Drumroll… and THAT time of the year

 

Durga Ma is on her way, and Messi cannot contain his excitement.

Sometimes, the wait for an event is almost as enticing as the actual occasion. The hours before a crucial football match. The final days ahead of a long-pending vacation. The morning of an eagerly awaited arrival.

Quite similar to the drumroll - rapid beats on a drum, increasing in intensity by the second - before the extravagant ending.

This drumroll is supposed to build up to the main event and often gets sidelined in the dazzling lights of the main event. However, I often find this anticipation, this wait, to be an endearing adventure as well. 

I have been indulging in such thoughts of late. Perhaps there’s something in the air, or maybe it’s the season itself. Because, folks, it’s that time of the year again. The buildup to the grand occasion that gets Bengalis world over supercharged. 

Durga Puja is less than a month away. 

While others may indulge in the religious intricacies of the occasion, for me, and perhaps many like me, this time of the year is a trip down memory lane. A chance to sit back and relive days from the past. It is like a box of sweets you can revisit time and again, one that never gets old or stale. It's a place that preserves the aroma and flavors of your childhood. 

Pristine blue skies, with fluffy cotton balls of clouds lingering for company.

This time of the year, every year, I revisit this heaven and allow my senses to remain in a trance. I recall days of my adolescence, spent among family and friends. I proceed cautiously through each frame of memories, savouring each moment, watching myself grow over the years, every year. I recall the ecstasies and delights, the fun and games, the minute pains.

Work, sometimes, has to take a backseat as I stare out the window and find lost smiles among days long gone by.

It is now, far away from home many years later that the actual ting of anticipation hit me harder. The wait becomes vivid, reminding me of the essence of time, that we have too little at hand. Four days of bliss appear minuscule and gone too soon, which is why the days building up to the event hold the utmost importance in life.

At this time of the year, the countdown has always been as sweet as the actual occasion.

Perhaps, this, in a nutshell, is what life is all about. The journey is as important as the destination, yet in the rush to build a future, we often forget to enjoy our present. The grand finish deserves applause, but if you sit back and close your eyes, you might notice that the drumroll has its moments too.

Needless to say, the Pandit family also remains invested in the effervescent effects of the season, strolling through the joys of the fabled drumroll. Messi is already hooked on the countdown to the day when he can return to his beloved Malbazar. There’s the familiar sizzle of anticipation in the air. Waiting as eagerly for new toy cars as for dresses. Chalking out itineraries for the four days and more. Planning to meet old friends and catch up with family.

Some days these are the only things we can talk about, much to the amusement of my six-year-old son.

So we work to make the buildup to the grand event worthwhile for the little man. We try to add to the legacy of the drumroll. Fill that perfectly preserved box of sweets with newer items. So that one day, as he grows up, he also has a kaleidoscope of memories to fall back onto.

Because, sometimes, the countdown can be sweeter than the actual occasion.