The elderly priest of Durga puja

I met this aged person at Kumortuli ghat during Kolabou puja. He is the eldest priest of Durga puja, at least in Kolkata I think. What I made out from what he said in his soft voice amidst the beating of the drums is that he is around 92-93 years old. But still he is actively involved in Durga puja as a priest observing all the rituals with utmost earnestness. Actually he was supervising the ceremonial bathing of Kolabou while I took this photo. He told me his name, but I missed it in the noise of the beating drums and I didn't like to disturb him. He was once featured in a popular local newspaper here while going to Bangkok for the purpose of Durga puja in the year 2001.

I searched the archive of the newspaper in the net, but couldn't find anything. I am trying to know more about this person of great stamina. If someone visiting this blog happens to recognize him please leave me a comment.

More about ceremonial bathing of Kolabou or Navapatrika will be coming shortly.

Durga puja, Kolkata, 2007
Full story...

The End of the Show!!

So the festive season has ended at last!!
It all started with Durga puja, or rather with Eid this year. These two festivals always come side by side, separated just by few days. The end comes with the immersion of the idol of Goddess Kali. For Hindi speaking people it is the Chatpuja and it has been held the last saturday.

So its the end of the show. Or is it? I think the autumn festivals are just the beginning of a six months long festive season which ends up with the Saraswati puja, the goddess of learning. Then again the summer starts, the season of sweating and suffocation. Now the weather is pleasant in this part of the world, and so many festivals and ceremonies are in the line.

Lots of activities on the streets of Kolkata, means lots of opportunities for beautiful photographs. I have already shot photos on the occasion of Durga puja, Kali puja and Chatpuja. Shall publish them here shortly, so stay tuned.

Enjoy the festive season!!
Full story...

My first ever post here

Hello everybody!!! well this is my first post here, and am a bit unsure of what to write. I already have an another blog at www.ipernity.com but I hardly could maintain it. The primary goal for having a blog is to share my photo-projects and to communicate with my friends out here. But my previous blog does not support accessing my photos in flickr directly, each photo needs to be uploaded as a resource in ipernity. The headache!!!!

Flickr allows to publish the photos here directly. I hope it would be easy sharing them, and hope to update it regularly keeping the blog alive.

Comments and criticisms are welcome, and thanks in advance for your viewership.

:-)
Full story...