Pujor Kolkata

Kolkata just before Durga Pujo is a different ball game. The sun is mellower, the air is less poisonous, even the ramshacle public buses spewing black smoke at other times take on a kindlier disposition. The air hangs heavy with expectations: of notun jama, notun juto, notun thakur, notun pandal, notun prem. The city is also at its glittering best during these few days....most street lights draped in swathes of red-colored tuni bulbs. The people are also a little happier and shinier, less angrier, more accepting of others and of themselves. But the best part is probably the sky which spends a better part of the year in various shades of grey, but turns an amazing shade of blue with white flaky clouds adding just that touch of contrast. in Bengal, and elsewhere with Bengalis, pujo is also the occasion for getting together as a para or neighbourhood, and unleash one's creative potential on unsuspecting neighbours. Pujo is the time to drop one's single status and finally take that long-planned plunge. Pujo is the time to showcase one's changing (and more daring) tastes in clothes, and spend endless hours on deciding whther it will be the backless choli or the micro-mini with matching stilletoes or both.