Monday, 26 October 2015
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Jayanti hills
Jayanti is the name of a river passing through the Buxa Tiger Reserve in Eastern Dooars. The hills on the Eastern Side of the river and the small village on the western side are also named after the river as Jayanti Hills and Jayanti village respectively.
Jayanti village is one of the oldest towns in the region. In pre-independence India, the Dolomite mines of nearby Bhutan hills used to bring dolomite to Jayanti from where trains used to take it to other parts of the country. As the forest became reserved for the wildlife and nature took priority of economy, the railway stopped its operations and Jayanti slowly became a large village deep inside Buxa forest. Today the past glory of a burgeoning town is totally amiss from Jayanti. Instead what you see is a decaying village within a vibrant ecology. The nature has thrived here, the forest is green and the wildlife is aplenty. Although in the deep jungle sighting is not very common.
Tarpan - the ritual of offering in memory of forefathers
Mahalaya is a sacred occasion observed a week before the durgapuja. This day is of utmost importance for the bengalis. It is celebrated in order to invite Goddess Durga , the supreme power to descend on earth by chanting mantras and singing Devi Maa bhajans till midnight.
This day is also considered the day of remembrance of departed souls of the family. The ritual of offering "tarpan" in memory of forefather's is commonly practiced on this day. Tarpan is offered on the banks of river ganga by priests for different group of devotees. The rituals start from early dawn and end during midday. it is believed that "tarpan" should be offered empty stomach and one should have food at the same place after completing the ritual.
Sunday, 11 October 2015
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Friday, 9 October 2015
Squirell on a mission...
Squirrels are familiar to almost everyone. More than 200 squirrel species live all over the world, with the notable exception of Australia.
The tiniest squirrel is the aptly named African pygmy squirrel—only five inches (thirteen centimeters) long from nose to tail. Others reach sizes shocking to those who are only familiar with common tree squirrels. The Indian giant squirrel is three feet (almost a meter) long.
Like other rodents, squirrels have four front teeth that never stop growing so they don't wear down from the constant gnawing. Tree squirrels are the types most commonly recognized, often seen gracefully scampering and leaping from branch to branch. Other species are ground squirrels that live in burrow or tunnel systems, where some hibernate during the winter season.
Ground squirrels eat nuts, leaves, roots, seeds, and other plants. They also catch and eat small animals, such as insects and caterpillars.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Egret
Many egrets are member of the genera Egretta or Ardrea which also contain other species named as herons rather than egrets. The distinction between a heron and an egret is rather vague, and depends more on appearance than biology. the word "egret" comes from the french word "aigrette" that means both "silver heron" and "brush", referring to the long filamentous feathers that seem to cascade down an egret's back during the breeding season.
Several of the egrets have been reclassified from one genus to another in recent years: the great egret, for example, has been classified as a member of either Casmerodious Egretta or Ardea.
In the 19th and early of the 20th century, some of the world's egret species were endangered by relentless plume hunting, since hat makers in Europe and US demanded large numbers of egret plumes, leading to breeding birds being killed in many places around the world.
Kharab se kharab chai...
This is one of the famous marketing gimmick mostly executed by eastern and north-eastern railway Tea vendors.
Probable benefits:
1) Helps to create a differentiated product which stands above the Branded product.
2) Thus giving a benefit to create better positioning of the product.
3) Using negative campaign, it stands out in the market which is highly unstructured without any brand of its own due to generic nature of tea.
4) Helps to be on the top of the regular or frequent passenger's/consumer's mind by giving a decent tea but quoting it as bad.
One thing, I would like to notify readers is that it is a Marketing tactics and not a strategy as the same tactics has been used by many vendors without any changes or definite lifecycle of the campaign.
This "Kharab chai" Brand did not have any copyright restrictions thus has been adopted/copied blindly by numerous vendors but with inferior quality tea, this has resulted in reduced popularity and notoriously sliding revenue in quick time.
Crabs of Bakkhali
All crabs are decapod crustaceans, which simply means they have 10 legs. Eight of these legs help in the movement (walking legs) and the first two, called claws or chelipeds (chela means 'claw' and ped means 'Foot'), in capturing prey, communication, mating and defense. The nearest relation to the decapod crabs are the anomuran crabs, which have only 3 pairs of walking legs. A typical example for the latter is the hermit crab that has a soft coiled abdomen protected by a snail shell.
Crabs are usually aggressive towards each other, and males often fight over females. Social and mating behaviors are complex. Many make species - specific sounds by banging on the ground with their pincers or stamping with their feet, or make elaborate pincer movements. Mating occurs only when the female has just moulted and her new shell is not yet hard; the males however are in their hard-shelled form. Thus males may protect a female just before she moults, so he can have first access when she is able to mate, and may continue to protect her till shell hardens. Some males even carry the female around.
The Crab meat is very tasty and nourishing. Crab curry is a reputed cure for asthma. Similarly soup made from the swimming crabs Portunus sanquinolentus and P. pelagicus is commonly used by people just after recovery from malaria and typhoid. Scylla serrata serves as a cure for diarrhorea and dysentery.
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Behind The Curtains...
For decades, Sailen Pal has been making Dashabhujas, the 10-arm goddess, with consumate ease. This year though, the master idol-maker is struggling and wishes he had more arms to do the work. Sailen has taken just 12 orders this year against 32 last year.
Nimai Chandra Pal is in a similar situation. He usually makes 40- 42 Durga idols each year. This year, he has accepted 22. He isn't sure if he can finish even these on time.
Sailen and Nimai are among 250-odd resident artistes at the idol-making hub Kumartuli in north Kolkata who are facing a massive manpower crunch this year.
Alnitak,Alnilam and Mintaka
Well, you must be thinking of the post name...Orion's Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters, is a asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.
Looking for Orion's Belt in the night sky is the easiest way to locate Orion in the sky. The stars are more or less evenly spaced in a straight line, and so can be visualized as the Belt of the hunter's clothing. They are best visible in early night sky during the Northern Winter/Southern Summer, in particular the month of january at around 9:00 pm.
Sunday, 4 October 2015
What do you know about spiders?
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other ordersof organisms. Spiders are found worldwide on every continent except for Antarctica, and have become established in nearly every habitat with the exceptions of air and sea colonization. As of September 2015, at least 45,709 spider species, and 114 families have been recorded by taxonomists.A herbivorous species, Bagheera kiplingi, was described in 2008,but all other known species are predators, mostly preying on insects and on other spiders, although a few large species also take birds and lizards. Spiders use a wide range of strategies to capture prey: trapping it in sticky webs, lassoing it with sticky bolas, mimicking the prey to avoid detection, or running it down. Most detect prey mainly by sensing vibrations, but the active hunters have acute vision, and hunters of the genus Portia show signs of intelligence in their choice of tactics and ability to develop new ones. Spiders' guts are too narrow to take solids, and they liquidize their food by flooding it with digestive enzymes and grinding it with the bases of their pedipalps, as they do not have true jaws.
Male spiders identify themselves by a variety of complex courtship rituals to avoid being eaten by the females. Males of most species survive a few matings, limited mainly by their short life spans. Females weave silk egg-cases, each of which may contain hundreds of eggs. Females of many species care for their young, for example by carrying them around or by sharing food with them. A minority of species are social, building communal webs that may house anywhere from a few to 50,000 individuals. Social behavior ranges from precarious toleration, as in the widow spiders, to co-operative hunting and food-sharing. Although most spiders live for at most two years,tarantulas and other mygalomorph spiders can live up to 25 years in captivity.
Benefits to humans
The Ch'ol Maya use a beverage created with the tarantula species Brachypelma vagans for the treatment of a condition they term 'tarantula wind', the symptoms of which include chest pain, asthma and coughing.Spider venoms may be a less polluting alternative to conventional pesticides as they are deadly to insects but the great majority are harmless to vertebrates. Australian funnel web spiders are a promising source as most of the world's insect pests have had no opportunity to develop any immunity to their venom, and funnel web spiders thrive in captivity and are easy to "milk". It may be possible to target specific pests by engineering genes for the production of spider toxinsinto viruses that infect species such as cotton bollworms.
Possible medical uses for spider venoms are being investigated, for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia,Alzheimer's disease, strokes,and erectile dysfunction. The peptide GsMtx-4, found in the venom of Brachypelma vagans; is being researched to determine whether or not it could effectively be used for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia,muscular dystrophy or glioma. Because spider silk is both light and very strong, attempts are being made to produce it in goats' milk and in the leaves of plants, by means of genetic engineering.
Spiders can also be used as food. Cooked tarantula spiders are considered a delicacy in Cambodia, and by the Piaroa Indians of southern Venezuela – provided the highly irritant hairs, the spiders' main defense system, are removed first.
A human sized spider's web can even stop a Jumbo Jet
Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia is a specific phobia—it is the abnormal fear of spiders or anything reminiscent of spiders, such as webs or spider-like shapes. It is one of the most common specific phobias, and some statistics show that 50% of women and 10% of men show symptoms. It may be an exaggerated form of an instinctive response that helped early humans to survive,or a cultural phenomenon that is most common in predominantly European societies.
Honey!
It was a summery afternoon I was sitting in my garden having high tea. Suddenly I could hear a buzzing. I took out my camera and started clicking. But while taking the pic I realized that how much time does it take for a bee to make an adequate amount of honey.
Production Of Honey
Honey is produced by bees as a food source. To produce about 500 grams of honey, foraging honey bees have to travel the equivalent of three times around the world. In cold weather or when fresh food sources are scarce, bees use their stored honey as their source of energy. By contriving for bee swarms to nest in artificial hives, people have been able to semidomesticate the insects and harvest excess honey. Honey bees transform saccharides into honey by a process of regurgitation, a number of times, until it is partially digested. The bees do the regurgitation and digestion as a group. After the last regurgitation, the aqueous solution is still high in water, so the process continues by evaporation of much of the water and enzymatic transformation.
The Great Cattle Race of the farms of West Bengal
It was onset of monsoon and the cattle race festival is the most important festival to celebrate for the farmers. the festival is held for good monsoon and better yield. After a 3 hours journey in motorcycle from Kolkata to Jalabaria where the festival will happen. I reached the village and everyone seemed to crowd around a filed. I went closer only to find out the final race of the festival. It was a great race where the owner of the cows slides on the water in a wooden plank connected to three cows at a time. It signifies the great heritage in our farmlands and the people tend to live every moment despite the various hardships faced by the farmers.
Frisson De La Vitesse. The Art Of Panning.
The Art Of Panning.
Panning is the horizontal movement of a camera as it scans a moving subject.
And since someone out there who’s mind is permanently blocked to technical jargon, as mine is, there was bound to be a “huh?” or two. So let me break it down a bit.
When you pan you’re moving your camera in synchronicity with your subject as it moves parallel to you. Still a little wordy huh? It’s not as complicated as it sounds. Shake your head “no.” Go on and do it. Now cut that in half and pretend like you’re moving you head along with a cheetah as is it flies by and you’ve got the idea. In order to pan successfully your camera has got to follow the subject’s movement and match it’s speed and direction as perfectly as possible.
Proper panning implies motion. However, panning creates the feeling of motion and speed without blurring the subject as a slow shutter speed sans panning would tend to do. Take for example the two images below. The first is an example of panning. Notice how the car is clear and crisp but the rest of the image is blurred to show the motion of the vehicle. This effect was achieved by panning.
Now check out the second image. This is an example of a slow shutter speed (which panning also requires by the way) without the panning of the camera. Because the camera was held static, the moving object, in this case the train, depicts the motion while the area around it is static.
Is one image better than the other? Maybe, maybe not, it’s certainly a matter of preference. Both static shots employing slow shutter speeds and panning images have their place and time and it’s up to you as the discerning photographer to decide which you’d like to employ in any given situation.
1. Panning requires a steady hand and a relatively slow shutter speed.
The actual shutter speed depends on the speed of the subject but generally it will be 1/200th or slower. 1/200th if your subject is really flying along, like a speeding car on a race track, and maybe as slow as 1/40th of a second if your subject is a runner on a track.
2. Keep in mind that the faster your shutter speed is the easier it will be to keep your subject crisp.
Especially as you’re learning the art of panning, don’t slow your shutter down too much. Just keep it slow enough to begin to show some motion. As your confidence increases and you’ve got the hang of things, go ahead and slow your shutter more and more to show even further pronounced motion and thus separation of your speeding subject from the background.
3. Make sure your subject remains in the same portion of the frame during the entire exposure: this will ensure a crisp, sharp subject.
4. Remember that the faster your subject is moving the more difficult it will be to pan.
This point goes right along with number 3. It’s harder to keep your subject in the same portion of the frame if it’s moving faster than you are able to. So again, start with something a little slower and then progress from there.
Great Gig in the sky!
With a fully packed crowd all staring at us with curiosity. "What are they gonna play"? "How will they play"? "Are they a new band in this town"?. I didn't find courage to look into the eyes of the crowd. Suddenly we were called for our 1st gig. It was quite popular venue in the town and it is a stage where new aspiring rockers start their journey. As I entered the front stage from the back area it was like total silence. It felt like as if they were staring at me for a big time crime. We checked our sounds and I took a breathe breathe and started with a Power Riff. it sounded like Symphony o me and i was lost into the music. I forgot about my stage fright. Just after my face melting solos it was the ending lines of the song. And I was shocked to see the crowd. It could see many horn lifted up along with a gut-busting mosh-pit. That was the day which I could see the power of music and the influence it has on me.
Fishing a rich industry yet fishermen are struck below poverty line.
Goddess Shakti
Durga Puja the most important festival in the regions of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and other eastern Indian States. Besides being one of 'The largest festival in the world' it is also 'The largest open air art exhibition in the world'.
What you don't know about Durga puja ?
The subaltern version of the story says that the army of the “devas” or Aryan gods came down along with Durga and waited with baited breath for seven days around the palace of Mahisasura, for success of the “mission”. Mahisasura, unaware of the ulterior motives of the beautiful lady, informed about the arrival of Durga to his family and welcomed her. However, according ot the Asur legend, Durga went into a sexual relationship with Mahisasura for seven days and finally, stabbed him to death with a dagger. The story says she drank liquor to her heart’s content before the murder.
The waiting devatas then descended on the palace and slayed the Asuras mercilessly. After the murder of their valiant king Mahisasura, the Asuras gathered on a full-moon might of Ashwin, a month in the Hindu calendar, to mourn the death of their king Mahisasura. “Ashwin Purnima”, the full-moon day of the Ashwin month falls five days after “Dashami”, the tenth and final day of Durga Puja.
That day fell on October 9 this year and was celebrated as “Mahisasura martyrdom day” in many parts of India. However, Mahisasura martyrdom day was observed as “Hudur Durga” six days before on October 3 in Purulia district of West Bengal, a state where Durga Puja is almost synonymous with “Bengali culture”.
This first-of-its-kind observance in Bengal also shows a marked shift in Bahujan assertion in a state where Durga Puja, which was initially a festival of the upper-caste zamindar families of undivided Bengal, has become synchronous with the blatant homogenization of the vastly heterogenous Bengali culture. Durga Puja was first celebrated in Dinajpur Rajbari in present-day Bangladesh in the 14th century. Since then, the celebration has transformed from a “landlord’s festival” to a community one. However, despite this seeming homogenization, most of the Durga Puja committees in the paras or localities of the state, which are responsible for conducting the Durga Puja, are dominated by the upper caste Kayasthas and Brahmins.
The slaying of Asuras by the devas might be an “ancient truth” that the ‘Savarnas’ have conveniently made us forget. “During Durga Puja, the Asur tribe in Jharkhand, lock themselves up in their houses during the day and come out in the night to mourn the death of their king, Mahisasura. They fear that if they come out during the day, the devas would slay them,” according to an Oct 2 report in the Ranchi edition of the Hindustan Times.This provides a basis to the myth of the Asur community.
The Asur tribe, first people in ancient India to discover iron, consider themselves to be descendants of Mahisasura and Ravan. They presently reside in Latehar, Gumla, Lohardaga, Palamu, Khunti and some parts of Simdega districts of Jharkhand.
Durga Puja in the 21st Century:
"Despite falling rupee, rising inflation and slowdown in the economy, the large business industries are targeting high profits margins during Durga Puja in West Bengal which is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 35 percent," revealed a latest survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).Making public its recent paper on "West Benga cashing in on Durga Puja celebrations", the ASSOCHAM said the cost of organising the puja has increased as much as over 30 percent compared to last year due to hike in the materials used."The current size of the Durga Puja industry is about Rs.25,000 crore, and is likely to touch Rs.40,000 crore by 2015 with its annual growth rate of 35 percent," it said.As per the estimates, the pandal industry is expected to touch Rs.500 crore in 2013 from Rs.350 crore in 2012, by growing at the same rate of 35 percent this year."About 10,000 Durgapuja pandal come up every year. The average expenditure of organisers is expected to go up by 20 percent this year owing to the surging inflation," says the paper."The total expenses have increased by 20 percent due to appreciation in all expenses from artists conceptualizing the theme to labour constructing the pandals to cost of idols, transportation, price of puja offerings and charge of dhakis (drummers)."The entertainment companies as well as organisations in the lighting and decoration business seize the opportunity and often also see more than 35 percent growth in total turnover compared to other times, says ASSOCHAM.Every year, over 20,000-30,000 idols are prepared across Kolkata. As per the estimates, the cost of raw materials for making the idols have also gone up by almost 15-20 percent this year."Due to the rising inflation, the prices of raw materials like clay, paint, clothes, ornaments etc are on the rise which has raised the total cost. It is being found that the cost of preparing idol has also increased between Rs.60,000 and Rs.5 lakh.The food and beverage industry is anticipated to do an additional business of Rs.50-60 crores during the festive season."The demand for items for the puja such as lightings, flowers, flooring etc has already started increasing and is expected to increase this year by 20 percent compared to last year."As per the ASSOCHAM findings, Durga Puja will also increase the profit margins of micro, small and medium enterprises.
Saturday, 3 October 2015
Kolkata Mounted police.
The Kolkata Mounted Police was first introduced in the town in 1840 with only two sowars under a dafadar (head officer) to carry messages and inform the harbour master whenever any ship was sighted. In 1842, arrangements were made for mounted policemen to patrol the maidan area. Prior to 1905 the sowars were all Indians. But with a view to accommodating five European constables, the strength of the mounted constables was reduced from thirty-five to twenty. This was done for regulation of traffic in parts of the town other than the European quarter, to which they were not practically confined. At present the Kolkata Mounted Police which consists of one inspector, one sergeant-major, twelve sergeants, one j.c.o., five head sowars, eighty-five sowars and ninety-eight syces, is mainly deployed to regulate crowds on the maidan during sporting events and fairs. This unit also participates in ceremonial parades and mounts guard at Raj Bhavan during the visit of VIPs.
The ride that changed evrything.
It was March 2015 i was sitting uselessly in my crib.. Suddenly I saw my motorcycle all covered in dust. I went closer to it and decided to clean it. While doing so I thought as thought to myself that as i am doing nothing now so I should go on a journey on my motorcycle. I took off on my journey after a while and rode for 8 hours straight. Than I reached a small village. They were all looking and staring at my biker attire very strangely. As if it was new to them. I had some snacks and tea in a shack there in the village and again went ahead with my journey. Then again I rode for another 6 hours and went even further from any cities or urban civilization. It was a very remote village with no electricity, no roads not even basic human necessities like running water, education health facilities etc. I talked to the local people and most of them didn't even know the name of their country where their village is. it was way shocking for me. They don't even know if there are other places besides their village cause they never went out of their village. It was a very saddening moment for me as the people in that village are isolated and separated from proper civilization. But they were really happy in their villages as they didnt have any social class difference among them. This was the ride which I could never forget.
Friday, 2 October 2015
SAVAGE...Endangered..
There are only around 200 of the white tigers left in the world. White tigers are an Asian species, found from the frozen tundra of the Soviet Far East, south to the humid jungles of Malaya and Indonesia, and west to the hot, hardwood forests of India. There are five living subspecies; three others are already extinct. Current estimates put the world population of wild tigers at about 5,000-7,000, the most numerous race being the Bengal race, distributed among some 18 tiger reserves and sanctuaries of India (and a half-dozen in Nepal and Bangladesh), accounting for over two-thirds of all wild tigers.
Tigers are a protected species all over the world. Even though it's completely illegal to hunt them, people are still slaying these beautiful creatures.
During the last 100 years, merely 12 white tigers have been spotted in the wild in India; giving an approximate proportion of 1 white tiger for every 10,000 normal pigmented (orange) tigers.
The white tiger's origin was recorded in India during the start of the HB Mughal period from 1556 to 1605 A.D.
The first "modern" case of a white tiger being captured was in 1915. He was caught by the local maharajah who kept the tiger until its death.
The white tiger is a pigmentation variant of the bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of West bengal,Sunderbans and especially in the former State of Rewa.
The White Bengal tigers are distinctive due to the color of their fur. The white fur caused by a lack of the pigment pheomelanin, which is found in Bengal tigers with orange color fur. When compared to Bengal tigers, the white Bengal tigers tend to grow faster and heavier than the orange Bengal tiger. They also tend to be somewhat bigger at birth, and as fully grown adults. White Bengal tigers are fully grown when they are 2–3 years of age. White male tigers reach weights of 200 to 230 kilograms and can grow up to 3 meters in length. As with all tigers, the white Bengal tiger’s stripes are like fingerprints, with no two tigers having the same pattern. The stripes of the tiger are a pigmentation of the skin; if an individual were to be shaved, its distinctive coat pattern would still be visible. For a white Bengal tiger to be born, both parents must carry the unusual gene for white colouring, which only happens naturally about once in 10,000 births. Dark-striped white individuals are well-documented in the Bengal tiger subspecies (Panthera tigris tigris or P. t. bengalensis) as well as having been reported historically in several other subspecies. Currently, several hundred white tigers are in captivity worldwide, with about one hundred being found in India. Their unique white color fur has made them popular in entertainment showcasing exotic animals, and at zoos.
Farmer suicides... Uderrated yet so important!
India is a country with around 60% of its people depending directly or indirectly upon agriculture. Farmers are required in most aspects of our livelihood. But still lots of farmers commits suicide.In 2012, The National Crime Records Bureau of India reported 13,754 farmer suicides.The highest number of farmer suicides were recorded in 2004 when 18,241 farmers committed suicide.Farmer suicides account for 11.2% of all suicides in India. There are lots of reasons for suicides like,monsoon failure, high debt burdens, genetically modified crops, government policies, public mental health, personal issues and family problems.
In response to farmer suicides the government appointed a number of inquiries to look into the causes of farmers suicide and farm related distress in general. Various state governments in India have launched their own initiatives to help prevent farmer suicides.
People look for a carrier which attracts them through many ways, nowadays mostly money, and people, especially in India, give less thought to their interest when it comes to earnings, especially the so called middle class people. Nevertheless, the most important question is why farming don`t attract youths nowadays?
According to studies, mostly due to two reason, one is being high risk factor and hard work involved in farming People wish to become rich and enjoy lavish life style without much physical work involved.
Another thing is that the respect we give to our farmers- just notice the way you will speak to an engineer. and the same thing to a farmer. We don't know how to give respect to different occupations, and though bitter, we have to accept this shameful truth. And this is mainly due to the deeply rooted cast and social division existing here.
BLISS...
Durga Puja is not simply about celebrations and feasting. The actual carousing of the Puja is all about enlightenment of soul and the celebrations of the goodness over evil. It is about the triumph of truth over false and right over wrong. Durga Puja is about sustaining the mass believe of emergence of an almighty savior whenever evil tries to take over the goodness in the universe. So, the Puja is much beyond the glamour and glitter of pandals and the grandeur of the celebrations.
O Divine Goddess the Wisdom of the Spiritually-Evolved or Wise are Indeed reflection of a Part of Your Consciousness...
With stoned eyes the crepuscular rays reflected from the corners of my room, it seem to be like heaven. Than suddenly realization struck me because of my cotton mouth. I rinsed my eyes did the necessary and headed for another day in life. As i walked down the road everyone seemed to be awaiting for something. Everyone were busy with their own work but one thing that was common to all was their faces. They all looked really cheerful and smirked. s As if they are waiting for something really important part of their life which comes once a year for 4 days. Yes its a year long wait for the goddess Durga. Durga Puja 'The largest festival in the world' it is also 'The largest open air art exhibition in the world' is just on its way.
What you don't know about Durga puja ?
The subaltern version of the story says that the army of the “devas” or Aryan gods came down along with Durga and waited with baited breath for seven days around the palace of Mahisasura, for success of the “mission”. Mahisasura, unaware of the ulterior motives of the beautiful lady, informed about the arrival of Durga to his family and welcomed her. However, according ot the Asur legend, Durga went into a sexual relationship with Mahisasura for seven days and finally, stabbed him to death with a dagger. The story says she drank liquor to her heart’s content before the murder.
The waiting devatas then descended on the palace and slayed the Asuras mercilessly. After the murder of their valiant king Mahisasura, the Asuras gathered on a full-moon might of Ashwin, a month in the Hindu calendar, to mourn the death of their king Mahisasura. “Ashwin Purnima”, the full-moon day of the Ashwin month falls five days after “Dashami”, the tenth and final day of Durga Puja.
That day fell on October 9 this year and was celebrated as “Mahisasura martyrdom day” in many parts of India. However, Mahisasura martyrdom day was observed as “Hudur Durga” six days before on October 3 in Purulia district of West Bengal, a state where Durga Puja is almost synonymous with “Bengali culture”.
This first-of-its-kind observance in Bengal also shows a marked shift in Bahujan assertion in a state where Durga Puja, which was initially a festival of the upper-caste zamindar families of undivided Bengal, has become synchronous with the blatant homogenization of the vastly heterogenous Bengali culture. Durga Puja was first celebrated in Dinajpur Rajbari in present-day Bangladesh in the 14th century. Since then, the celebration has transformed from a “landlord’s festival” to a community one. However, despite this seeming homogenization, most of the Durga Puja committees in the paras or localities of the state, which are responsible for conducting the Durga Puja, are dominated by the upper caste Kayasthas and Brahmins.
The slaying of Asuras by the devas might be an “ancient truth” that the ‘Savarnas’ have conveniently made us forget. “During Durga Puja, the Asur tribe in Jharkhand, lock themselves up in their houses during the day and come out in the night to mourn the death of their king, Mahisasura. They fear that if they come out during the day, the devas would slay them,” according to an Oct 2 report in the Ranchi edition of the Hindustan Times.This provides a basis to the myth of the Asur community.
The Asur tribe, first people in ancient India to discover iron, consider themselves to be descendants of Mahisasura and Ravan. They presently reside in Latehar, Gumla, Lohardaga, Palamu, Khunti and some parts of Simdega districts of Jharkhand.
Durga Puja in the 21st Century:
$Money Matters$
"Despite falling rupee, rising inflation and
slowdown in the economy, the large business industries are targeting high
profits margins during Durga Puja in West Bengal which is growing at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 35 percent," revealed a latest survey
by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).Making
public its recent paper on "West Benga cashing in on Durga Puja
celebrations", the ASSOCHAM said the cost of organising the puja has
increased as much as over 30 percent compared to last year due to hike in the
materials used."The current size of the Durga Puja industry is about
Rs.25,000 crore, and is likely to touch Rs.40,000 crore by 2015 with its annual
growth rate of 35 percent," it said.As per the estimates, the pandal
industry is expected to touch Rs.500 crore in 2013 from Rs.350 crore in
2012, by growing at the same rate of 35 percent this year."About 10,000
Durgapuja pandal come up every year. The average expenditure of organisers is
expected to go up by 20 percent this year owing to the surging inflation,"
says the paper."The total expenses have increased by 20 percent due to
appreciation in all expenses from artists conceptualizing the theme to labour
constructing the pandals to cost of idols, transportation, price of puja
offerings and charge of dhakis (drummers)."The entertainment companies as
well as organisations in the lighting and decoration business seize the
opportunity and often also see more than 35 percent growth in total turnover
compared to other times, says ASSOCHAM.Every year, over 20,000-30,000 idols are
prepared across Kolkata. As per the estimates, the cost of raw materials for making
the idols have also gone up by almost 15-20 percent this year."Due to the
rising inflation, the prices of raw materials like clay, paint, clothes,
ornaments etc are on the rise which has raised the total cost. It is being
found that the cost of preparing idol has also increased between Rs.60,000 and
Rs.5 lakh.The food and beverage industry is anticipated to do an additional
business of Rs.50-60 crores during the festive season."The demand for
items for the puja such as lightings, flowers, flooring etc has already started
increasing and is expected to increase this year by 20 percent compared to last
year."As per the ASSOCHAM findings, Durga Puja will also increase the
profit margins of micro, small and medium enterprises.
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