Aasche Bochor Abar Hobe–Delights of Durga Puja Celebrations

Its too early talking about the onset of Durga Puja in the beautiful pandals all over the country, but yes, SCIT celebrated the festival on a grand level in the first week of October in the Symbiosis Infotech Campus here at Hinjewadi.
The Bengali Community of the college was into the preparations from almost 2 months before the day of celebration. A series of formal and informal meetings were conducted so that everything could work out smoothly on the important day.
The special attractions in the celebrations included the Aarti of Maa Durga accompanied by dhunuchi dance in the atrium area followed by DJ dance in the sports arena and finally the traditional Bengali food, which had some mouth watering veg and non veg Bengali dishes in the menu.
The talking point in the campus was the decoration of the atrium area which was crafted with flowers and the traditional rice rangoli (alpona). It took almost the whole night before the auspicious day to decorate the planned area.
On the day, there was a constant hulchul in the campus as the organizers were busy rechecking all the arrangements so that there was no last minute hiccup.
The celebrations started with the Aarti at 5:00 PM. All the Bengali girls were looking beautiful in traditional Bengali sarees and the boys donned ethnic kurta to celebrate the occasion. Well talking about beauty, beautiful diyas added to the beauty of the decorations in the atrium area.
The aarti was backed by melodious traditional Bengali dhak music. Everyone in the campus came to seek blessings from maa Durga for the well being of their near and dear ones and for a bright future ahead. Traditional Bengali way of doing the aarti was the highlight of the first special attraction of the evening.
After that everyone was all set to shake a leg on the rhythms of some rock music and enjoy the evening. Gradually the crowd started gathering in the sports arena where the DJ was playing some amazing remixes which compelled even the most stagnant spectators to come and enjoy the dance which had started in the shining disco lights around.
In the midst of all the dance, fun and enjoyment, suddenly it started raining heavily. Many thought that everything would come to a standstill as it was raining cats and dogs in Hinjewadi at that time. But to everyone’s surprise the crowd was so much engrossed amongst the tunes that they continued to dance even after about half an hour of heavy rain. The DJ tunes continued till 10:00 PM.
The last but not the least, attraction of the night, the Grand Durga Puja Feast was waiting for everyone in the mess area. The menu consisted of luchi, cholar dal narkel diye, gobindobhog rice, jhuri aloo bhaja, dhokar dalna, alu fulkopi roast, mutter paneer, kosha mangsho (chicken), fish fry, amshotto khejur chutney, daaler papad and roshogolla.
Oh! So many mouth watering dishes, I can remember the delicious food even today as I write this blog. To add to the wonderful hospitality which the Bengali community of the college had shown from the beginning of the celebrations, they themselves served the delicious dishes to each and every person who came to enjoy the feast.
As a matter of `fact, more than expected people came to enjoy the taste of the traditional Bengali feast but the organizers had their backup resources ready to ensure that no one returned disappointed without having the special meal.
So that is how, a memorable Durga Puja celebrations ended this year. Many more celebrations are around the corner. Stay tuned for more stories of fun, joy and celebrations!!