The Soshti Mega-post!

I sit to write this post in a state of terminal grogginess, just out of bed after one of the most pleasantly harrowing Pujo days ever.

I have had only 5 hours of sleep ( enough by my standards but yesterday was a different story altogether) after returning home at 6:30 in the morning.


I left home for Haridevpur at around 10:45 in the morning on what is now the expended Soshti. With only 'The Local Two' amongst 'The Chosen Few' for company we went into the pandals at 41 Pally, Ajeyo Songhoti, Palli Unnayan Samiti, Paschim Putiari and Putiari Club. Ajeyo Songhoti's theme seemed to me a cross between Kedar-Badri shrines and environment conservation. Pally Unnayan Samiti had polished bamboo and Putiari Club a tribal setting for backdrops. But, amongst them we agreed on 41 Pally offering the best value-for-time-wasted-standing-in-a-line. In simple words, "it's worth the toil". With branches of trees and roots chiseled to emulate different animal and human forms it also has rows and rows of babui pakhir basha hanging overhead to give that look of authenticity. And yes, we did give a moment of thought for all the unwilling displaced babuis. I was already running a good half an hour late in meeting my college friends at Rash Behari and I already felt a tad tired, taking some time off to ponder over our respective bottles of Sprite and Slice how "ab in boodi haddiyon mein woh baat nahi rahi....".


12:20 and I was in front of Mudiali Sarbojonin, this time again with a group afflicted with forced evictions owing to joining jobs in far-off lands. Still, 10 makes for quite a respectable number. Shiv Mandir was followed by a taxi ride to EDF. Then to Jodhpur Park ( which isn't doing any wonders the last 3 years), Selimpur and Babubagan. Babubagan has resurrected itself this year after a flop show the last year when an aquarium which needed nothing less than the great Douglas Adam's imagination to be appreciated was put on show. This time they have quite a LED-lit night sky with a praying Oshur waiting to be slayed by the Goddess in her flying saucer. Add to it the man-made darkness and stumbling Dadu-Didas and you get the picture.


A taxi-ride later we were in the throes of battle with a surging sea of humanity at Gariahat. First Ekdalia Evergreen, then Singhi Park. Ekdalia elicited such prompt comparisons with the interiors of Senco Jewellers ( or for that matter any jewellery shop) owing to their cut-glass interiors that I gazed up at its Jhaarlonthon for that extra minute, weighing the merit of such a parallel. Singhi Park has shed a lot of flab and its looking a size-zero emaciated specter of itself. The pandal space has been all reduced and the scaffold truncated.


Lunch was at Mirch Masala for the 7 of us ( that was all that was left of the group).
We had JUDE-an company at the table next to us. I guess it was more or less the better portion of the entire gang, and yes, I couldn't stifle a chuckle at their 'We Want Food!' table-banging - took our minds off the over-priced Mutton Pulao and Chicken Hariyali for a while.


With full stomachs and contented smiles we made our way to Somu's place. An hour of rest and a glass of jal-jeera afterwards I was ready to roll again( very much figuratively after a heavy lunch). Yes, 'I' alone, because the others were too exhausted after the afternoon's spoils and understandably so. It hadn't been a mean walk all this while.
But, I had "miles to go before I sleep" and almost prophetically, later, as the night wore out, I found to my throbbing feet and utter dismay that the 'miles' had had their say.

With only two people for company we did what is the proverbial jhotika safar (hurricane survey) of Maddox Square which yielded few known faces and fewer that could merit a 'stay order'.

If anyone thinks this is the end of it, my advise would be to wind up and close the tab, for the story has only just began.


Everyone from the afternoon pandal hopping group were now too busy or exhausted for anything but home. And here I was, taking a metro from Hazra to Tollygunj to meet my school friends( two of whom had already had a power-nap after the morning trip (remember???) for the task ahead of them). 9 people turned out and it marked one of the many exceptions in the last 7 years of our Soshtir Thakur dekha ritual.

One, it was the thinnest attendance we had ever had. The number had never breached the 15-man floor.

Two, it didn't look like we were interested in having dinner at Hatari - another tradition broken for the first time in 7 years.

Three, we were not going pandal hopping in South Calcutta at all.
An impromptu decision ( which had all my backing) was taken to take the North by storm and
"so it shall be done" was announced. The tried and tested Soshti-route: EDF-Jodhpur Park- Selimpur- Babubagan-Ekdalia-Singhi Park- dinner at Hatari- Ballygunj Cultural-Deshopriyo Park- Maddox Square-Badamtala-66 Pally- Mudiali-Shiv Mandir was dropped for a completely novel "Northward ho!" plan. No wonder, the fastidious conformists ( bordering on the OCD sometimes) protested such a deviation from custom. The mavericks cried "change!" and 'Change it was'.


Our first stop was Shovabazar. Being classmates with the Rajputtur of Kolkata's premier bonedi-baari helps when you are out to take into confidence warring factions of a trying tribe. I explained to them how the nature of customs in the Narayan Deb household are different from the ones in the Krishna Deb's ( my Prince friend being away keeping his date with his employers). Clearly, the majority were now won over because only one returned home and the rest decided to follow 'the plan' instead.


Ahiritola, Beniatola were ticked off quickly. Kumartuli Park was a neat spectacle. The Devi took centerstage with her wards gracing the four corners of a centrally mounted platform. Hunger pangs made us skip Hatibagan Sarbojonin and Nalin Sarkar Street and we had our dinner at some nondescript Chinese Restaurant at Ultodanga. Retracing our steps post-dinner, which was both pandal hopping and letting the gravy settle on stomach floor, we got as far as Telengabagan and Jubokbrinda. Both were quite good. Lines did not extend endlessly, people were chatty and the policemen were helpful. We South Kolkatans found North hospitality too good to be true. Wherever we had to wait in a queue the recurring theme of the ten headed Raabon ( Ravana) came up. Every alternate pujo seemed to be celebrating the demon scholar, the first patron of our Sharodiya Pujo.


On our way we skipped Gouribari, Sangrami and a couple more.
We took two autos ( there were 7 of us now) to Sreebhumi Sporting. I never understand why these pujo committees waste 10 thousand odd bamboos in making useless barricades which only pile on misery on enthusiasts like us. We had to walk half a kilometer before we decided it was useless to be law-abiding and find the rightful tail to the queue where there was no queue at all. So, we just jumped and slithered through the barricades into Sreebhumi heartland. There is this unique custom at Sreebhumi where they rope off sections of the crowd at equal intervals in the name of crowd control. I believe its just another way of engineering a 'record footfall' and nothing else. Anyways, their theme was the familiar 'sorbo dhormo somonnoy' ( religious confluence) with a funny change of lights which showed the pandal in violet, red and blue. Mindboggling!


We took autos to Dum Dum Park. The Bharatchakra theme was novel. The whole oshur-bodh episode was laid out in the form of a mime. All the idols looked fresh out of the Jogesh Chandra Mime Academy and they were good with large expressive eyes and beatific smiles. In comparison the Dum Dum Park Sarbojonin did so-so.


Hop-over to Lake Town now and we were near the Netaji Sporting Sarbojonin on my sole insistence. They didn't disappoint either. Durga on a high perch temple of straws might not attract prizes ( unlike previous years) but it doesn't labour under false pretensions like others.


We were again back to Sreebhumi from where we headed Southward again, making a point not to miss the Bosepukur biggies. I estimated all along we had collectively consumed soft drinks worth 300 rupees. The mental calorie count just didn't take off after that. A choked voice was in the offing, I gauged.



The walk from Rash Behari more to Badamtala Ashar Sangha aggravated the till-now suppressed ghosts of exhaustion and fatigue. Few could swear they felt blisters bobbing out of their soles "Live!". Shoulders were now drooping and feet going astray. 66 Pally had to be followed with Mudiali, that was the deal. And such is our commitment to our South and such is our disregard for pain that we indeed made our way to Mudiali. The occasional face betrayed surprise at the sight of a bunch of zombies jaywalking their way into narrow alleys.

Finally another taxi ride later we were all home and it was 6:00 in the morning.
"There goes another Saptami morning", I thought.

I only remember having a cold bath and going to bed.
Then %@#*&#@ woke me up to take directions of all prominent Behala pujos and I gave him a quite a list.
It was 12 noon when I woke up today and already 3 phone calls demand my presence at 3 different places at 3 different times in the day/night.

How will I ever manage ?


Md. Ali Park, here I come.

Behala, New Alipore and Khidirpore, I will leave for tomorrow.

Happy Soptomi everyone!