Durga Puja 2010

This edition of the festival, which can far easily be compared in any real sense to the carnival in Rio Di Janeiro rather than to Christmas or Lent in New York, was an absolute whopper! A change in venue to the expansive environs at Dunman Road, adjacent to the Dakota MRT, has worked wonders. Gone was the infrastructural quagmire of the traditional Khalsa Club venue, which was claustrophobic at best and a race-to-overcome-a-mountain-of-slippers-and-get-to-the-atrium at worst. Not only was the new venue spacious, there were electric fans that were blowing a spray of water and well organized kiosks serving iced water, porta-toilets and everything else that is needed to host an outdoor event in a tropics. The grand finale was a bengali band by the name Parash Pathar, or "The Philospher's Stone that turns to gold whatever it touches". They were one of the earlier bengali rock bands but I had never been overly impressed by them before. This was a brand new line-up of 4 chaps, basic vocals, guitar, bass, drums. But what hair-raising talent, especially from the vocals and the rhythm section. I was spellbound for about two hours and couldnt take my eyes off the bassist, who was slapping and popping like Victor Wooten. And these guys were not even a first string Kolkata band. Looks like the music scene in Kolktata is as fit as a fiddle.

It was a fitting finale to an excellently organized event by a new set of committee members, who more than pulled their weight to make these Pujas, although no substitute for the real thing in India, particularly Kolkata, a real treat for the bengalis in Singapore. The only criticism (as a bong, it is impossible to give anything a complete miss in terms of finding fault)I have is of the food. The food, while certainly more than edible, was simply not bengali enough. It was catered by a north indian restaurant, but they couldnt really pull off the traditional dishes with sufficient quality. But that's fine. The other important point to mention is that these Pujas, I was not playing in the local band, which meant that I had ample opportunity to enjoy from the sidelines, meet folks and generally hang around. When you play, then you have to practise, drag your instruments back and forth, perform and generally strut around with a self-important air, none of which are particularly conducive to enjoying the atmosphere and the company of friends.

Now back to the real world after 3-4 days of revelry, and it's hard to focus. Looking forward to the next one a year from now. Not too worried, because a year feels like a month these days..