..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..."