Festivals of Delhi

The Six Days of Bengali Homecoming: Durga Puja

Light misty clouds, cold winds around, coconut husk burning with light coal in earthen pots, and beautiful pandaals around the city are the significant markers that Durga Puja is round the corner. While Durga Puja is celebrated every year in the auspicious month of Ashwin (September-October) and commemorates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Raavan, it is a Bengali homecoming for all the Bengali’s. While the whole world likes to reiterate, that India is a land of festivals, we never fail to prove them wrong. We are super pumped and geared to take you for an exciting journey through the pandals of Delhi, and let you immerse into the culture that is associated with Durga Puja!
Durga Puja as a festival marks the battle of Maa Durga with the powerful demon king Mahishasura, and subsequently her emergence of the victorious over the evil. The story goes that Mahishasura was considered ‘immortal’ because of the boon that he had received from Lord Brahma, after he had performed severe austerities and prayers. Lord Brahma was pleased by his devotion, he conferred upon him many boons and a very important boon was of Mahishasura’s death in the hands of a woman, which he did not pay heed to. In Durga, the gods bestowed special powers, where she had ten hands and each carrying lethal weapons. Mahishasura thought that he was near to immortality considering the fact that no woman could match his strength.
With this strong feeling of power, he waged a war against the Devas, with his powerful army of Asura’s. In the battle, when the Devas were defeated they approached Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu for help, thus resulting in the great gods combining all their energies in one woman who was Durga, the embodiment of Shakti. She fought a lone battle with Mahishasura, and is known to have defeated the army all by herself. The auspicious nine days of Navratri is the time which marks the start and end of the battle.
The main tableau consists of the goddess who is usually seated on a lion, with her four children-Kartikeya, Ganesha, Lakshmi, and Saraswati.
Traditionally, huge clay models are made of the goddess and beautifully decorated, with embellishments. Huge canopies are well decorated with temporary bamboo poles with decorative fabric is used to decorate the place, known as pandals.
A Durga Puja experience not only gives you an insight into the culture and the reunion of the Bengalis in these auspicious days, but also opens a wide array of cultures, as not only Bengalis but people around the world come and celebrate in the Dhunochi Naach. A form of dance where people showcase their talent with a coconut husk burning earthen pot on their heads, hands and mouth. While the mornings are usually tranquil with small puja which is performed called Anjoli, later in the day each pandal has a set of activities lined up for kids, as well as adults to keep people engaged for forthcoming days. Of all the days, if there is one highlight day which can describe and epitomize the battle of Maa Durga, it is Mahaashtami. Every year, the priests take much rigor to perform the rituals, from chanting the mantras with the perfect tone, to people gathering to pay their respects for what Maa Durga stands, it is an experience to remember!
All over India, Durga Puja is celebrated with much fan-fare. While it’s a celebratory mood throughout West Bengal, Orissa and Assam, it is a small affair in other parts of the country. Delhi is the window which provides us a glimpse of the diverse country that we are, has a fan fare which is unmatched. Don’t be surprised if you see a pandal which conducts Dandiya nights as well. We are bred with cultural immersions! While Delhiites, would not stop working on those six auspicious days, unlike West Bengal, but it would also not be away from the celebrations.
In Gujarat, surprisingly, another avatar of Durga, Amba, is worshipped. As celebratory as it can get, the rituals are succeeded with a community dance ‘Dandiya’ where men and women, come in beautiful, vibrant dresses, after dinner specifically, they start their community dance, which goes on till midnight. The communitarian dance happens every day throughout the Navratri.
While Delhi gears up for another round of Durga Puja, we sneak into the history of Pandals in Delhi. The earliest known durga puja Pandal was organized as early as 1911, when the British had shifted their capital to Delhi, some prominent Bengali administrative officers had come over and settled here. To get the feel of home away from home, they came up with their small pandals. With each passing year, people are getting more rooted to their traditional ways of puja with some minor tweaks in time. Join us and immerse yourself in the various colours of Durga puja.

The Days when Strength is Worshipped: Durga Puja experience

Light misty clouds, cold winds around, coconut husk burning with light coal in an earthen pot, and beautiful pandaals are the significant markers that Durga Puja is round the corner. Durga Puja is celebrated every year in the auspicious month of Ashwin (September-October) and commemorates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Raavan.
Durga Puja is the ceremonial worship of goddess Durga, where she had won over the demon king Mahishasura. In Durga, the gods bestowed special powers, where she had ten hands and each carrying lethal weapons. The main tableau consist of the goddess who is usually seated on a lion, with er four children-Kartikeya, Ganesha, Lakshmi, and Saraswati.
Traditionally, huge clay models are made of the goddess and beautifully decorated, with embellishments. Huge canopies are well decorated with temporary bamboo poles with decorative fabric is used to decorate the place, known as pandals.
A Durga Puja experience not only gives you an insight into the culture and the reunion of the Bengalis in these auspicious days, but also opens a wide array of cultures, as not only Bengalis but people around the world come and celebrate in the Dhunochi Naach.
The first durga puja in Delhi happened as early as 1911, when the British had shifted their capital to Delhi, and many Bengalis who were working in the administration had come and settled in Delhi. The oldest Durga Puja Samiti dates back to 1910.

Iftaar Walk

Be it rain or storm, nothing can dampen a DIlli-wala’s spirit, especially when it comes to food. As scheduled, Delhi Walks went out for an Iftar Walk on 6th Aug 2013 in spite of heavy downpour around the city. The roads were crowded with buyers, sellers, rickshaw-wallas, tourists beggars, like any other evening in Old Delhi. But still, there was something special about this evening. This was the time for Iftaar- the evening meal when fasting Muslims break their daily fast during the month of Ramadan.

We started our gastronomical journey at Chawri Bazar, where one can find some wonderful street food joints. Our first stop was Ashok Chaat Bhandar, which is located just outside the gate no.3 of Chawri Bazaar Metro Station. Here one can find variety of chaats, golgappas, bhalla and tikkis. We had some golgappas and dahi bhallas before moving onto our next stop.

After this, we decided to try some real nonveg cuisines and thus we moved ahead to Jama Masjid Mosque area. The mood at Jama Masjid was very high on energy and festive, in spite of the unfavorable weather. The whole atmosphere was breathtaking. Inside the Jama Masjid, families laid out their mats, arranged their Iftaar food, waiting for the azaan to break their fast.

While the atmosphere inside Jama Masjid was sort of soothing, the markets outside were buzzing with people. The Matia Mahal street has many street shops which were selling dried nuts (dates, cashewnuts, kishmish, etc) and dried Sewai (semolina noodles), which usually are consumed during iftaar and Eid.

In Matia Mahal Street, we decided to have our evening meal at the Al-Jawahar restaurant, which serves some really delicious non-veg mughlai cuisine. For starters, we ordered shami kebab and chicken seekh kebab. Later on, we ordered Mutton Barra, Fried Chicken, Chicken Biryani along with tandoori roti.

After eating till our souls were satisfied, we moved on to have some dessert. We had a small portion of Shahi Tukda, a dish rich in ghee and sugar. By this time, we were completely full up to our necks. We decided to head towards our final stop-Jama Masjid, as it was almost time for the Maghrib ki Namaz. Holding our sandals in one hand and making our way through the crowd, we found a spot for ourselves to sit. Don’t be shocked if you get invited to share the iftaar with some families around you. We ended our journey with delicious Halwa puri and Sharbat in Meena Bazaar.

While on our way back to Chawri Bazaar Metro, we all had one thing in our mind- THIS PLACE IS A HEAVEN FOR GLUTTONS!!

Holi

Holi is a festival that Indians look forward to the most. It is that one day of the year when everybody- old and young, rich and poor, is in their best of spirits to celebrate and enjoy this festival. Holi not only marks the beginning of spring for Indians, but it also symbolizes the feeling of love, harmony and belongingness for fellow humans. The colors we color each other in stand for the love and respect we have for each other.

Delhi is the cultural hub of India and every festival here gets a different flavor as the city sees a coming together of people from different cultures and different corners of the country. All these people bring with them their own rituals and ways of celebrating the festival and gives the festival a unique character. For an international tourist, to be able to witness and enjoy Holi in Delhi would be a completely new and exotic experience. But at the same time, there are safety concerns that give birth to inhibitions in the tourists’ mind regarding the festival. Keeping all of this in mind, Delhi Walks, a specialty vertical of India City Walks organized a group tour on Holi, for people who wanted to witness the colors of Holi in the city. With a group of ten tourists from different parts of the world, we started with what we call the Holi Walk.

We all met at Karol Bagh metro station and boarded an AC coach to go through the various lanes and streets of Delhi and experience the many hues and shades of Delhi. We were to go to Karol Bagh, Rajendra Nagar and Kailash Colony to have a look at Delhites celebrating Holi. We also planned to tell the tourist the story of Holi with all its history, mythology and legends and give them a taste of delicacies that are prepared for this special day. The priority for us was to give the tourists a safe, exciting and never-before experience.

We saw people all drowned in Holi masti at all these places. People were playing colors and gulaal on the streets and all faces were covered with many many colors. All divides of sex, religion, status ceased to exist in the celebrations. We also saw people enjoying Holi parties at various places and having a god time with colors, music and food. Children were the most fun to look at. They looked very excited with colors, water balloons and pichkaris and they seemed to be very excited. And, thei excitement was infectious; looking at everybody play Holi, we all wanted to get out there and play with colors. And to do exactly that, we stopped at India Gate. There was a group of people at India Gate, who were playing Holi and we joined them. We had made arrangements for colors and gulaal for the tourists beforehand and the Holi playing was very much fun and intoxicating for all of us. In no time, we were all throwing colored water at each other and running around the whole place.

Playing Holi was exciting as well as tiring. But the excitement won over the tiredness we had. With the excitement and energy we had in our hearts, we stopped at a café in Kailsah Colony for a cup of coffee and some food. And then came the big surprise for the tourists, a rain dance party. We had organized a rain dance party for them to give them the feel of dancing on bollywood and Holi songs. The rain dance was really enjoyed by all of us.

With the rain dance, the Holi Walk came to an end. We all said our goodbyes to each other with lots of memories that will be cherished for a long time to come. The walk was a real experience for the tourists, which cant be gained by reading or listening or talking about it. This was an experience that can only be lived, that can only be felt. We created an experience for the travelers, who wanted to live and explore Holi. The bestpart about the walk was that it was safe, well planned and gave the tourists a panorama experience of Holi complete with its story, food, colors and fun.

The Ram who’s Leela is our favourite Drama: Ram Leela experience

A day at the famous Ram Leela Ground of Delhi, was spent looking around the huge space. A quiet evening walk, led me towards a group who were rehearsing their lines of various characters, quietly in a corner. There’s still a month to go for the Dussehra celebrations. Ram Leela and the fanfare attached to it, is an experience which is incomparable. A vibrant costumes that the characters wear, to the set settings, everything is a part of keeping alive the tradition of reiterating to young children what our mythology reminds us, which is ‘the victory of the good over the evil’.

Ram Leela is a dramatic celebration of one of the famous mythological epics of India, which is the Ramayana. Raja Dasharath was the king of a province called Ayodhya. The king had four sons from three wives. Prince Rama was the eldest son of all. Now normally, the law of succession would tell you that the eldest son succeeds the throne after his father. But you need to wait for the twist in the story.

Rama’s stepmother, who also happened to be the Kings third wife, wanted to see her son, Bharata on the throne, for which she had asked a wish to the King, for the eldest to go on an exile. As a righteous son, who obeyed his elders’ he did what he was told. For straight 14 years, Rama was in exile with his younger brother Lakshman and his wife Sita who had begged to accompany Rama for his retreat.

When Bharata had come to know about what his mother had asked the king as a wish, he made no delays in going and getting the rightful heir to the throne. “The eldest must rule” is what Bharata had reminded Rama, when he insisted Rama to come back to Ayodhya. Bharata was more than happy to be a regent under Rama’s rule. But before he could go back to his homeland, he was stuck when his wife was abducted.

Rama, by defeating the demon king Ravana, and after mustering the aid of monkey army to free his wife, all had finally reached safely their homeland back to Ayodhya. Rama, Sita and Bharata are fine examples of persons who followed their Dharma above anything else.

A Ram-Leela experience entails wonderful dramatic retellings of various episodes from Ramayana, where the performances culminate on to a festival of Vijayadashami day, which happens to be the 10th day which commemorates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Ravana. Processions are taken throughout the city, which leads to a particular ground or a square, where the final battle takes place. Giant effigies of Ravana are set on fire, on the 10th day which is with much fan fare.

The Dashamukha Demon: Celebrating Raavan Making experience

A day spent in a corner of West Delhi, filled with effigies of Raavan. A sunny afternoon around the place led me to a man who was on the steps of the ladder to decorate the moustache of the demon king. I cheekily asked him “There is time for it” he replied: “Time is for normal people, not us”.

Raavan making is an experience in itself, where right from the puppets which we see around as souvenirs to making the huge effigy, which is a much loved affair amongst the kids, is an immersion in itself.

Raavana appears in India’s much celebrated and popular mythological tales “Ramayana” as a demon king. Like we all know, every tale has a protagonist and an antagonist. For Ramayana, since the slot for protagonist was already booked for Raavan, antagonist was Rama. In all versions of the mythological tale, Raavan figures as a man:

“With ten heads, twenty arms with copper-coloured eyes, and teeth as bright as a young moon. His appearance for all others was as thick as a cloud or a mountain, or the god of death with open mouth. With all the marks of royalty intact, his bare body was replete with wounds inflicted by all the divine arms in his warfare with the gods.”

In all versions of the mythological tale, one significant point which is what makes Raavan demon like, is when he abducted the beautiful wife of Ram, took her to an alien land “Lanka” which later had ensued on a battle against Ram and Raavan. Thus Sita, the beautiful wife of Ram was won back by her husband when finally the good rested over the evil. In common imagination, while Ram is a shining example of a virtuous ruler, Ravana, is the sign of evil.

Be careful of the ladies around you! In colloquial hindi usage, if a man behaves wickedly, he is usually described as Raavan.

The burning of the effigies of Raavan rests and reconfirms our imagination of a world which marks the triumph of good over evil.

Raavan is described in mythology as the lord commander of Rakshasas, the numerous and the powerful demons of Indian underworld. He is known to have been scarred by a thunderbolt of Indra, by the tusks of Indra’s elephant Airavata, and by the discus of Vishnu. A breaker of all laws and a ravisher of other men’s wives, his abode was the large island of Lanka (now known as Ceylon) from where he ousted his brother Kuvera, lord of the Indian elves.

Riding on a magic chariot to sow seeds of mischief wherever he could, he was a known figure around. By spending many years of penance and worship of Brahma, Ravana in a long run had been granted immortality.

He knew which God’s door to knock. Raavan went to Siva and began to do penance, with a hope that he will be granted his wish. By standing on one of his ten heads,encircled by a ring of fire, for one thousand years. Eventually when he came to his last head, Siva asked his for his wishes. A staright demand of Raavan were three: Atmalinghal, the sacred phallus, for his mother, for himself immortality and the most beautiful woman in the Universe. Siva had no choice but to grant him his wishes. But he did not know, the type of demon he gave birth to.

Raavan’s defeat in the hands of Rama, had re-established the fact that the good always rests over the evils.

This is a much celebrated experience where in North India especially, effigy makers get to work up to three months ahead of Dussehra. Thin strips of bamboo are bent and curved shapes of the ravan structures. Old recycled sarees (from a Gujrati community market) are wrapped tautly around the bamboo frames. To make them more attractive, colourful biodegradable paper is pasted over the sarees.

Each effigy consists of heads of body, legs, crown hands weapons and the other accessories. A few months ahead of Dussehra, various places in Delhi are lively with big bamboo frames and colourful paper mache representations of the demon king.

The auspicious 9 days of Hindus: Navratri experience

Navratri, which literally translates as nine nights, are the nine auspicious days for Hindus where they worship different aspects of Goddess Durga in different parts of India. A normal Navratri festival includes ritualistic puja, fasting as well as elaborate celebrations for nine consecutive days. The festival follows a lunar calendar that is why there is never a fixed date for Navratri any year. The main theme which circulates in Navratri is the triumph of good over evil. The experience is out of the world as you see the cultural amalgamation and get to experience the different versions of the same festival differently.

Goddess Durga is the epitome of power, purity, and an embodiment of a supreme Goddess. The sgoddess has nine aspects and thus this festival is dedicated to the worship of these aspects. Each aspect is celebrated every day and thus makes it a nine day long festival.

The origins of this festival can be traced back to the Vedas. Durga, a combination of trinity of goddesses, which includes goddesses like Saraswati, Parvati and Lakshmi are also worshipped with goddess Durga.

A simple Navratri celebration would include thousands of people from villages and cities gathering in one small shrine to pray in front of the god. It is important that the thoughts and mind is pure though out these nine days. Chanting of mantras and folk renditions of bhajans are a usual phenomenon during these nine days. All these nine days, the only thing that the devotees wish for is strength to fight against the evil. There are fasting rituals as well attached to these nine days. While some refrain from any sort of cooked food, and live on fruits and milk, the adopt meals prepared without the use of onion and garlic.

Different parts of the country celebrate differently. While in East, especially in West Bengal, people celebrate the Goddess Durga version, where huge idols are made, with beautiful pandals , and celebratory mood sets in. In Gujarat, people perform community dances which are called Dandiya and Garba respectively, though out the night. With colorful and elaborate dresses for both men and women, Dandiya is indeed the time when the whole community comes together for merriment.

The whole city of Delhi waits for Navratri celebrations as there is a riot of colours, and celebrations all around. While we keep saying, Delhi is the show window to all the cultures of India, the nine days in Delhi are spent fasting, feasting, and many celebrations. The whole city is decked up with different vibrant colours, women come out in their best of the sarees, men and children wear their traditional attire. Don’t be amazed if you see some women wearing saree not in the usual manner, they are portraying a fraction of the different styles of saree draping.

When the Ten Headed Demon was Defeated: Dusshera Experience

Dussehra as a celebration in itself is unique, which has significance. As the popular Hindu epic goes, Lord Ram had killed the demon king Raavan on the tenth day which is Dussehra. The day marks the triumph of good over evil, of over sin and immorality. It is said that the demon king had abducted Lord Ram’s wife Sita.

Throughout Navratri, the auspicious nine days for Hindus, a dramatic retelling of various episodes from Ramayana are enacted. Ram Leela is a dramatic celebration of one of the famous mythological epics of India, which is the Ramayana. Raja Dasharath was the king of a province called Ayodhya. The king had four sons from three wives. Prince Rama was the eldest son of all. Now normally, the law of succession would tell you that the eldest son succeeds the throne after his father. But you need to wait for the twist in the story.

Rama’s stepmother, who also happened to be the Kings third wife, wanted to see her son, Bharata on the throne, for which she had asked a wish to the King, for the eldest to go on an exile. As a righteous son, who obeyed his elders’ he did what he was told. For straight 14 years, Rama was in exile with his younger brother Lakshman and his wife Sita who had begged to accompany Rama for his retreat.

When Bharata had come to know about what his mother had asked the king as a wish, he made no delays in going and getting the rightful heir to the throne. “The eldest must rule” is what Bharata had reminded Rama, when he insisted Rama to come back to Ayodhya. Bharata was more than happy to be a regent under Rama’s rule. But before he could go back to his homeland, he was stuck when his wife was abducted.

Rama, by defeating the demon king Ravana, and after mustering the aid of monkey army to free his wife, all had finally reached safely their homeland back to Ayodhya. Rama, Sita and Bharata are fine examples of persons who followed their Dharma above anything else.

A Ram-Leela experience entails wonderful dramatic retellings of various episodes from Ramayana, where the performances culminate on to a festival of Vijayadashami day, which happens to be the 10th day which commemorates the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Ravana. Processions are taken throughout the city, which leads to a particular ground or a square, where the final battle takes place. Giant effigies of Ravana are set on fire, on the 10th day which is with much fan fare.

The festival of Dussehra has varied significance. Where in north, Ram Leela is much celebrated, the same 9 auspicious days in the eastern part of India has a different significance. In the East, they worship Goddess Durga, who triumphed over a demon, according to folklores, called Mahishasura. The 10th day in Eastern part of India, marks the victory of evil over the good.

One of the celebrated festivals of India, Dussehra is a festival which is believed to eliminate ill fate from the people.

The Dusshera mood in Delhi is usually the enactment of the life of Lord Rama throughout the nine days of Navratri.

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