For years, there has been a keenly fought struggle of supremacy between Kolkata Bengalis and Delhi’s CR Park Bengalis. “Kalchar”, authenticity of cuisine, the spoken language – even copyrights to Rabindranath Tagore and Subhash Chandra Bose – these have all been a part of the tussle between the two.
But the biggest debate, undoubtedly, has been about who has the better Durga Pujo celebrations.
It is that time of the year when Bengalis across the globe lose it. They take vacation from work and their homes and are mostly found in small gatherings – either in pujo pandals or shopping malls. However, the war of words continues even to this day between the Big City and a 20,000 strong Bengali population trying to hold on to their roots through nine different pujo pandals in one colony.
I once heard a friend from Kolkata say, “Durga Pujo in CR Park is not nearly as authentic as in Kolkata. They have it all wrong.”
While that may be true – i.e. Kolkata is more authentic when it comes to the Bengali “Kalchar” – here are four reasons why it is a lot better to celebrate Pujo in Delhi’s own mini-Kolkata rather than going to Kolkata.
Traffic and Parking Jitters
The entire city of Kolkata comes to a standstill. Really. Nothing moves, not the traffic, the devotees, the people on the road... It’s total chaos.
Sure, no one celebrates Holi and Diwali like the people of Delhi. But even then, Delhi is not even 50 per cent as chaotic as Kolkata becomes during those four days of Pujo.
In Kolkata, emergency services go for a toss during this period. There is no parking space ever and one ends up walking for miles to visit one of the popular pandals. In CR Park, though? One could easily park in any of the neighbouring colonies like GK-1, GK-2, Kalkaji and Nehru Place and walk for less than a kilometre to hit the pandal hopping scene.
Cutting the Queue
Indians have a Masters degree in smoothly and shamelessly elbowing people out of the way to get to the front of a line. And during Pujo? Bongs may very well be awarded the honorary fellowship for this feat.
Your ability to enter the pujo pandals during the evenings will depend a lot on how much strength you have in your legs – and how much patience. Because, lines pretty much never move. And it’s much worse in Kolkata than in Delhi.
Sure, you may have a friend or two in Kolkata who can show you around some of the bigger pandals – but there are literally thousands of these constructions all over the city! How many can you manage to sneak into?
Meanwhile, in mini-Kolkata, with its nine pandals, a CR Park resident will always be able to help you beat the queue. How? Every CR Park resident gets passes for each pandal. Score!
Cultural Competitions
In the days leading up to Durga Pujo, Bengalis are suddenly overtaken by a sense of proving themselves to the community. A number of competitions are created for our fancy, therefore – such as Abritti Protijogita’s (poetry recitals), football matches and dance contests.
Bengalis of all ages participate in these with gusto. This happens in both Kolkata and Delhi.
Why then should you stick to CR Park instead of taking the first flight out to Kolkata? Because, competitions here are so much more new-age. Perhaps it is because in our attempts to create an ‘authentic’ pujo, we end up inviting every Bong element known to mankind to come to CR Park.
As a result, you have everyone – from old bands that even Kolkata has forgotten, to upcoming singers who are lost in Kolkata’s crowd – come to Delhi to perform.
Sure, someone from West Bengal/Kolkata will always root for their pujo and call it older, more authentic, more real. They’ll probably be right. But just once, keep your date with Delhi. It might make a convert out of you.
(Shibaji Roychoudhury was named after someone who wanted to conquer and inspire. Unfortunately, he is far too ambitious for that. He has celebrated Durga Pujo in both cities for years, but remains dil se dilliwaala or in this case, CR Parkwaala.)
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