Durga Puja 2014

Posing in front of the puja pandal in Garden No 2

As on every Durga Puja, this time too we set out on our annual pilgrimage across the road to the festival pandal in Garden No 2. Oddly enough, we were caught in the cusp of the ashtami and navami pujas – effectively two dates (by the almanac) overlapping on the same day. On top of that, it was Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary also today.

Mike Raths and Jonas Meir

In other words, we had a triple bounty of celebrations today.
But the bigger high of the day was when two young men from Switzerland sought us out in the Garden and requested permission to film us while we exercised. They introduced themselves as Mike Raths and Jonas Meir from Zweihund GmbH, Fribourg. Apparently they had heard about our Club and were keen to feature us in a film they were working on.

Filming in progress

It is a project “about the relationship between physical mobility and music” they explained.
There was no reason for us to disappoint them. But since they had arrived too early in the morning, Srichand Arora advised them to wait for some time till more members of our group arrived for the exercises. “Sit there,” he said, pointing at a bench. “But do not shit there!” That was enough to break the ice and after that it was one enjoyable freewheeling session of work and play for the Swiss duo. They had become so pally in such a short time that in the end we felt obliged to treat them to samosas – the only fresh snack item we could find so early morning. But they were happy. Before leaving, they thanked everyone profusely and said that they would like to visit us tomorrow also – just that their tickets are already booked for their next stint at Bangalore.
In the end, we had made two new friends.
Jagmohan Papneja:
Durga is an aspect of Parvati. Along with Goddess Durga, Laxmi, Saraswati, with Ganesha and Kartikeya (who are considered to be Durga's children) are housed in pandals and worshiped during the festival.