Celebration of any Indian festival in a foreign land and trying to keep the authenticity is not easy.
But Nandan NZ, a Bengali cultural and community organisation that recently held its three-day Durga Puja celebration in Auckland, managed to transport one back to the authentic Durga Puja celebration in India.
The celebration of the largest festival of Bengalis took place from 30th September till 2nd October at the Blockhouse Bay Community Centre. The event hosted several activities, pujas, cultural programmes and lunch/dinner for the devotees.
“It was a dream come true to celebrate Durga Puja in Auckland at a huge scale with such authenticity. For Bengalis especially, no matter where we are physically, the heart and mind always wander in our homeland during this time. Be it the sound of dhak as well as the fragrance of dhoop and dhuno...the entire aura beckons you to a completely different heavenly world,” says Swastika Ganguly, one of the General Secretaries of Nandan NZ.
Since Durga Puja across the world is always incomplete without cultural performances. And that was also the case with this celebration. “Like previous years, we endeavour to ‘connect’ the Bengali and non-Bengali community socially and culturally on one platform on the occasion of Durga Puja with live singing, dance, recitation and drama performances. Our Puja was open to all. Our stage was for the people, of people and by the people where there was no barrier of caste-creed, colours, religious or political ideologies,” says Ganguly.
There was an about 500 people on each day of the celebration. The colourful traditional attire of the guests exhibited enthusiasm for the biggest festivals of the Bengali community.
The highlight of the second-day cultural event was the staging of Nandan NZ's annual drama Dampotti (the couple), which was enacted by several organisation members and directed by Ganguly.
Day 3 culminated with a special offering of Ashtami Puja, where all the devotees had Flower-offerings ('Pushpanjali’) as a traditional ritual. The PujaPuja continued during the day. In the evening, it was completed with a traditional send-off to Goddess Durga towards the abode at Kailash to her home by offering vermillion ('Sindoor Daan’) by the ladies in beautiful Red Sarees.
The Bengali community in Auckland, too, relished the magic of Durga puja in a small yet significant manner last weekend.
One of the attendees, Dyuti Banerjee, shared her sentiment, saying, "It was a lovely celebration. I had a lovely time at the Nandan Puja. The atmosphere was festive and colourful.”
Another guest Amartya Sen said, “The celebration was the reflection of the quintessential Bengali love of art, culture, music, dance and meeting people for fun and good times, with devotion and prayers to Goddess Durga. We had a great time.”
The visitors and members were treated to special meals and delicacies over these three days with lunch and dinner.
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