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Tamal Dutta, a state government employee in Kolkata, has set a classic example of unity in diversity by worshipping a Muslim girl during Kumari Pujo on the occasion of Durga Mahashtami.
Traditionally, Kumari Pujo is the worship of girls who have not yet attained puberty as the Goddess on Mahashtami on the second day of Durga Puja – the biggest festival in West Bengal.
The preparations to worship Fatima, the four-year-old ‘goddess’, began early in the morning at the house of Tamal Dutta in Baguihati, in the outskirts of Kolkata.
The women of the house applied alta (red dye) on the hands and feet of Fatima, She was decked up like a bride and made to sit on a chair in front of the idol of Goddess Durga. Fatima was then garlanded and worshipped.
Tamal Dutta, an engineer at Kamarhati Municipality, said that he’s been trying to break down the barriers of caste and communal acrimony for the previous few years.
Fatima belongs to Fatehpur Sikri, a small city in the Agra district of Uttar Pradesh where her father, Mohd Tahir, runs a grocery shop. She had come to Kolkata two months previously to visit her maternal uncle. It was then that Tamil proposed the idea of worshipping her to her family. Fatima’s family agreed readily as they believed it would sent out a strong message of unity.
Fatima’s mother, Bushra Begum, was teary-eyed and overwhelmed. “It is unbelievable for any mother to see her daughter being worshipped as a goddess. I am very happy that Almighty blessed me with such a beautiful and adorable daughter,” said Bushra.
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