Puja Invite

Invitation Card

Today is sasthi, the sixth day of the ongoing Navratri festivities. The day also marks the start of Durga Puja – the worship of a ten-armed image of the Mother Goddess. To us in the Club, the main attraction has been the Puja in the adjacent Garden No 2, organised by yesteryear playback singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya.

Siba Prasad Maitra

But this year somehow, the activity there has been on a low key so far. And just when the festival looked to be washout for us this year, Siba Prasad Maitra has come up with a new option.
As member of the North Bombay Sarbajanin Durga Puja Charitable Trust (better known as 'Rani Mukherji’s Puja'), Maitra has given us a formal invite to the celebrations being held at Tulip Star Hotel, Juhu.
The highlight of the four-day fiesta is a star-studded ‘entertainment programme’ every evening between October 19 and 21:

Shekhawat launches his 'red brigade'

October 19: Group ballet in the memory of Bhupen Hazarika
October 20: Bappi Lahiri Musical Nite
October 21: Vocal recital by Shankar Mahadevan
October 22 is Dussehra, the day for immersion of the Durga idol.
Meanwhile, Shekhawat has started what many regard as the Red Brigade – the colour he and his saalis would be sporting every Monday. This would be much like the green we have been wearing on Wednesdays or the white worn every Saturday – just that how well the red would work on men remains a big question.
Shekhawat of course, had a red t-shirt on today (see pic) and for all we know, he wouldn’t really mind wearing red pants too -- if only to match the colour of the ladies’ salwars like what Razia Khan and Mumtaz Jahan wore today. But it is unlikely that any other man in the Club would be as eager to play matching-matching with the ladies – especially on a color like red.
Ajit Choudhary:
Today, we missed the exercises due to some personal reasons. Really, we are so addicted to the Club that we have all become laffaholics. We are still thinking that we have missed something today.
Jagmohan Papneja:
From the core of my heart, I thank Shri Siba Prasad Maitra for inviting us to Rani Mukherji's Durga Puja at Tulip Star, Juhu. I, along with three of my friends (all four) will be extremely happy to attend the puja programme. Please let me know how can I get the entry passes. May Durga Maa bless you all with happiness all the year through.
Bihari Milwani:
'Lal chhadi maidan khadi, kya khub ladi, kya khub ladi, hum dil se gaye...'
Harish Wadhwa:
Thank you very much, Maitra-ji for being so generous with the invitation.
Siba Prasad Maitra:
I gave an invitation for Puja to all the members of the club. After reading a few comments, it appears that there is some misunderstanding. Entertainment programmes are different and I got hardly 5-6 passes from which I could spare 3-4 passes to some of our members because it will never be possible to get entertainment passes for all. But you all could come to the puja, have prasad and bhog with the invitation card. However, if I have hurt anyone due to non-availability of entertainment passes, kindly excuse me. It will always be difficult in such a huge programme, which runs on donations. Wish all of you Happy Dussehra.