Coca-colonisation of Durga Puja

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Coca-colonisation of Durga Puja

The grand carnival that now passes for barowaree Durga Puja is more a

celebration of the crudest forms of market forces than the victory of

good over evil. Bangaliana, which once encapsulated the best of

Bangla culture and reflected the creative spirit of the Bengal

renaissance, would be on full public display at community pujas till

recently. Now it struggles for survival in the face of Kellogg's

culture that, washed down with oodles of Coke and Pepsi, makes a

better meal than maachher jhol-bhaat.

 

Unlike the Ganesh Chaturthi festival of Maharashtra, it is difficult

to put a date to the birth of the community or barowaree Durga Puja.

The Friend of India, considered a radical publication of its time and

published from Srirampur, in its May 1820 issue spoke of "a new

species of pooja which has been introduced into Bengal within the

last thirty years, called barowaree... About thirty years ago, at

Gooptipara, near Santipoora town, celebrated in Bengal for its

numerous colleges, a number of Brahmins formed an association for the

celebration of pooja independently of the rules of the shastras. They

elected 12 men as a committee from which circumstance it take its

name, and solicited subscriptions in all the surroundings villages."

 

Community puja committees are no longer limited to 12 "yaars" or

friends; of late there have been stories of how posts in the

organising committees of the bigger pujas with budgets running into

crores of rupees are auctioned to the highest bidders. Since

soliciting subscriptions is a tedious job, the organisers are now

happy to sell space in the pandals and even on the Devi's chaalchitra

to sponsors who write out big money cheques. Divinity now comes with

a price tag.

 

While the big pujas in Kolkata and other cities splurge on what is

referred to as "decoration" that appeals to the lowest common

denominator and thus attracts huge crowds, in smaller towns and at

pujas organised by probashi Bangalis, the organisers would

concentrate on popular entertainment. More often than not it would be

plays staged by local residents, rehearsals for which would begin

months in advance.

 

 

No more so. Organisers now pay handsome fees to film stars to come

and stage a song-and-grind routine. Those who try to be different end

up with disgruntled patrons. A colleague who stays at Sushant Lok in

Gurgaon was stumped when she heard a Bangali mutter "What a bore!"

while the paaraa toddlers were staging an adaptation of Ritu-Ranga.

 

Bangalian? It's a bit of a joke.

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