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After the Durga Puja, it is the Kali Puja time in the city. It is also the time for several communities to rework their bonds, Prabalika M. Borah discovers the trend
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Photo: Mohd Yousuf
Fun-filled devotion Members of the Uttarayan club gear up for the cultural events
What keeps most non-Hyderabadis close to their tradition during the festivals? It is the community puja celebrations and the get-togethers. The tradition in which people from the East and Northeast celebrate Durga Puja and Kali Puja is unmatched, and
to keep the tradition alive in Hyderabad, a few organisations take the lead.
It is these get-togethers that give the teen-maar a break and make way to the beat of the dhak, taal and the blowing of the conch.
Year after year these associations make elaborate preparations to make sure the devotees don’t miss the fun and religious fervour in a distant land. Beside the Bharat Seva Sangh and Ramakrishna Math, there is the Kalibari in Sainikpuri and Uttarayan in Ameerpet that celebrate Kali Puja in a grand scale in the city.
While all the organisations are several years old, Uttarayan first did the Kali Puja publicly in 1978 and since then it has continued the tradition. The organisers say that the crowd is clearly divided between Kalibari and Uttarayan.
“Goddess Kali is the first of the ten incarnations of Goddess Durga and is regarded as more aggressive. The image of Goddess Kali usually shows her foot on Lord Shiva’s chest, a severed head in one hand, her sword in the other and she wears a garland of skulls. Kali is worshiped as the Goddess who is known to destroy all evil and is a fierce fighter for the cause of justice. And so we pray to the Goddess on Kali Puja to destroy all the negative aspects in our lives,” says Sabyasachi, a member of the Uttarayan Kali Puja samiti.
Kalibari is mostly frequented by devotees from Secunderabad. “The Kalibari is a community puja in the right sense. The association is not very big. The puja reminds us of the para-puja (locality puja) in states like Assam, West Bengal and Orissa. Everyone gets a chance to pray to the Goddess from close quarters and the stalls selling food are a huge hit with the people,” says Pallab Dey. “In other words it gives a very personal feel to the Puja,” he adds.
In comparison to Kalibari, Uttarayan organises the Kali puja in a much bigger manner. The three-day festivity sees, live music, plays and dance dramas. “This puja also has food stalls and a mini anandamela. There is a huge participation of Hyderabadis from all walks of life. Thousands visit the Puja pandal to attend the Puja as well as the cultural programmes which span over three days. The food court put up in the Puja ground gives the visitors a chance to indulge in Bengali delicacies,” says Ashok Sadhukhan, president of the club.
But what is nice about these pujas is that they bring these communities together. Devotees say “the pandals are frequented only after they have lit diyas in their house, exchanged some goodies and lit some fire crackers.”
These community get-together, also create platforms “to recognise talent among members and their families. Uttarayan also encourages participants to contribute articles, poems, short-stories etc.”
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