My year-long adventure in India has
come to an end. I'm writing this from Malaysia having left India from
Chennai on Monday. I'm having a short, one week, mini-holiday in
Malaysia and Singapore, then it's back to the UK at the beginning of
next week.
It's easy to get really sentimental and
“let's put my year in perspective” when you reach the end of a
journey like this. But that's not really my style.....instead I'm
going to write about the last festival I got to see before leaving
India.
First, a small bit of background. India
is a huge country (I was 400km from Kolkata, 1000km from Delhi. Delhi
is 1000km from Kerala in the south....you get the idea!) and more
like a continent than a country. This means that a massive holiday in
one part of the country can be completely ignored in another state.
My state (Jharkhand) is mainly a Hindi state, but for various reasons
it still celebrates the Bengali festival of Durga Pooja.
The Durga Pooja story is your basic
hero / damsel in distress / villain story. Guy meets girl. Other guy
wants girl. Other guy steals girl. 1st guy kills 2nd
guy, wins back girl. Or something like that. For once, the story
really isn't that relevent.
Durga Pooja is a huge deal in
Bengali communities. Imagine combining Christmas, New Year's Eve and
the Royal Wedding into the space of 3 days and you get somewhere
close. There are 10 days of festivities, three days of official
public holidays (although with the last one being Thursday, the
Friday and Saturday are basically written off too!) and more food
than even my boss could eat!
But, and it's a huge but, that's not
even what makes Durga Pooja special. For that you have to go back
five months. That's when the planning starts. Each community forms a
committee and they start planning their particular celebration. Each
community (and that basically would be each road in the UK) builds a
Pandal – a temporary temple. Some of these are so big they take 1-2
months to build.
I was trying to think of a suitable
comparison for this, and really couldn't come up with much. The best
I could do was this – imagine, each year, you and all your
neighbours got together and built the biggest Santa's Grotto you
could. As did all of the other roads in your town. And all the other
towns across the UK. And then everyone spent all night walking the
streets visiting each grotto and there were competitions for the best
ones. This happens – every. single. year.
It's actually amazing. I visited my
bosses parent's house, about 10km outside Kolkata. (This isn't
tourist central. It's “proper” India. The Pandals being built
here are for the locals. I didn't see another white person in the 4
or 5 days I was there.) In one evening, walking the whole time (no
buses or anything), for maybe two hours, we saw maybe nine different
pandals. One was three stories high, a mountain with a temple perched
on the top. One was a complete replica of a traditional village. In
Ranchi there was one where all of the designs were made out of the
small, wooden spoons you get with pots of ice cream! There was one
totally decorated with children's toys. The creativity and
originality is spectacular.
I had a brilliant time – it was a
great way to end my time in India. I left Kolkata on the Thursday
after an emotional farewell with Swapan and Rabin, boarding a train
to Ranchi. On Friday I said goodbye to the rest of the Srijan family
and hopped on my flight to Chennai to spend a weekend with my friend
(thanks Phil!) and then on Monday morning it was goodbye to India.
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I'll probably write another post when I
get back, a few last thoughts as it were, but I just want to take an
opportunity to say thank you to some people. One year is a long time
to be away, but some people have really helped to make that easier
for me and I'm eternally grateful.
Suzie – For putting up with my highs
and lows (yes, there were some!), for not getting frustrated with
dodgy Skype calls and lost internet connections, for always being
there when I needed you (and for an amazing holiday!)
Mum, Dad and Kez – For being brave
enough to come to India and open-minded enough to enjoy it, however
hard it was.
Sam and Kate – For making it to
Hazaribag!
Nan and Grandad – For the brilliant,
brilliant letters – literally had me laughing out loud at times!
Rachel / Kieran / Hamish / Lex / Hannah
/ Carl / Vicky (and Megan!) – For the random emails/IMs throughout
the year – you're all legends and I don't think you know how much
they meant to me. I owe you all.
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So, I'm back in the UK on Tuesday! I'll
be in the Porterhouse (Covent Garden) from 6pm (ish) on Friday 21st
so if anyone needs an excuse for a beverage on a Friday night feel
free to drop in!
