I was never a fanatical durga puja bong. As a child, it was just a time for new shirts and pandal hopping. Things started getting better after crossing 15, when puja started to represent 4 days when there are no curfews, no questions, no rules. Till the time I left for B'lore at the 'tender' age of 20, those 20 days spreading across those 5 years gave me a lot of firsts of my life - my first drinking binge, my first girlfriend, my first visit to Sonagachi (returned unopened, I assure you..the atmosphere scared the living shit out of me), my first experiences of mob rowdisms (atop a truck, going for the 'bhashan') and so on and on and on.
But then life moved on. I became independent, first personally, then financially. All the rules of my life fell apart and 4 days without rules lost their significance. Friends moved on, muhalla kids grew up and started to occupy the prime seats in the pandals and puja time lost its charm.
The fanatical bong carried on. Taking vacation to visit Cal during the pujas was something that had to be planned months in advance. Spouses leave applications synchronised, children school leaves planned, tkts booked at exhorbitant rates...and then coming back with stories of drinking sessions and bad food and mad queues.
I have always felt myself to be 'above' these people. Once I left Cal I have never missed being there during the pujas. So it came to me as a shocker when suddenly, out of the blue, I felt myself desperately yearning to be in Cal on the oshtomi. Drop by on all friends and relatives, soak in the special treatment that is usually accorded to someone settled outside Cal (and the treatment is the same regardless of whether you settled in Bombay or Bahamas), eat phuchka at 2 AM in the morning, wake up to the beating of the drums and to that amazing shorot sky and the slight nip in the air..
Its official. If your root has started calling to you, you have finally crossed youth. Goodbye youth, welcome middle age.
Oct 3, 2006
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9 comments:
join the club!! extremely well written.....
omg... this is scary for a singleton like me. i will be old and bitter and single and yearning for relatives and old friends? gulp.
Dnt listen to anyone, you ll get over this shit soon.
the only roots a man has are in his head chuck them off.
dear shuv, i must agree you are steadily shaping out to be a nice and lucid author.this was an unusual demonstration of matured writing from u.
u should really take up writing seriously now.(atleast that way u dont have to jhelo my comments u know.)
scout: dont worry. as long as u become maudlin an hour a day and live life exactly as you please for the remaining 23 u will do good.
munia/buddha/vivek/rip: thanks for the praises guys. you confirmed what i always believed was true - i am good man!
vikas: tu to gaya apna roots ke paas. u always were an aussie bastard.
Bullshit!are u mad? when did i say that?dont imagine things.but u do write well and may be oneday u will become a good human being too.(well...not too sure u know)
Beautifully written!! Your cynicism must really be working well for you if something like this can come out alongside.
how true. touching! it's not middle age. it's just that you are becoming a better human being. otehrwise your roots won't have called you.
dear shuv,
have you ever noticed..
1.'roots' are the ugliest part of a tree and,
2.higher the branches,deeper the roots?
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