Saraswati Puja

8th Februery was the day of saraswati puja. This

day passes very silently in this part of the
country. However in Bengal this day is
celebrated with much pomp & splendor even
today . Saraswati is the god of education
therefore the student fraternity is an ardent
follower of her.

Almost every school in Bengal celebrates

Saraswati puja followed by the community
lunch at school. It's a very noisy atmosphere
when all 500 students of a school flock together
in queue for lunch.

The celebration day normally falls in the early days of February when the
severity of winter is still present. My mom would never allow us to take
breakfast unless we have the flower offerings at the feet of goddess
Saraswati on this day.

For flower offerings we would normally go down to the neighbor's house

or the nearby club where the puja would start early.

First we had to take bath in the lukewarm water then we had to wear clean
& washed dresses for the puja & the flower offerings.

After this we would invariably rush to the school for the bigger events.
The headmaster or the pandit sir (Sanskrit teacher) normally takes the
charge of maintaining law and order during lunch time.

Frolicsome students run here and there which is quite ignored by the
teachers , class monitors & even the self government cadets (Whom we
call the chamchas of the Headmaster) on this day.

Senior students are to take the responsibility of arrangements like

decoration , puja , flowers etc. Long chains made from colorful papers are
hung all along the ground floor corridors , main building entrance &
around the idol.
The catering part used to be looked by the games teacher or someone from
the non teaching staff.

The long corridors at the ground floor used to be the place for lunch
arrangements. The rows of benches were placed forming long lines from
one end upto the other end. The main course used to be the khidi (the
mixture of Dal and rice ), a mixed vegetable , chatni made of tomato with
date , Papad, kheer and sweet ( mostly the big rasgullas of Bengal).

The senior students who distribute sweet would get undue awe & respect
at this time.

Normally Headmaster or the Pandit sir makes close watch while sweet
distribution takes place. On the back of the teacher he may deny you of
your precious sweet on silly reasons but we took no time to shout for the
teacher for justice.

Even after having your sweet on your plate you have to be extra careful to
protect it. You look around and your sweet would be stolen in no time.

But a big juicy Rasgulla of Bengal is a sweet which needs to be eaten

slowly bit by bit & piece by piece.

What we used to do then was a simple trick - we would call out and then
gulp the sweet inside mouth and then take out - showing everybody. Now
who would dare to steal it ,not to talk of who would eat it !

Next day the immersion of the idol used to be taken care by Bahadur ,our
guard of generations. He comes from Nepal or Darjeeling . Whatever his
name is after becoming guard of our school he becomes 'Bahadur'.

Bahadur had a cycle and some of my friends used to have cycling lesson
from Bahadur during tiffin-period.

Lots of clubs and community centers in Bengal celebrate Saraswati puja

this day. They erect beautiful pandals and in the evening decorate it with
colorful lights .
The theme of puja in Bengal started even in those days. I remember our
neighboring club erected a boat like pandal inside the 'Mukherjee Lake'
itself. Though it was near the bank of the lake but it almost looked like a
real boat at night.

Some club would make pandal like a veena or tanpura (Saraswati veena)
or like a thatched hut . The idol would be placed strategically inside the
Veena or otherwise.

I have not seen Saraswati Puja of Bengal for many years now but as per
my nephew and my niece the tradition is still going intact. The flower
offering at the feet of goddess Saraswati in the morning & then lunch at
the school is still a favorite activity of the student fraternity and is carried
out with much vigor & zeal in most of the schools.

Only now-a-days some coaching classes too have joined the race of the
lunch-together.

I wish I can go back to that day again...

S. Bera
Powai