Distinctiveness - Travel and Lifestyle Blog

  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 oc...

There's no better example of "Good Times Fly" than Durga Puja. The wait is endless it seems, but when Maa Durga finally arrives, the days are gone by in a flash. All of a sudden, Dashami Evening is here and it is time to bid Maa Durga a fond adieu. Having to say goodbye is painful, but parting in the knowledge that we shall meet again lessens the agony. It is the perfect farewell and it is just the assurance that life needs from time to time. Dashami, as such, has a quiet element of optimism about her.  Let us leave aside the mythological aspects of the event and just focus on the emotional part. In fact, let us take stock of an average person’s Durga Puja. Sasthi, Saptami, Asthami, you have had your fill of fun, adda and photographs. Let us not forget the food either, that is, after all, an equally important aspect of the Festival. The three days have sped away, as if they have far less than their normal quota of 24 hours now and you have reached the penultima...

How does one deal with disappointment? How does one cope up with the cancellation of plans? This week I experienced a pot hole in the road to life and found myself disheartened, disappointed and broken. The reason was simple – it was Durga Puja and for the first time in 33 years of my life, there were chances that I would be spending it away from home. For the average Indian, it is hardly something to feel bad about, one only has to look at it as a leave that was cancelled - happens, life goes on. However, for the Bengali, things are a little bit different. Statutory Warning : I am an atheist, but the greatest festival on earth had me hooked since as long as I can remember. When I was a little child, we waited for Durga Puja all year long. The wait normally started with the earth-crumbling pains from the immersion of Maa Durga on Dashami night. Slowly, the grandiloquent lights of the festive season would go out, one by one, until the merry streets turned to regular ro...