Glorification of the female form is something that is not alien to the Indian culture. The Greeks and Romans did it through their mythologies, various lost tribes and sects practiced the same and very recently it was Dan Brown who raked up the concept of the Sacred Feminine in his book The Da Vinci Code. While pessimists might point out the fact that maybe women are still unable to come out of their secondary status in India, one cannot deny the fact that when it comes to worshipping the female form, we do stand out amidst the crowd. Celebrating one such female form is the festival of Dussehra, wherein people, irrespective of various cultural barriers, worship the Goddess Durga as a symbol of the Sacred Feminine.

Speaking about the festivities associated with Dussehra, (which assumes a character akin to the Ganesh Chaturthi, in Kolkata), Biplab Roy Joint Gen. Secretary of the Kalibari Samiti, says, “There was a lot of debate as far as conducting the festivities this year are concerned but we decided to go ahead because of the faith of the devotees that is attached to the event. In addition to the daily Pujas, and the traditional Bhog (afternoon lunch) there will be a variety of orchestra programmes, and plays for the audience.”

While the Swine Flu scare looms large, the organisers of most of the events are unfazed. As Rajesh Burman of the Bangiya Sanskriti Sansad (which conducts the puja at Congress Bhavan) points out, “As far as the huge gathering of people is concerned we are taking adequate steps to ensure that people here not only have a safe but also an enjoyable time. Right from providing masks, to having on site ambulances and medical teams, we have them all. As for the festivities, we have a puppet show and musical programmes for which artistes are coming in from Kolkata, and also have an Indo-Bangladeshi cultural programme lined up for the six days of the celebration.”

... contd.