An Old School Puja - Reminder of the past!

So we ended up going to this one particular puja at Shobha Bazaar Raj Bari aka Royal house. Anyway My mother and her aunt were over enthusiastic about going there and after I got there I understood why. Basically its two royal houses, each house is about a block long and right across from each other. When you enter through the large over-sized 10ft doors, you first come across the court yard with the house and rooms all around.

The place is actually quite interesting and both the houses have been hosting two separate well known pujas for the past 150 years. They actually have a trust fund for the annual puja. Anyway so I see my mother and her cousins and aunt making them selves at home and even talking to people and pointing at things like they owned it. Its only later that I learned that the house they grew up in, my grandfathers house, which had to be given up during the India and Bangladesh partition was actually very similar.

Well almost similar, but apparently my moms house had bigger doors and larger storage chests. Her aunt didn't seem too keen on seeing too much of the place as she started to get upset. Regardless, I think they had a great time and secretly, they loved the afternoon and remembered how they lived. Here are some pics of the puja and some of the decor from over 120 years ago!

Catching up on Puja!

Ok so durgapuja is finally over and I am still recuperating from over eating and trying to get back on my schedule, yes the non existent one. So here are a few more random durga puja pics from around Kolkata.