Memoirs !

Reminisces of life is a moving feast to an observant wandering through it . The culinary  items offered ,some can be discarded & some are liked suiting the taste bud ,asked  repeatedly for more & more .The passing canvas of memoirs of mindscape can  go in limbo & comatose, if thoughts are atrophied & if in perennial flow , it becomes a ready tool to pierce the loneliness ,if musing alone .

Goddess Durga on a boat 

In my village home ,the idea of boat ride in river Balan was  fabulous  . In the colloquial lingo it is  said 'झलेड खेलना !'Nearest to it in English language is joyful boat ride in a river. In Venice ,it is a city of canals where gondolas still ply & weaved many a romantic story over the escapades over gondolas ! Different joy riders on the boat in a river in Indian context has different connotation of meaning but what ever it is , it is full of gaiety or romanticism but never been nuanced with negativity & on a silvery  water with tiny waves  in moonlit night, it is heavenly .  During Durga Puja on Navami night moon was not crescent but gibbous . 

                   From my cousins & village urchins ,I came to know ,the idols of Goddess Durga & her subaltern Goddess & Gods with the monster Mahisasur will be put on four cornered big boat in the evening ,when sun was to set .It is  pedestaled on the boat with all its elegance ,fanfare ,rituals with humming of mantras by pundits. & most eye catching congregation  was of devotees with Dhol ,Cymbals ,Majeera ,Harmonium ,Tabla & other allied instruments ,all singing hymens vociferously in praise of mother Goddess Durga . Two small boats accompanying it on either side to bring elite women from the ghats on main boat for paying  obeisance to Goddess .  I listening it ,simply waited to  happen it in actuality  .   


                       The ghats in village parlance were not the ghats with steps going to river & an imposing temple over it but the ghats were known  as the easy accessible path to the river for different 'tolas' having  dip in the water & washing the cloths with allied activities .. Village social dynamics prompted elitism also . Upper cast women didn't like to join melee of crowd  for village festival avoiding hustling & rubbing with commoners so, women of different ages of upper cast preferred to pay their obeisance to mother Goddess thoroughly soaked in religious faith & fervor ,prostrating in different postures & doing 'Devi Darshan' on the boat itself .        

                   I was anxious , when sun will set,boatmen were busy that day of 'Navami' but thank God ! one boat with boatman agreed to ferry us for joy ride in the river & for 'Devi Darshan' . I was also anxious when my mother gets ready with other close relatives to ride on the boat with her 'Puja Thali' .

               Sun rays had lost their sheen & a tinge of amber was there as sun was descending to west . I always  looked towards the sky , it was azure blue ,only at some places bevy of clouds with slaty hue  were there & slowly orangish rays gleaming on the water  made the drowning sun complete over the water.  From a distance sound of cymbals ,dhol,majeera ,harmonium with cacophonous hymen was audible & gradually aura of Goddess Durga with subaltern  Goddess & God pedestled on the massive boat were also visible .

Idol of Goddess Durga in the night

When massive boat came near us & about hundred feet ,it was quite dark ,four or five pactromax  were lit & in the glow of light in the backdrop of very darkish hue on the river Balan , vociferous bhajans touching the height of crescendo , I was transfixed . In retrospect when I visualize the scene ,it was sublime , it was transcendent, it was celestial ! 

                      In my life I have seen umpteen idols of  Goddess Durga in different cities ,with different decorations of 'pandals', in umpteen postures of idols, but I was bewitched by that 'Devi Darshan'