple of surgeries and years of medical intervention; after trying out every other alternative medicine like homeopathy and ayurvedic, he says he has developed a ...
Read more

The Festival of Lights

Image
We had been in the US for just a few years when our then six-year-old walked into the house announcing how we must have a turkey dinner that Thanksgiving. Everyone at school was talking about it, and he had just learned some great stories about Thanksgiving. We nodded at the stories without complicating the conversation with the questionable origins of the holiday , as we were ready to give this family holiday tradition a try. After all life is about new experiences and what can be better than when food and the whole family are involved! Having been raised in India, growing up we were exposed to Christmas and Ramadan besides other holidays. On moving to the US we used to put up a Christmas tree with presents, got kids’ pictures with Santa and enjoyed a feast with the family on Christmas day. But we had never celebrated Thanksgiving at home, although we knew about it at work and in the context of Black Friday shopping. Being busy working parents with young children at that time, Indian ...
Read more

Eternal Love

Image
The school year 2016-17 in our town started with a dark fall season ending in a darker winter. The school community was mourning, grieving and learning to cope with the deaths of two current students and two past students who took their own lives. Then on a cold, dark winter evening in January when I entered my daughter’s room, she was in shock and unconsolable. “It’s a fifth grader....he is so young...only ten!” That evening is etched in my mind. If it took so much for our family to come to terms with this incident, I wondered what the boy’s family would have gone through. It has been more than four years since this incident, when quite coincidentally I noticed a page set up by a mother in the memory of her radiant boy. I was drawn to this duo and as I looked deeper caught sight of innumerable posts - some touching, some heartbreaking, but mostly inspiring, and tremendously positive in the face of an unthinkable tragedy. My throat tightened as I read “Sometimes it feels like he is jus...
Read more

Journey to the Faraway Land

Image
In the early part of 2021, my friend Sunanda Sahay shared about a project she was spearheading as a part of and initiated by the Acton Historical Society (AHS) and the current co-president Doug Herrick. Over the past couple of decades, especially in the last decade, Acton has been getting a big influx of an Asian population, and the AHS wanted to record this journey through immigrant stories and experiences. The project focused on the two largest demographics, the Chinese American and the Indian American Actonians. The AHS hosted a session in May 2021 representing the Chinese American community that was led by Dawn Wang. A similar session, led by Sunanda, is planned to represent the Indian American on Sunday, Oct 3rd at 4 pm EST. When Sunanda explained the project to me in Jan 2021, I did a quick search to learn about the journeys of Indian American Actonians. About when and why they moved to Acton and what their experience was as a part of raising a family in Acton. I found next to n...
Read more

Age is just a Number

Image
I wasn’t there to witness this amazing feat. But when I close my eyes, it is clear like it is happening right in front of my eyes! I have seen this happen before, however this time it is more exciting for him. His small frame hunched over the keyboard with keys so worn-out that the letters have disappeared, his glasses that need correction that sometimes he can see better without them when his face is up close to the monitor and keyboard, patiently typing with two fingers as he has no typing skills; but his memories are crystal clear and larger than life, pouring out and filling the empty pages of the document to bring the stories of legendary cricketers, whom he hero-worshipped in his youth, to life. My Dad, (whom I call Baba) at age 82, just finished writing and publishing a book of his dreams. While he wrote about the legends, in my eyes he himself has become a legend! In March 2020, when I wrote about Baba in my post “ The Undeniable Roots ” that “When I read motivational quotes ab...
Read more

The Whole Nine Yards

Image
As a child I found comfort in cuddling a soft, warm, dry and fluffy white mass. No, it wasn’t a puppy! It was my grandmother’s nine yard saree (“nauvari”; nau- nine, var - yard; in Marathi) stitched like a quilt. It was extremely soft, being well-worn cotton and washed hundreds of times, folded four times and stitched into a comfortable quilt of a little over 6 feet in length, hence named “chaughadi” (chau - four, ghadi - fold; in Marathi). In the Indian winters it would trap the body heat and provide just enough warmth, and in summers, the airy, light material was the perfect cover under a ceiling fan. Beyond the practical perfectness, it was my inseparable security blanket. So when I first heard the phrase “the whole nine yards” in the US, however bizarre it may sound now, I assumed it was borrowed from the length of the traditional Indian saree. To me the phrase made complete sense - to go the full length or detail into something, as compared to the more modern, and shorter, abridge...
Read more