Kartikey Sehgal

[The author visits a pandal during the Durga puja festival and appreciates the effort to make it an artistic event. Certain unconfirmed names have not been mentioned]

Festival is the celebration of culture. You don’t have to be an anthropologist to partake the songs, dances and Gods during the ongoing Durga Puja.

In the last three days, I have listened to Bengali music and listened to Rabindranath Tagore’s idea of music and literature. I have listened to proud references to Bengali filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit ray. All of this in a simple pandal where the decorations are more symbolic than exaggerated; where the richness of clothes matters less than the will to appreciate art; where actor and singer Shekhar Sen‘s style of greeting takes you right into the festivities:

“Hello Kartikey. We have been praying to you. Only we Bengalis pray to you out here. Nobody else does”

The reference is to Lord Kartikey (Kartikeya) who occupies a place among the worshipped Gods.

The crowd was distracted during the performances, children wailed and some ladies discussed shopping. But this didn’t deter Shweta Sen, the event organiser, from reading out a self written commentary on Rabindra Sangeet and singing some Bengali songs. Shekhar Sen mellifluously sang a Bengali bhajan and a children song after explaining its meaning in Hindi.

We listened to paeans to Vitthal in the form of a Marathi song by a classically based singer, which was followed by two film songs by the winner of a music contest.

Today, I saw a classical dance, which was described as classical fusion by an admirer.

The ongoing program may not be exhaustive in terms of content or popular in terms of audience but it is an effort towards imparting meaning to a festival through good art. This is important considering that entertainment programs in the bigger pandals are highlighted mostly by remixed film songs and loud music.

I may visit the pandal in the remaining few days as well.

The pandal hosts artistic performances daily.

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