"Ekla Cholo Re"

This one is about the time I discovered that I loved the festival of Durga Puja. Durga Puja in 2019 was celebrated on 8 October. I come from the northern part of India, where we celebrate Dusshera, which is also celebrated on the same day as Durga Puja, the latter being celebrated in the Eastern part of the country. So, Durga Puja marks the end of Navratri, which is a period of 9 days, during which many people fast. Anyways, on the last two-three days of Navratri, there are pandals set up across town, celebrating the victory of Maa Durga over Mahishasura. The entire place is decorated with Bengali artifacts, dance stages are set up, authentic Bengali food stalls are set up and Dandiya is a must in these pandals.

Getting back to my experience, it was an impromptu plan that me and my room mate came up with(he used to celebrate Durga Puja back home). We decided to go across town and cover as many pandals we could cover. The plan was brought up at 7 in the evening, we got dressed in traditionals till 8 PM, rented a VOGO(bike rental services in Bangalore), and began our weird but exciting plan.

We first went to Indiranagar, reached there around 9 PM(yeah, Bangalore traffic sucks). We spent time there, talked to a few people, met other college gangs, ate loads of delicious but expensive food. We left the place at around 10:30 and went to Whitefield. We reached Whitefield at around 12-12:15. The strange thing was that the place was still lit up, with the food stalls still functioning at full capacity and people having a hearty time. We went to all the stalls,  had some Bengali sweets and left the place around 12:45, decided to ride for some more time, since Whitefield's about 25 km from our place. After around an hour of riding, we decided to stop at Kitchens@24 near Whitefield before finally making the trip back home.

The next day we started a bit early around 7 PM, rented a VOGO again and decided to start with  JP nagar this time. We went to two pandals in JP Nagar. We played Dandiya at Elaan Convention Center in JP Nagar, and then proceeded to Kormangala. Here, we stayed for the most as there were a lottta fun activities, with people doing plays, vendors selling cringy-eye attractions, multiple food stalls. We filled our stomachs here, left around 10:30, and went to HSR Layout. We ate sweets at the HSR pandal, roamed around the open space for about  an hour or so, and finally made our way back home.

In the span of two days, we covered approximately 70-75 kms, visited 6 Pandals, played Dandiya, ate loads of food, all in all making the impromptu plan a success. 

If I had to select one outta all the places I went, I would like to go to Elaan Convention Center; the place had a vibe no other place could provide. However, still many places had been left out, more for next time, right?!

~Tathastu~