Diwali is the festival of lights in India. Lamps. Candles. Fairy lights. Fireworks. But in Kolkata I am in the middle of a market of demons.
MARKET NOISE
Demonesses of all sizes, made of clay. Bloody fangs. Bloodstained hands. Bulging eyes. Bare breasts. Some Green faces. Some purple. Some black with red rimmed. Spiky wild hair. Chewing on dismembered arms and legs. Drums beating
DRUMS
The clay workers are working putting the finishing touches, discussing colours
CLAY WORKERS
One says he will work through the night finishing the clay goddess and demonesses. The festival doesn’t happen till night. We will sell till the evening he says.
ARTIST
In Bengal, this is also the time when the Goddess Kali is worshipped. Dark as the night, often naked, her tongue dripping blood, holding a decapitated head in her hand, she is the fierce divine mother, who destroys ignorance and ego.
Her twin companions are Dakini Yogini. They are the demonesses. In popular representations they seem ferocious. But they are not Halloween props. They are the Goddess’ companions, with their own spiritual powers, supposedly representing the creative and destructive aspects of the Goddess herself.
AS the festival approaches buyers are hauling their goddesses and demons home, some human sized, some much larger, dragging them to the back of small pickup trucks while cars honk around them and they argue about the best way to manoeuvre the goddess and her companions.
And get them home in one piece.
BUYERS
And the demonesses always come in pairs. I stumble upon a couple which are small doll sized. Made of clay. One is finished blood stained teeth and all. Blue skin. The other still needs her shiny skirt and hair. Do you want them asks the sculptor. I can finish them right now.
SHOPPING
The sculptor pastes flaxen and black hair on the little clay figure. His daughter sticks pieces of shiny brocade as skirts
He asks her to take a picture of us with our Dakini and Yogini
PHOTO
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata
It’s interesting that at this time of the year so many faiths have demons and ghosts and ghouls roaming the earth. As winter approaches the northern hemisphere we light candles and visit cemeteries with wreaths.
On the day before the festival of Goddess Kali my local vegetable vendors sits chopping greens. She is selling choddo saag or a mix of 14 greens.
She lists the names of some of them Kulekhara, Kolmi, Lal saag. She says some of them grow in rice fields. Some are grown in gardens.
GREENS1
No one knows whether the piles of pre mixed greens are indeed 14 kinds. Or the right 14.
Many are plants I have never heard of. Do you know aat and gaat greens she asks
GREENS 2
I sheepishly admit I dont know my aat from my gaat.
GREENS3
Strange as it may seem these greens are also connected to stories of ghosts.
In Bengal it’s believed that spirits of 14 generations visit their earthly homes this night before the moonless night when Kali is worshipped.
We eat 14 kinds of greens and light 14 lamps to welcome them home and ward off the evil ghosts.
Some would say as winter approaches greens with their anti oxidants probably made good sense.
Either way what is interesting is that for so many faiths this is the time the portal between this world and the afterworld seems to open and ghosts walk among us.
At one time as little children these demons and ghosts would be used by our parents to make us drink our milk and go to sleep.
Now the parents and grandparents are gone and these demons the idea of ghosts dont feel so menacing. I like the idea of one day a year when 14 generations of ancestors can be welcomed home with 14 lamps and 14 kinds of greens.
It makes me feel that someone is watching over us.
As for the demonic Dakini and Yogini, alas they were not fated to be with us for long. By the time I get home one had lost her clay arms. The other one’s legs had come off.
So they didn’t go as companions of the Goddess Kali. They just stayed at home as reminders that in this world we are all a little damaged.
But all we can do is go on. And eat our greens I dont know if my 14 greens are the right greens. But I eat them as an article of faith and hope for the best
This is Sandip Roy in Kolkata for KALW. Happy Diwali
