Durga Puja - The Bengali festival

Durga puja is a festival celebrated in the Eastern part of India. A five day long celebration in tribute to the Goddess Durga who saved the Gods from Mahishashur and restored balance to the world.
The concept of Maa (Meaning: Mother in Bengali Language) Durga is unique in itself. According to the stories of Mahalaya and in different Vedas and Purans Durga is Energy(Shakti in Sanskrit and Bengali) personified. It is believed that after loosing the war with Mahishashur the Gods went to Brahma (The Creator/ Father), Vishnu (The Protector) and Maheshwar(The Destroyer of all Evil)  seeking help.
As the Gods narrated the story of their agony and disgrace caused by Mahishashur all the three Gods grew angry. Their anger resulted in the release of a light from the third-eye on the forehead of the three Gods. At the same time each of the other Gods directed their energy as well to meet this ray of light. All the Energy combined at one point created a goddess with 10 hands- Devi Durga. The Gods adorned and equipped her for the battle with Mahishashur. She killed Mahishashur and restored balance to the earth and promised to come back whenever called in distress.
The Calcuttans or East Indian people worship Devi Durga for five days. They believe in these five days the Goddess takes form in clay and resides among the mortals.
The City of Calcutta is Filled with lights. In every corner a Pandal ( A temporary structure) is raised base on various themes. It is the greatest festivals for the Bengalis and at this time of the year Bengalis will return to their homeland to pay homage to the Goddess.

Durga Puja is not a religious practice for Bengalis it is a part of their culture. It is often said that if there are 10 Bengali families living in a area for more than a year then there will be a Durga puja in that area.

The Festival ends with Vijaya dashami. On that day All the married woman of the house gather to complete the last rituals for ending the Puja with 'Boron' / 'Varan' and Sindur Khela (The Vermillon Game). 

Disclaimer: The images have been taken from various other blogs to provide reference of the actual events.

It just doesn't feel right....

Life can be so funny and confusing. Here one fine day I find myself alone, left behind, betrayed, crying my heart out knowing that there is no one out there waiting for me, no one who loves me and thinks of me, and then I try to gather the pieces of my heart, run away to a safe place and start healing my wounds, Joining each piece of my shattered heart to make it whole again. I try and fix and give myself time to heal and slowly it starts healing.
I get new friends new place, get busy, and one fine day I wake up and find that the pain is gone. I am healed I am whole again.
So here I start again, try to move on, feel the world, feel myself as a part of it. Meet someone new, feel nice think about possibilities and decide to give it a shot, decide to try to be normal, be loved and love in return, Then exactly when I try to get close to this new person all of a sudden I realize I don't want anything else except for what I can't have. I don't want anyone else to be waiting for me except the one who will never wait for me. I have put my heart back together but it still has a hole. A missing piece that was stolen. So here I stand all confused, running half way round the world giving my self about a year to make a new start, looking for a new door. And now that I found the door, and its opened for me and calling me in I am back on my knees crying my heart out again as I don't want to go through it, there is nothing wrong with the new its something wrong with me as I want the old one. The one that hurt me so bad, for everything else feels wrong only that One felt right. I don't know why the source of so much pain appears to be the only thing my heart wants....I don't know why but nothing else feels right....

The world is a small place.....

They say the world is a small place and people who pass you come around again in your life.

They must be lying. Just as they lie about love being an eternal bliss, tell that to a girl or boy recently scorned by their lover and you will soon come to know a new version of Love. 

They say the world has become so small that you cannot loose anyone.

Its so not correct, so many of my colleagues with whom I have worked with, gone for coffee everyday, chatted away for hours, they all disappeared just as I moved to a new project.

Every time we part from a person we live under an illusion that this parting is not permanent.

We make ourselves believe that we can reach out as soon as we want. 

But if we take time and look closely at our life we are like spare parts fitted in a Giant machine. We are required to run the machine but that doesn't make us the important part. We can decide where we want to be. But we cannot force others to be at the same place. We just live under the illusion of control.

Today was the last day of one of our colleague, with time I have come to grow so fond of him,

and after tomorrow I will probably never see him again.

Why does life have to be so difficult? Why can't people we like just stay with us?

I know the world between us will never be small. So they are wrong...

Just as they are wrong about almost everything else....

Pain

Sometime a simple realization just rocks you to the core. Realizing pain is something like that.
You do not want people to sympathize with you but you still feel it inside you,
pain for things that cannot be changed, moments that have passed..
just leaving you with one simple realization that no matter what you do you cannot fix it.
Its gone, yet you cannot get it out of your system, no matter what you do.
The only choice left is to wait for time to heal it, just clutch your heart and wait the seconds to turn into minutes, minutes to turn into hours, hours to days, to years hoping that the great men of the world were correct when they said 'Time is the greatest healer'.

Vase Painting