My Durga Puja Days

 Durga Puja in Bengal is so special! I cannot begin to describe the pomp and show! All I can do is tell you about how I enjoy this fantastic festival.

Everyday my Baba, Ma, my sister and I go out together to see the gorgeous ‘Pratimas’ all over Kolkata. For these occasions we wear our new outfits. My sister makes a special effort to dress me beautifully with clips and ear rings to match my colourful clothes. I like the ‘bindis’ (dots worn on the forehead) the best!

During the festival we often eat out in various hotels and snack-bars which serve delicious food from all parts of India as well as the world. There is chow from China, momos from Tibet and pizza from Italy. We also find tasty chops and cutlets, freshly made Indian sweets and snacks in the stalls around the famous puja pandals.

The pandals are so full of intricate details and of such a wide variety that we are all stunned and speechless!  When we recover, we cannot stop talking about them for many, many days to come!

My Durga Puja days pass like an extremely beautiful and exciting dream that lingers on and on….

Sayari uses a multi-page picture communication display and gestures to communicate. She pointed to each picture word with her right hand index finger and the teacher wrote it for her. After construction of each sentence it was read out to her to change or confirm.