Mahishasura Mardini

October 2004..... My first Navaratri at Gujarat just after our relocating there.

Some of us Bengali ladies got together to perform the famous Mahalaya song "Jaya Jaya He MahishasuraMardini." Dressed in red-bordered saris worn in traditional style with gold jewellery, the five of us earned the epithet "PanchaKanya". To introduce the song I described how the MahishasuraMardini imagery was one transcending religious boundaries and basically a depiction of Man's victory over his own lower animal nature.... The soul's journey from darkness to light.

Months after our recital, a Painting of MahishasuraMardini by Gujarat's Tyeb Mehta fetched record price at Sotheby of London.

Nothing but a coincidence, of course. To even dream of any earthly connection between  an obscure, humble effort in a corner of Gujarat and the world art scene is nothing short of ludicrous.
Still....the news, and the rather atypical name of the artist himself, has often led me to wonder rather curiously at the seeming correspondence between our offering to the Goddess that NavRatri evening, and the lasting impact of the Goddess-imagery for the International connoisseur.

reuniting with family...

Got off the afternoon flight day before....winter just setting in Kolkata..... a pleasant anticipation is in the winds. The festival of lights is in full swing... lighting up even the meanest streets and corners...The city looks transformed.

Reuniting with my younger brother after a long time... and of course with my parents and elder  brother... The mood is one of quiet happiness at finding ourselves together... Is it only me or is it generally true that as one ages the effusive joy of these get-togethers gets toned down?

Frustrated by the senseless traffic snarls on our way to the Airport to pick-up Sambuddha today, Koushik and I put on the mantle of town planners for a while and came up with a host of brilliant solutions staring from a dedicated fly-over to the aerodrome to a network of sorely needed underpasses... none of which will, needless to say, ever be heeded. So much for 'participatory development'!!  

Signing off for today....