Durga Puja is the highest of high holidays for Bengalis when the mother Goddess comes home for five days every year. Bengalis abroad get very nostalgic at the mention of Durga Puja. The Bay Area hosts about half a dozen alone. But back in the Puja's home territory there's much grousing that the grand puja has become too tacky, too commercialized and too nouveaux riche.
We’ve been honoring the people in our neighborhoods who display a healthy dose of passion in their lives, day in and day out, inspiring us to generate a little of our own. Listener Carmen Dicinque called us recently to tell us about horse trainer John Charlebois. KALW’s Alyssa Kapnik and Ashleyanne Krigbaum went out to meet Charlebois and his horses.
