Thousands Fill Streets For Navratri's Culmination

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PATNA, INDIA (Friday, Oct 22, 2004): Devotional songs in the air,

dazzling streets and sea of humanity moving for darshan of the goddess

Durga was all one could see on Maha Ashtami day of Durga Puja on

Thursday in Kadamkuan, Nala Road, Machuatoli, Dariapur and adjacent

areas of the city.

 

Huge puja pandals decorated with colourful lights and streets

interspersed with beautiful gates made the puja celebration enjoyable

for the puja revellers.

 

Adding to the beauty was the puja fair created spontaneously by the

enterprising youths opening roadside eateries, toy shops, baloons and

bangle stalls.

 

Patnaites and the people from the neighbouring areas thronged the

streets and puja pandals in the best of their dresses. Mantras rented

the air from public address systems near puja pandals. Unlike previous

years, this time film songs were not played in many puja pandals.

 

In Kadamkuan Shivalaya, the beautiful idol of goddess Durga, created

by an artist from Burdwan (West Bengal), attracted huge crowd. In the

adjacent puja pandal of Navyuvak Durga puja samiti, Doman Sao lane,

the political cartoons were missing. Cartoons depicting communal

harmony and the evils of female foeticide had taken the place of

political cartoon. The doctor involved in female foeticide was

depicted as "Doctor Demon".

 

The people also had the darshan of the goddess Durga at Sahitya

Sammelan Bhawan. In Machuatoli pandal, different forms of the goddess

was depicted through more than a dozen idols. In the centre was the

idol of Maa Adishakti which, according to legends, possesses the power

of 33 crore goddesses and gods. Another form was Maa Ganga who was

shown piercing spear into the chest of a demon.

 

The people thronging this puja pandal kept deliberating over the

different forms of the goddess of divine power and its varied

manifestations.

 

The devotees thronged the Ramkrishna Mission Ashram in the morning. At

10 am, Kumari Puja was performed. Between 2 pm and 2.50 pm, Sandhi

puja was done symbolising killing of Mahishasur by goddess Durga.

 

Source: The Times of India, "Thousands out on city roads" by RAVI

DAYAL, TIMES NEWS NETWORK

URL:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-895681,curpg-2.cms