Pujo by the Palm

In no way like Calcutta, but Pujo was always a big deal even for children in Muscat.

We had new clothes for each of the five main days. 

The Indian Social Club, Bengali Wing would organise for an assortment of traditional and well, not-so traditional activities. 

Recitations, cooking competitions, music and dance, theater style performance by children and adults. Over the years, it evolved into fancy dress competitions, fashion shows and things more urban. We would still attend these functions, my parents had their sets of friends, I had mine. 

There was always lots of food. It was good times.

Yesterday, I went to the same temple after ten years. Exactly ten years. The last time I had been here for Pujo was in the October of 2002.

And it was such a strange feeling. It was like nothing had changed, yet everything was different.

As glad I was, to see at least one pandal on Maha Ashtami, the stark changes had me quite stunned and behaving awkward. 

There used to be this family that we were very close with. I remember the uncle had a spanking new Laserdisc player and we used to hop over on weekends with a KFC tub to watch movies. Some of those movies are my all-time favourites – Jumanji, Air Force Once, Indiana Jones: Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Abyss. I used to be the unpaid babysitter and I was given an extra slice of pizza as a barter arrangement. It wasn’t the most exciting of childhoods, but I cannot remember a reason to complain. It was rather weird to stop by the same couple and their now grown up boy yesterday and have absolutely nothing to say. There was never any problem, the families just grew apart.

I was also strongly reminded of my last two Pujos in Delhi. Going to C.R.Park with Shilpy and Shonali on year one and Shilpy and Milan in 2011 – the good times would just not end! We battled traffic, smelly men, hormonal auto rickshaw drivers and pushy devotees to look at at least four to five pandals. Ate Mughlai paratha, cutlets, rolls and not to forget – jhal muri and puchka with Thums Up.