..aashchhey bochhor aabar hobey....

.. these words are a lifeline for the quintessential Bengali and the only relevant context for this phrase is the moment of "bhashan" on Dashami, when women are resplendent in vermilion red after their 'shidur khela' and the men are caught in the fervor of the "dhunuchi naach"... Mixed emotions usually engulf this moment as Ma Durga goes back into her "mrinmoyee" edifice from being Her true "chinmoyee" self for the previous 5 days... the strange emptiness that one feels at the end of this day becomes the inspiration for an unsaid anticipation for the early morning strains of Birendra Krishna Bhadra's "Jaago Ma..." 11 months later on Mahalaya.. Thus the cycle continues and every Bengali no matter where they may be situated in the world, knows and feels this cycle and circle of life in some way, shape or form... and just like them.. so do we...

Yes, tucked away in rocky mountain America, Utah has been home for a comfortable Bengali population for several decades. Of course by "comfortable" one is not drawing a parallel with the Tri-State Bengali Associations of the east coast, or the Probasis, Sanskritis and who knows what other Sarbojanin names of the west coast. By "comfortable" one means the comfort level of a Puja that feels like "baarir pujo", a Puja that has the same number of people serving as the number of people eating bhog, a Puja that is completed in one day but there is no compromise on the devotion quotient, a Puja which ends with a cultural program that could put some professional theater groups to shame, so what if the audience is half the number of participants...

Durga Puja in Utah is unique for many reasons alright, but what keeps our "chinmoyee" coming back each year is probably the inherent humility with which this event is organized here. As one sits down to reminisce the last 10 odd years since the inception of Durga Puja way back in the fall of 1998, a lot of memories come flooding back... Inception for anything revolutionary in a Bengali's life ironically happens between sessions of "adda" or when talking about food between meals.. OH YES.. we are the only race that can talk about food while eating and on a full stomach..! There were a few families seated around some coffee table almost 11 years back and it was decided amidst many other grandiose goals that Bengalis love to set for themselves , that we should have a Durga Puja in Salt Lake City. And once the decision was taken, it was almost as MA herself made sure the required arrangements fell in place.


A beautiful Sholar Durga from Dakshinapan arrived as a housewarming gift into one of our homes, while Pujor "bashon", and other details magically surfaced in other homes. Turns out, one of the families had the entire "puja paddhati" written out on some old pages somewhere, while some of us pooled in our mental acumen on the ground rules around "shondhi pujo with candles", "naivedyam with long grain rice", "laal and shada chandan", "horitoki and bluegrass durba" and all the jargon around "durga puja".

And so it began; the first weekend in October of 1998; it was a snowy blizzardy Saturday and a total of 25 odd people thronged into the East Village Community Center in the University of Utah Campus to celebrate Durga Puja. Amidst the sound of the 'shankh' and a CD playing the strains of Mahalaya.. the little "sholar protima" was worshipped from "bodhan" to "bishorjon", complete with "anjali" and of course "shanti'r jol"... followed by an elaborate "bhog" of khichuri, labra, bhaja, chatni, mishti, doi... after all the average Bengali's penchant for details about food is quite unmistakable, right?

That snowy afternoon saw the beginning of a tradition that we would like to carry forward. Durga Puja has been celebrated each year since, and after the first six years of worshiping the "sholar protima", we now have slightly larger "ek chaaley protima" and the attendance at Puja is almost 3 times as much if not more. The number of items in the bhog, the variety of flowers that are are placed around and in front of the idol and the decorations in the hall have all grown by leaps and bounds as more and more Puja enthusiasts have kept this annual event alive and growing. Along with this, the sizeable community from the University of Utah has ensured that the Goddess of Learning is not neglected and Saraswati Puja too has become an annual event. Yellow chrysanthemums seem to somehow appear at the local Walmarts in the midst of a snowy Basantotsav.

In addition to the beautiful religio-spiritual sojourn that one has tried to reminisce, this trip down memory lane would be incomplete if one didn't talk about the other passion of any Bengali community... their inherent affinity towards literary prowess, validated and substantiated by the one and only Tagore and other literary stalwarts... Yes, this little Bengali community in Utah too has shown no dearth of talent when it has come to artistic endeavors. From poetry to music, from dance to theater, a handful of very talented and extremely dedicated individuals have time and time again put up one fantastic show after another to keep the audience entertained and also in almost in awe. Whether the stage was one corner of the Village Community Center, or a dimly lit podium on campus, or the Fine Arts Auditorium, each and every attempt at a "cultural program" has excelled the previous year in terms of talent, quality of the performers and performance, and of course the dedication and complexity of the various items that are hosted. Even though ironically, the small size of the community has very often resulted in an even smaller audience, never has that deterred our growing pool of artistes to compromise either on their talent or dedication with which they put up the show each year.


And so the tradition continues again this year with Chourongee leading the way as we make strides to meet at the crossroads of culture... where the "greatest snow on earth" becomes a slightly different, albeit poignant reminder of the symbolic "shoroter akash" with the billowy clouds, where the Wasatch Mountains almost have become the home of our Uma, where the history, quirks and culture of a very rich Indian community finds expression in the appreciation of the finer things in life...

Yes, friends, our journey has not been one of names and faces that are conspicuously inconspicuous in this article... on the contrary it has been about finding ways and means to keep our culture and heritage alive in this distant land, and make us all resonate to that singular moment of inherent bliss, when we feel that spray of "shanti'r jol" on our faces and silently say to ourselves and to HER.. ."aashchhey bochhor aabar hobey..."

.. a bit o' Sunday morning humor...

.... yesterday's mail had 2 envelopes from the Department of Public Safely, Drivers License Division, State of Utah

.,.. and NO.. for you wisecracks out there.. here is some clarification....

• I DIDN'T do what you think I did in my Bug.. ummm well.. almost didn't do anyway.. ( will leave it to your active imagination... to figure out what I did do... !!!) ,
• and NO they are not deporting either of us...
• and NO, Neel didn't transport livestock across the border under the regular heap of grass that he takes in his truck to the city dump each Saturday..
• and NO I have not customized my license plate to PB4UGO, so that it would attract any unnecessary attention...

So Chill and read on...
So what were these notes about ?... well routine license renewal that involves some vision testing ( man they are still trying to figure out if I can read my Ps & Qs, LONG after I have stopped minding them..., some renewed mugshots.. mine could enter a contest that says.. "where do u look worse.. your passport or your license?..." as far as I go, the passport would win hands down.. each time I enter the country, the immigration officer gives me a very sad look.. as he or she says.. welcome back to the United States Ma'am... I almost hear them muttering as they look down at my pic and then look at me..... "you poor thing.. I hope you never have to look like this again.... "

I AM NOT exaggerating one bit... if you saw my passport shot.. it is something lilac with black lampshade on top with glasses... hey.. no false humility here.. I know when I look good ;) and make no qualms about it either ;) But I digress...

...the best part of this note as my kind and wonderful husband pointed out to me this morning... it came from ...... the desk of...... YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.. u are right... !!!!!!!!!!!!! THE GUVNOR.... O yeah o yeah... on the top left corner there was a little seal with the Utah State symbols and just below in NO uncertain terms were the words.
.( AND YES THAT IS HOW HE SPELLS HIS NAME!!!... in case you thought it was a misprint... do I know my audience or what ??? ;)

Jon M. Huntsman. Jr

Governor

and on the top line of the letter it had my date of birth....

ahem!! after my initial joy and dance of unadulterated glee or some such romantic crap, my next reaction after seeing this was...

"awwwwwwwwwwwwww he knows my birthday",

to which my oh-so-practical hubby dearest replied.. "no dear.. they have it on file and the letter is from one Nanette Rolfe, Director, Driver License Division...." DUHHHHHHHHH !!!.. like I needed to know that or even acknowledge such minor details.. it's all about the big picture baby !!!! ;))) and the big picture said the letter was from the Guvnor's desk..
BTW... people with a penchant for details ( and you know who u are...) can worry about such other inconsequential stuff..
Me on the other hand is gonna live this moment with a silly grin on my face... Hope I was able to put some on yours too.. don't care if you are laughing at or with me.. as long as you are laughing.. that is all it takes to make the day a little brighter.. Signing off with lots of sunshine and blue skies..... Until next time...

...the next time you visit us.. Ma'am, please come and stay with us again...

.. the Chinese Sous Chef at the Regency Club Lounge Breakfast bar managed to say this to me in his broken Chinese Singlish and as he warmly shook my hand.. he cleared my table that he had laid even before I showed up for breakfast, coz he knew I had an early flight out of Changi that morning and he wanted to make sure I get my "2 egg white omlette with the green chillies and coriander.." on my last day there... the cynics among you will react to this.. as ... "she must have given a big tip... " well tipping is almost prohibited, so that was not the reason.. the practical ones among you will say.. " a four seasons hotel obviously has great customer service..." very true.. but then... as I started writing about the rains in Singapore and how the greens rekindled my spirits, I realized my thoughts strayed more to the people I met there than the finesse of the place...

.. Yes the flight was amazing... the hotel was spectacular.. Sentosa was a treat, the work stuff was very well worth the travel, seeing old friends made this trip very very special and seeing my parents who flew in to surprise me made this trip priceless... I think my photo album captured those moments a lot better than my words every could.. there is only so much that words can capture when it comes to the heart... however when it comes to the mind, that is a different story....

The pollyana in me firmly believes that human nature is inherently good and the human spirit is inherently a part of the cosmic whole and if you appeal to that universality in this world, it is rare that the response back will be anything but positive. That is always what I have maintained whenever I have been amidst situations, people or places that are different from me, that assumption or presumption has elicited a favorable and usually an extremely warm response...

Such was the case in Singapore too, my 10 days in this island country had fun interactions with cabs and cab drivers, camera stores, plush malls, desi departmental stores, hotel doormen, concierge, local colleagues, flight attendants, maintenance staff in hotel resorts... what i enjoyed about the whole thing was how kind people were to a perfect stranger, how proud these people are of their country and yet so warm and welcoming. So while one cabbie told me how I should get myself a Buddha amulet, the other one forgot to turn on his meter and didn;t take a single dollar from me saying..."sometimes it is just nice to have a good passenger that makes you forget to worry about the fare... those trips are what make it worthwhile for me to drive a cab.." Hard to forget those lines when u hit a rough day and think back on some memories that make you smile...

I guess wanderlust is in my genes and also have been blessed with opportunities to travel since I was a child.. I think what fascinated me more than the sights and sounds of a place were the people.. they were the the only reason why a place came alive for me... so whether it was Father David in the Salisbury Cathedral, or a wonderful tour guide in Paris or the concierge lady in Seoul... it was always the people who made the difference.. the place or country is secondary..

Singapore and its greens reminded me of my times in India... and as the fighter jets rehearsed for the upcoming airshow, I looked outside my hotel window and saw a beautiful heart... made me realize, doesn't matter if I was strutting along Sentosa with an umbrella or dancing in the rains in Bangalore...when the soul is touched by love and kindness, it is renewed each time...