16 counts to Heaven in Bengal's Uru

This story starts from this link click here. If you're just interested in the list, then the current post is one. But to get a perspective on life through my mind do start from here. Thanks.


This I am sure is by no means comprehensive. But its a start. Help from the Bongs in Bengal uru would make this list comprehensive. Lets hope it happens by next year.

The 12th observation (I'd made 11 observations about Puja's in Bangalore in the previous post.) I would like to make is the Bengali's living in various parts of Bangalore are not united in the cause of making this celebration larger than life. And that can happen only if they start unifying themselves. Sadly, for now even at the Puja locations even the chaps running some of the puja's had no clue of the various Puja's except for the big ones.

Unity would not only get access to artisans, it would also bring the life to even the non bengali's in this city to sit up and take notice and also participate in the mother of all festivities.

If someone knows about other Puja's please post a comment with your name and that will be added on and credit will be given to you in the post as well.

Here's hoping for an even greater Puja next year in Bengaluru. I would call this picture below... the three protimas. The deity, the guide and the watcher. The role of the gatekeeper is what's on focus!

1/ Wind Tunnel Road: This is bang inside Wind tunnel road off airport road. (a.k.a Murugeshpalya) Turn right (if you're coming towards the airport from MG Road) at the crossing after Manipal Hospital. You'll find an Air Force camp grounds on the right inside Wind tunnel road. The Puja is INSIDE the camp.

2/ Cambridge Layout: Off Sai Baba Temple Road on Cambridge Layout. Coming from MG Road towards 100 ft road on Sai Baba temple road. You'll find a crossing before a cannal (this is the point where the road becomes two way) Take the left follow the lane to a ground where this Puja happens.

3/ Command Hospital - Cambridge Layout. Off airport Road. Turn right after you take the road towards Cambridge layout from Airport Road. Defence property.

4/ Cantonment: Turn Left before Underpass if coming up towards Cantonment. Vasanth Nagar. There's a park on the right where this Puja happens.

5/ Jayamahal: Pass the Cantonment Rly. Stn. underbridge and take the road on left to proceed towards the TV Tower/ Mekhri Circle. Take a Right turn the first break in the median. Continue on this road. This road curves, and leads you to Jayamahal Park. The Puja is adjacent to it.

6/ Bellary Road: Windsor Manor towards Hebbal. Cross the Mekhri Circle underpass. Entrance through an Air Force Campus on the left. Theatre called Manoranjan.

7/ Yellahanka: Fork on Bellary road towards Yellahanka. Lake left. Find Yellahanka Police Station. Close to it is the Sheshadripuram College. The Puja is held on Campus.

8/Air force Camp: Back to the highway towards Hyderabad. Airforce camp on both sides of the road. This Puja is held on the right side campus. Prior permission required to get inside.

9/ JP Nagar: On Bannerghatta Road. Crossing of JP Nagar. This is the one Puja on this side of town. N R Kalyana Mantapa, adjacent to Mandavi Motors, Bannerghatta Road, J P Nagar, 2nd phase.


10 & 11/ Koramangla: I heard there were two being held, but by the time we reached here we'd run out of steam and did not search around in detail so found only one. From Koramngla Police Station if you are heading up towards Forum Mall. This one falls on the right.

The second one was aparently a break off from the same association and near the police station. I could not find one near the PO. Better luck next time. Or if the association has merged back... that's great news.


12/ Mahalakshmipuram: Sadumatada Sadara Vidyabhivrudhi Sangha, No. 5A, 4th A Main Road, 12th Cross, West of Chord Road, Mahalakshmipuram, Bangalore 560086. Full address nothing more required.


13/ Malleshwaram - Canara Union. Prabaasee Association. This is a confirmed one. But address and other details not found. We could not find this despite spending half an hour around asking shops, auto drivers...

14/ Marathahalli: Right turn from Marathahalli railway overbridge (towards Whitefield. Landmark Aishwarya apartments.


15/ Ulsoor: This is the largest, most happening Puja of Bangalore. Off Ulsoore lake. From the Park towards Ulsoor, take the left on the fork at the lake. Take the right as soon as the lake ends follow the left and you'll arrive at the grounds where this is held.

16/ Brookefields: Almost opposite HLL. Kalyana Mandapa. Cross the railway overbridge (Proceeding from Airport towards Whitefield), left Kundalahalli traffic junction, towards ITPL.

We'd heard there were about 30 Puja's in Bengaluru. Best effort within 3 days and we could come up with 16. If I were Floyd I would say ... Any Bengali's out there?

Shubho Bijoya 2007. This year's Puja turned out to one I'll remember for a long time.

More pictures of street side stories... Click here.

The 11 observations from a Trip to Bengal

Trip Start point: Wind Tunnel Road
The Wheels: My Royal Enfield
Dates: October 19, 20 and 21
Trip End point: Wind Tunnel Road
Distance Covered: 184 Kms
The quest: Hunt for Goddess Durga

It felt amazing that a simple idea can make both of us come alive... to have a bit of fun. And, there was no need for the four Ps to be called upon to have a great time. (Parties, Pubs, Puffs or Piss ups!)

I had a feeling we would have our hands full and it might become a borderline case of fatigue as well...

This was a great opportunity to explore. Plus the bonus of getting acquainted with new areas in our city and the pockets with Bengali population.

The final list of Puja's we discovered, their locations and to whatever extent detail that I can remember is a list that I've put up in the next post. But this post is about the sensations, the patterns I saw emerging, similarities, the dissimilarities, the Probasi Bengali's expressions...

First. In Bangalore Pandal's were obviously not something they even gave a thought. All of them and I mean ALL were more like
glorified tents. Sure, some might argue that there was some decoration inside, the outside including the frontage resembled REALLY large tents. Whatever the reason, no police permissions, no artisans available, lack of funds, not a priority, whatever, the zing of a great Pandal as one would see it in Kolkata was simply missing. So call em, tents, Shamianas... These ain't pandals...

But what was left as a gap in that angle was filled by creation of multiple Shamiana's. Plus posters on campus with the programme for the four days. Hey these guys were organised. And, they wanted public to come in a planned manner. The reason for the more than one? Well, entertainment programmes galore. From competitions, to quizes, to music, to kids programmes, the second outlet happened to be the interaction hot spot.

Second. Nizamms (no where close as in the original but then, in a place out of your own city if you're a Bengali, you can't be too nit picky)had a stall in most of the Pujas. Rolls, Kebabs ...

Third. Its true, Bengal has a close affair with China. Be it communism, food, tanneries, populated Chinese communities, proximity to similar looking people...
Chinese food vending was another hit in most of the Pandals. Chow mein can I say is a Bengali Staple diet. And they almost invented the Manchurian... Considering it was a probasi Chinese who came to Bengal thereby became a Bengali and then invented it? Not kidding.

Fourth. Bengali's are the quintessential foodies in our land... of course, with a dash of their own flavours mostly.(for example they For example, they HATE SOUR stuff or even Coconuts. Apart from that they love other flavors. Every puja had a mashup of food stalls, and more importantly people gorging on food.

And that's not all. The most important of them all was the Bhog. And that was impressively organised and looked quite inviting in some of puja's. Amazing.

Fifth. An easy way to find a puja in a locality is to hang around, drift lanes and by lanes and if you find a "Bengali look" drift thataway. Well we can by now make out by the very look, as to who is a Bong and who ain't with about 70% accuracy! A warning note on this one, we could not locate one puja despite our best efforts in trying this approach and we knew from confirmed sources that there was a Puja in that locality.

Sixth. Technology aided the puja's where tradition was expensive or not available. For instance, the sounds of the drum beats which are so part of the Puja were supported by CD's or tapes with a lone ranger (even kids volunteering) beating the drum...

Seventh. It was stupid to try this stunt without actually going to some of the associations before the puja's... As with Bangalore, the traffic is crazy... although nothing like Kolkata traffic especially during the puja, the most effective way of transport was the Metro Rail and the two legs. Nothing else moves!

Here the Bullet chugged along, but the distances were great and lots of detours for the search. The old saying, that working to an organised plan in cases like this makes life a lot easier. Albeit, some effort has to go behind the pre-action days...

Eighth.The Idols were a complete let down. Each one looked the same. The decor was so similar. No imagination. After a point almost boring! A twist in this point. While the face of the Goddess was plastic looking and non expressive, the Asur's (or the evil one if you so would) face had loads of them. More often than not I started taking portraits of Mashisasur!

Ninth. Evenings were a washout for this year. No great angles of light and shadows or the dances could be shot. Every evening was reserved for heavy rains and in fact at some of the Puja's the mud made the day time messy!

Tenth. Every army camp has a Puja. Make arrangements in advance if you want a peek at them. These are the more peaceful ones. But you need to get permission to gain entry.

Eleventh. These were the joints for the traditional Bengali Addas. Flocks of people sitting around and just talking away. Gossip, information exchange, schedules, intellectual stuff, routine ... it was all there, all alive!

The list of Puja's? Click here.

Sniffin' out a dash of Bengal in Bengaluru

Whoever said that the ride had to be one that would take a country road or a distant highway? Whoever said it was wrong.

Sure city riding makes it more painful. The perspective of adventure changes. Of finding short cuts to avoid traffic, of trying to weave in and out of it, of finding that pavement to cut through a long jam, of planning a destination within a given time to eat that favorite food... add to all of this what if one were to also go search and look for festivities? A tiring but different adventure of sorts.

It took us two days... or this weekend so to speak. The occasion was Durga Puja. And for the two of us (that's me and my wife) an occasion when we really miss being in our place of birth Kolkata, the friends, the lights, the festive spirit around us. This is the time of the year when the smell of the city and its emotional appeal goes up by more than a few notches!

This year we were in Bangalore (newly named Bengaluru) and as I put it, twas about the Bengal in the uru (uru means town in some of the south Indian languages.) Strange name, for a city of Bengal in the south?

Anyway, this year, we wanted to find out whether this city celebrates Puja at all! As we'd observed in our earlier years we'd never come across any major fanfare on this occasion... So it was about finding out and nailing it.

That thought in mind we went for it. The whole task had to approached a bit methodically, as it was not a easy task, as in Kolkata, Pandal hopping was a cake walk in our younger days. We actually used to have competitions for the number of pandals and deities seen during the four day Puja...there would be many in every "paraa" one just had to make a route map and run for it everyday.

Here, one had to become a retriever and actually sniff around for that Dash of Bengal. The web searched, Bengali friends asked, references taken...

We'd lined up an impressive list of 10 puja's with addresses that seemed finite. And that was imminently doable in a day or two at best.

The next post is about the two days of the ride, the sights and an impression of what we could make out as the Bangalore definition of the puja. To get the angles read on.