Durga Puja in Chittaranjan Park

I recently got to experience the magic of Durga Puja, an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates the Hindu goddess Durga. It's also the most significant socio-cultural event of the year in Bengali Hindu society. It just so happens that I live in a neighborhood of South Delhi called Chittaranjan Park (or CR Park), home to a large Bengali community with many Kolkata-style street-food stalls, Bengali sweet shops, fish markets, temples and cultural centers.

 

Interestingly, CR Park was established in the early 1960s under the name EPDP Colony or East Pakistan Displaced Persons Colony, and later renamed after a prominent freedom fighter named Chittaranjan Das who was a leading figure in Bengal during the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1919-1922.

 

During the holiday, many enormous pavilion-like structures called pandals are constructed to house elaborate sculptures of the goddess Durga. From what I could tell, there appeared to be a pandal nearly every block! Apparently, planning committees work all year to design and build unique depictions of the Goddess and there is a friendly competition to see which sculpture is the most creative, unusual or beautiful. There is also plenty of good eating, including all sorts of delicious Bengali sweets!

 

I had a fantastic time wandering from pandal to pandal and taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the festival. Being one of the only foreigners, I got a lot of curious looks, but I was never excluded or made to feel uncomfortable. It was also impressive to see families dressed in their finest attire and women wearing stunningly ornate and beautifully tailored saris. Only downside was traffic, which went from bad to worse! Now on to the biggest holiday of the year, Diwali, which starts in a few weeks!