Filmmaker Saptaraj Chakraborty shares why Durga Puja is a homecoming for him

A few months back, one fantastic busy day my Whatsapp Group ‘SILCHAR BAUTAS’(‘SILCHAR NOMADS’ in English) got flooded with plans to visit my native Silchar during PUJA’18 (Pujo for some, but for Sylhetis, it’s always Puja). I just remembered having left Silchar and living away in Mumbai does sometimes makes you feel like a nomad; home doesn’t feel like a home now and the place you make a living is still not your home. As I thought about it more, Puja plans had buzzed on the group and in an instant I decided to book a ticket even though the price was hitting a rocket high. While the payment gateway was taking its own time my nostalgia loaded memory hit me.

Everyone who has ever visited the city has special memories about it. There is a widespread belief that the city grows on you gradually and the relationship which might have started on hate ends up in love. For me, Puja in my childhood at my hometown was always like a carnival. Puja was my only excuse to escape the boring studies, school and the chief interest was to buy those toy guns, by which we would shoot at friends, almost feeling as hitmen. I still don’t know what puja had got to do with those fake guns. Although my father came up with a creative story that it was to kill the imaginary Asuras which never convinced his ever-curious son but now when I metaphorically re-evaluate it, it does have a deeper meaning. Later, as I grew up, my concerns shifted from a toy gun to how I should look in puja (as you can understand) and in what better ways can I be a part of the celebration. I vividly remember that I started participating in puja meetings on Sunday, collecting donations from people for puja, keeping a sharp eye on how my para(colony) pandal is being built and having discussions to implement something creative the next puja.

Time changed, I moved away from my para, home, family and the family like neighbors to Pink city Jaipur for my Bachelor’s in Engineering. I remember my first puja spent away from home, which I never thought would happen in life. It was Saptami, on one hand, my friends and family were together and enjoying the puja and on the other hand, I was attending lectures on ‘Theory of Thermodynamics’. The next day my inner thermodynamics lead me to bunk my class and visit a beautiful puja in Jaipur. While I was approaching the pandal, the distant Dhak (musical instrument) sound gave me goosebumps and the smell of the “dhunuchi,” the familiar smell of coconut fiber smoke, mixed with camphor, made me for almost a fraction of second travel to my homeland but in reality I was far away from Silchar.

It’s a feeling that I can’t express in words. While most Bengalis at that time head back to their hometown, there were unlucky few like me who couldn’t return home to celebrate the festival. But adversity is the mother of invention, and I had found my own unique way of celebrating Durga Puja away from home by making new friends and understanding that they were also feeling the same as I do.

Years passed and my ambition made me much occupied and consumed in my passion-filled work but whenever the month of puja arrives, beautiful memories start creating ripples in my mind and I can’t resist myself from missing it. Those para people coming together at our pandal, sitting for the daily songs and cultural events that was organized at a small stage set near pandal named MUKTO MANCHA (free stage) which was once started by my father Sudip Chakraborty, where various artists from Silchar came to sing, dance and recite poems with the festival ending at navami night and all neighbours joining in for a dhamail (the song and dance is mainly performed by the womenfolk during marriages and other auspicious occasions) dance, visiting Udharbond and Shalgonga with family, offering anjali at Ram Krishna mission, having chat at Tarapur Chat House, having a long adda session at Chowrangi and finally pandal-hopping with huge group of friends. It makes me feel that Puja in Silchar is not less than a fairy tale to me now.

I have always missed that celebration during Durga Puja but after 6 years I am finally set. As I look at my screen that loading page has turned into a confirmation of my tickets, all I need is to pack my bags. I am eager to witness the enchanting Puja of Silchar, meet my parents and listen to my mother singing her best Bengali folk collections, meet my school teachers and friends, gossip with my cousins while munching upon the instant made egg rolls and distribute Kichudi (porridge) at my para’s afternoon feast followed by crazy dashami dance and a sweat-filled warm bijoya hug, and as it makes me feel like a homecoming while thinking about it.

In the Bengali sense, we think of Durga Puja more from a home-coming point of view. Homecoming of Durga to her father’s place- we celebrate it with joy and merrymaking and then we realize it’s time for her to go back to her other home. And then she sets out on her return journey. We bid her goodbye at the Ghat, as she slowly, very slowly, takes to the water, and immerses. And just like her, I will again return back to my busy metro city fulfilling professional demands and immersing myself in flood of passion and ambition hoping to return back again next year and celebrate the beautiful four days of that time.

Let us all celebrate this puja with happiness and fun.

Saptaraj Chakraborty is a filmmaker and entrepreneur settled in Mumbai. He has worked with the top stars of Hindi and Bengali film industry.