The Indian calendar is filled with many festivals big and small. Diwali, Durga Puja, Holi. All are celebrated with gusto.
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata
But only one was celebrated at our home without fail. Saraswati Puja or the festival of Saraswati the Goddess of Arts and Learning which took place this week.. She carries a veena, a musical instrument. She is usually dressed in white or yellow and rides on a swan. Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity. So she’s very popular. But Saraswati is the goddess of learning and every school student ignores her at their own peril. We all needed her help to get through trigonometry.
I would carry some dried flowers from the years Saraswati puja wrapped up in a twist of paper in my wallet as extra insurance during exam.
Unlike Durga Puja which is a great public festival, Saraswati Puja was always small scale and homespun. It was something that happened at home. The few organized by neighborhood clubs in parks and driveways were also modest in size.
But now in these times of Instagram reels and excess all that has changed. I am seeing reels for all kinds of Saraswati Pujas. Biggest. Tallest. Cutest. Oldest. Most eco friendly.
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People are using drones to film throngs of people pushing and shoving as they trudge from one Saraswati puja to another. And all I can think is even Saraswati Puja cannot be left alone. Its fallen prey to the bigger the better disease.
Social media influencers are busy creating reels about the most exciting Saraswati Pujas for days before the actual festival. Saraswati Puja has also acquired a reputation of Bengali Valentines Day because that’s the day students surrender their books and pens to the Goddess for her blessings. So it’s a day off from homework.
Instead now the city is filled with young couples dressed in their ethnic best, yellow saris and kurtas, roaming the city learning the lessons of love.
I went to a cafe this year and saw a Saraswati sitting there amidst the cappuccinos and espressos. She came with a guitar instead of her traditional Indian veena. Moving with the times.
But all movement isn’t progress. The giant Saraswatis with glitzy light displays might be a boon for social media influencers who always need to find something that’s biggest or tallest or cutest. But the real charm of Saraswati Puja was that it was always small and modest.
I would select the goddess I wanted from a line of little clay goddesses being sold in little shops that sprang up on the street. I would examine each one’s face and decide who looked the most pleasant. Then I would carry her home carefully and install her on a little prayer mat.
We would chop up fruits and give them to her as offerings. We didn’t know all the rituals but my mother would read the prayers from a dog-eared prayer book.
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She still does that every year. And she sometimes goes off script but we make it up as we go along, resolute in the belief that the Goddess knows that our intentions are good even if our knowledge is a little shaky.
PRAYERS2: Mother and Me talking - mantra haariye geche, page mark diye rekhechilam
The point was never the size of the Goddess. Or how elaborate our festival rituals were. It was really to remind us that knowledge and wisdom were qualities we all needed to aspire to. Some gods vanquished evil. Some brought prosperity. Some removed obstacles. As a boy I thought Saraswati offered us safe passage through examinations. Now I understand she gave us more - a love for books, for learning, for knowledge and wisdom. Those are companions for life.
In a world where we often complain we do not read enough, she quietly reinforces the power of the written word.
Now I don't have text books to offer the Goddess. But I offer her my laptop instead. My mother offers up her diary. My brother in law dusts his old violin and puts it before the Goddess.
It is a celebration of the arts for arts sake not in the hope of passing examinations. At the end of the festival Saraswati will take up residence on our writing desk in the hope that she will bless us all year long. Next year when a new goddess arrives, the old one will be immersed.
That way there will always be a Saraswati at home because our school days might be over but education never ends
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW