Maa Durga left for her abode in Kailash, showering us with her blessings. But the Goddess stays in our heart long after the immersion of the idols. We remember her in every walks of our life.
Writer Debarup Mukherjee weaves his poem around that powerful force of divinity. Clips and Pages is proud to present a poem that expresses his love for the Devine Mother…
Photography: Sanchari Das
Ma Durga
Goddess Durga, an illuminating sign of hope, Goddess Durga brings success and scope, Devi Durga, the destructor of all evil forces, She herself is the nature and its resources, Durga means the joyful minds and sanctity, We take her refuge when there is adversity, Durga blows the clarion against patriarchy, She brings peace in the midst of anarchy, Durga Ma creates livelihood and festivity, She is the source of strength and solidarity.
Author’s Bio
A lawyer by profession and an actor by passion, Debarup Mukherjee loves to express himself through his writings. Although he writes mostly in Bengali, he feels an intense love for the English language. He is the founder of the cultural organization “Prayash Sangskritik Songothon”, which does various social works as well. He also runs an online cultural association named “Choroibeti” meaning “Go Ahead”. A very proficient anchor at several events, Debarup dreams to make it big as an actor someday.
Vijaya Dashami always brings tears to the eyes. Writer Gopa Bhattacharjee reciprocates our emotions, weaving her feelings about idol immersion into verses for the Clips and Pages family.
Photography: Sanchari Das
Adieu Time
Silently, I waited in the corner. Looking at you constantly, a thought just came by me: I have never wanted anything from you.
What you have given me in abundance that was unpredictable, unexpected. I have never wished anything from you.
Nor have I given you anything in return. I guess I never thought of giving you anything. The more I received prosperity, the more I felt guilty and apologetic.
Your immersion brought tears to my eyes. I am just an ungrateful mortal. How can I ask anything from you?
Author’s Bio
Entrepreneur, researcher, freelance journalist Gopa Bhattacharjee is a romantic poet who loves the first showers of monsoons, 80s’ Hindi songs and fish curry cooked by her mother. She has published two Poetry Books and many of her poems have been published in various national and international magazines and anthologies. She is one of the leading actors and producer of the short poetry film ‘Kolkata Cocktail’ which received national and international recognition. She has been the featured poet at different cultural meets in and out of Kolkata and was invited as the Guest of Honour at the literary event KAVYA KUMBH in Allahabad.
Happy Dusshera to all of you! The last day of celebration has finally arrived after the long festival of Navratri, where the different forms of Maa Durga are worshipped. On this auspicious occasion, Pramila Khadun offers her respect for Durga Maa with a prayer of gratitude. Clips and Pages shares the honour of presenting it before you…
Photography: Sanchari Das
Durga Ma
Durga Ma, of all mothers, you are the greatest
And we, humans on planet earth
Bow down to you in respect and reverence.
You are a mother to all who seek for maternal love
And you give hope and compassion to orphans.
Your lap is so vast that we all fit in it.
Your heart is so large that it gives love to all.
Your pitcher is always full of the milk of wisdom
And you quench the thirst of all spiritual seekers.
Ma, you are the greatest giver and you give
All that we need even before we ask you
For you are the knower supreme knowing our needs.
Looking at your pristine beauty, effulgent,
We are mesmerized and float like angels
Among the clouds light, seeing miracles emerge.
Looking at your smiles, we feel liberated
And all our troubles melt like snow and flow down.
Looking at your generous hands, we become nonchalant
And share our possessions with the needy and helpless.
Ma, you are our guide, luminescent and ineffable.
Take us all to the right path, however hard it is,
That path which leads to knowledge
Dispelling the darkness of ignorance.
Unite us all Ma so that no space is left
For egotism, self-centeredness, jealousy and hatred.
We have in you Ma, an uncompromising faithfulness.
Maa Durga is the Devine Mother of the entire Universe, showering her blessings upon all her children. And it is with this view that writer Nalini Janardhanan pens her thoughts, feelings and experiences with Mother Goddess while celebrating the great festival of Durga Puja. We at Clips and Pages proudly presents her article.
Listening to this Durga Mantra in the mornings gives tranquillity to my mind. I like the Navratri Festival which puts us in a festive mood celebrating the nine nights and ten days worshipping the nine forms of Goddess Durga (Navdurga-Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skanda Mata, Katyayani, Kaalratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri). This festival is symbolic of the victory of good over evil.
Along with happy times and achievements, I also had many struggles and stressful periods in my life. There were many gloomy days when I felt depressed or disheartened with my life. But my strong faith in Almighty helped me in breaking up with stress.
Goddess Adiparashakti or the Eternal Mother is like my own mother who loves and protects me. A crying child always calls ‘Maa’ and goes to the mother’s lap where it can find solace. I know that being the Mother of the Universe, Devi Maa cannot see the pain in her devotee’s eyes. I realise that my trials don’t come to punish me but to awaken me and make me understand the divine love of my Devi Maa.
She is the Divine Hand that helps me fly into the fearsome unknown and reach my destination. She is the wind beneath my wings when I try to soar in the sky. Goddess Adishakti is omnipresent and omnipotent. She is closer to us than our breathing and nearer to us than our heartbeats. She is also our mother whose ears are ever attentive to the prayers of Her children.
With the Eternal Mother, everything is possible, only if you have strong faith. Faith may not take away our pains and sorrows but it will help us to bear them with strength and courage. Miracles do happen with prayers. Prayer is either answered or something better is given. The sense of being blessed gives comfort and relief to our mind erasing away our sorrows and stress. Our heart is the only place where we can meet the divine power of the Almighty.
Durga Puja in Bengal is a divine experience. Dancing flames, pulsating rhythms, throbbing drums, clashing cymbals, the sweet smell of camphor, the fragrance of incense sticks, soulful music…When we enter the Durga Puja Pandal and watch the beautiful idols, we slip into a trance when our mind, body and soul merge with the Eternal Mother. Our heart is filled with the greatest bliss of devotion when divine music is played on the chords of our heart.
During Durga Puja, when Aarti was being offered and my darling daughter danced the iconic Dhunuchi Naach (Dhunuchi Dance) according to the rhythm of the dhak (drum beats), holding the Dhunuchi (Bengali incense burner) in her hands, and when the divine euphoria filled my heart and soul, I could see the affectionate smile on my Devi Maa’s eyes. When I sang my favourite Devi Bhajans in front of the idol of Maa Durga, I could feel Her loving hands on my forehead blessing me.
Whenever I feel sad or lonely, I could feel Her warm embrace and loving fingers wiping away my tears.
Thank you Devi Maa for your blessings on this humble devotee.
(“Whenever I am sunk in difficulties in life, O Mother Durga, I remember you, an ocean of compassion. These are my true feelings for you and not false. Because when children are afflicted with hunger and thirst, they naturally remember their mother only.”)
JAI MAA! SHUBH NAVRATRI! ***********
Author’s Bio
Dr. (Major) Nalini Janardhanan is a Family Medicine Specialist who served in Indian Army Medical Corps as an Army Medical Officer in the rank of Major. She is a popular writer of Kerala who is felicitated with many Awards for her contributions towards society as a Doctor, Singer, Writer, Army Officer and for her Social service.
Every year, on the joyous occasion of Durga Puja, we seek the blessings of our Maa Durga. So, on this auspicious day, writer Gouri Dasgupta offers her humble prayer to our Goddess. And we all at Clips and Pages too pray to Maa Durga with her…
Photography: Sanchari Das
Humble Prayer
Mother you are the only one Without you we think for none; You are our Universe: Your ten arms are our power; Drench us with your holy shower, for the world is full of adversity! Your blessings will save us from the calamity… Durga means who saves us from disaster, So we believe we have nothing to bother; We hope one day you will diminish all the foe, To overcome our thought, full of woe! Our one and only devotion- That no one can captivate us towards temptation; Free us from all sorts of evil, Enrich our sensation, May we never hurt our fellow man by engaging ourselves in the niggle. These are all expectation, from our Almighty one: We are waiting for a glorious dawn.
Author’s Bio
Gouri Dasgupta is the former Senior Zoological Assistant at Zoological Survey of India. Now she is a full time writer, a proficient poet and a dedicated homemaker.
The greatest and most loved festival of West Bengal, Durga Puja bears different meanings for different people. Author Suchismita Ghoshal truly enriched our Clips and Pages family by bringing in a new perspective to look at the grand festivity.
Photography: Sanchari Das
THE VISIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF LIBERATION IN ‘DURGA PUJA’ FESTIVITY
As the Durga Puja festival finally sheathes the entire ambience of Bengal into an exuberant phenomena through the bewitchingly captivating faces of deity “Maa Durga”, incandescent lightings, gorgeous pandals, vibrant people, curious eyes of innocent children and incessant assembly of few groups of friends, mostly spend their 360 days out of their hometowns and gobbling of finger-licking cravings, I have found the overwhelming resemblance of the outer expression of liberty through the wholeheartedly celebrated provision. The entire Bengal and its folks forgetting its losses and drawbacks have come forward to welcome ‘Maa’ by showering unimaginable love that they caged for long and pouring the unarticulated heart before ‘Maa’ to receive her cordial blessings.
I have seen the freedom of expression and discrimination-free assemblage in this pious period of time to culminate the real meaning of “Freedom in Unity”. I have witnessed the vibrance of togetherness in lost smiles, the exhilaration of coalescence among friends or family forgetting the long time feuds, the solace in togetherly pandal hopping of families, the uniqueness of trying new food, the carefree distribution of good vibes. Among all these, I have found liberation and peace as well as summed up this extraordinary integrality into a different naming as ‘ The Liberation Festivity’.
The huge amalgamation of million different thoughts and ideologies and the perfect blending of creativities are what give me goosebumps as a separate entity. I feel loved like a prison-free bird; my occupancy-free mind roams around every nook and corner of the scintillating lightened up places and savours the aromatic, divine smell of ‘Dhuno’ [an Indian form of Frankincense] with its deepest core like a therapeutic process.
The 10 days festival carries different meaning and significance for each day with its own rituals performed independently. The last day with the farewell ritual and worshipping ‘Maa’, we are found tear-stricken, soaked with emotional pandemonium and we offer ‘Sindoor’ to our ‘Maa’ with the secret prayers of unending and intact marriage relationship. We bid adieu to ‘Maa’ through the immersion of her huge powerful idolatry in the river near-by with a very eye-catching cultural procession along the way towards river ‘ghat’ from ‘mandap’.
We welcome her royally and bid adieu to her royally. We believe in her inevitable power of unification. Our adverse culture and beliefs tend to take a bow in the enchanted benevolence of our revival of thoughts. People forget rivalry and own the generosity of kinship.
There is saintly attraction in the reverence of chanting the ‘shlokas’ and ‘mantras’ (scriptures) “Rupam dehi, Jayam dehi, Yasho dehi, Dvviso jahi”. [O Devi, Please Grant me (Spiritual) Beauty, Please Grant me (Spiritual) Victory, Please Grant me (Spiritual) Glory and Please Destroy my (Inner) Enemies.] The entire meaning of this ‘stotram’ (ode or eulogy) disintegrates the complex meaning in a simplified form that indicates the prayers for the win of inner divinity over evil spirits and acquiring of victory, positive aspect and celestial glory. If this doesn’t match with the theorems of liberty, what else will?
This vast universe is intact with the spiritual binding of a supreme authority that can never be visible but can be felt if we look around and stimulate our 6th sense to get aware of our position in this entire universe. Worshipping ‘Devi’ (Goddess /Deity) Durga is one of the finest examples of stimulating different senses for a very divine outcome or for the regeneration of noble thoughts to prosper as a wise human being.
I have since my childhood taken this “Durga Puja” festival in different views and perspectives. Childhood innocence found fun in witnessing Devi’s idolatry with parents and eating ice creams and chips in midnight, adolescence took it as a new pleasure of exploring hidden fun like getting attracted towards opposite gender and making oneself dressed like queens to get captivated, then now adulthood finds enthrallment in the regathering of friends and closure of family and as far as I can foresee the mid thirties or mid forties will take it as a refreshment after a monotonous round of a year. So, it’s clearly comprehensible how this festivity is enamoured among us with several different meanings and namings.
Also, it has moulded the enhancement of a festival with a plethora of vibrant shades. To end it with a complementary elegance, all I can say is that if anybody wishes to understand the excellence, nobility and overlordship of liberty with a spiritual touch, they should visit West Bengal in the godly time of Durga Puja Festival for a joyous, wisdomatic, and spiritually wholesome ride.
Author’s Bio
Author Suchismita Ghoshal hails from West Bengal, India. At the age of 23, she has been continuously leaving her footprints in the contemporary literary world. She is an widely published author, internationally reputed bilingual poet, spoken word poet, professional writer, content writer, editor and critic, translator (Bengali, English), performer, communicator and literary influencer. She’s been invited to many international festivals and open mics. Her awards, accolades and achievements not only inspire her more to write but also to influence her through the kindness of her words. Her solo books “Fields of Sonnet”, “Emotions & Tantrums” & “Poetries in Quarantine” are available on Amazon.
Maa Durga has always been the symbol of feminine strength and the source of divine power. Clips and Pages is proud to present a poem by Mehak Varun, expressing the Enlightening Power of the Goddess Durga.
Photography: Sanchari Das
The Enlightening Power
It’s time, yet, again
to be Durga-the shakti
to embody fearlessness
with unshakeable strength.
To kill today’s Maheshasura
to be the divine power
empowering in itself
the purity and salvation.
The absolute of all creation
destroyer of evil
daring of devils
you are complete, Poorneshvari!
Give us the power, O’ Durga
The destroyer and the preserver
the mother of whole universe
destroy all the fear
make the world radiant.
O’Durga, give us the power
to be resilient, the invincible
teach us the hope to
stride against the tide
still, wrapped with pride.
Author’s Bio
Writer, Mehak Varun, is the author of four books – THE Humane Quest vol 1, 2 & 3 and ‘I am Me’. She has been bestowed with ‘100 Inspiring Authors of India’ award in kolkata. She has also been honoured with the ‘Women Of Influence 2019’ award presented on women’s day in New Delhi. Along with her books, her work has been published in various anthologies and she is recipient of various other prizes in poetry competitions as well. She is known for raising contemporary issues in the society. Just as there is freedom, there is a certain responsibility towards the same. To choose to do good and be good within the specified responsibilities, is freedom in action. ‘The Humane Quest’ is a humble attempt to create awareness against the evils of society and stimulate the strong Indian values which are lacking in the present times.
Visiting the pandals entails the festivity that revolves around Durga Puja. Author Anil Kumar Panda vividly captures one such visit to the pandal in his poem which is bound to touch the heart of every reader at Clips and Pages.
Photography: Sanchari Das
A VISIT TO THE PANDAL
Eyes are filled with love and compassion, As from high altar she watches the world;
The rich and poor sing songs for her glory The demon lies dead bleeding at her feet;
Celebration of the victory of truth over lie, Of peace against violence, love against hate,
Is marked with chanting of mantras that fills The air as fragrance of incense flits around;
Devotees feel inebriated in cool autumn air Raise their hands to the almighty mother;
Swoon in rhythm with sound of dhaakis; Fireflies fly from swinging earthen lamps.
Dressed in season’s trending colors, they Move in circles like swarms of butterflies;
In the night sky the tiny stars simmer as Sounds of conchs, ululations, drums and
Cymbals float on crowded paths leading To pandals draped in tiny colorful lights:
Festoons flutter like liberated souls as the Soothing aromas of season’s flowers are
Spilled thick from long tresses and buns; Hurried hands have finished the mundane
Chores and in great enthusiasm proceed to Pay obeisance to the Mother and seek blessings.
Author’s Bio
Anil Kumar Panda was born in a small town, Brajrajnagar, in the state of Odisha, India. A miner by profession he is working as a mine surveyor. He writes poems and short stories when he gets free from his job. He has published two books of poems- Fragrance Of Love and Melody Of Love. Presently he is working on his third book. His poems have been published in many national and international anthologies.
Durga Puja is a festival which is very close to our hearts. Madhu Jaiswal paints a vivid picture of nature and the festivity that comes with the occasion in her poem that she shared with Clips and Pages.
Photography: Sanchari Das
Durga Puja
The fresh smell of Shiuli all-around,
Adorning the grassland with its vibrant hue
Kash flowers sway
To the tunes of an autumn breeze
The blue skies and the dazzling sunshine
Let awaken the senses divine
Mystically
Tenderly
Touching the core of the heart
Implying a message that’s hard-hitting and true
Whatever it is, lies in the occurring times
Live and let live the message of humanity implied
The dhakis playing the tune of heart
Soliciting the benevolence of divinity
of Maa Durga on all
To bless the mankind
With her kind composure
That which is larger than life
Doshobhuja
Mohisasur Mordini
The significance of Femme Fatale
Pomp and grandeur
The puja galore
Celebrating the 5 days of feast and festivity
Laughter and smiles
Embellishing lives
With various conventions that culminate at the shore
Author’s Bio:
Madhu Jaiswal is a bilingual poet, writer and social worker hailing from the city of joy, Kolkata. She is an optimistic and compassionate person who believes in humanity and sharing smiles. She completely believes in the notion that penning down one’s thoughts is therapeutic to the soul. She is associated with The Impish Lass Publishing House, Mumbai in the capacity of an executive editor. Her creative contributions have been published in various national and international anthologies and she often gets featured in prestigious e-zines like Bonobology, Our Poetry Archive, Spillwords, Glomag, Setumag, Tuck magazine, Inspitale.com, Atunis poetry to name a few. She was recently featured in the prestigious anthology Aatish 2 alongside various stalwarts. The Kali Project, Roseate Sonnet anthology, The Muffled Moans are other much-applauded anthologies she got featured in. She bagged third prize in Beyond Black Sakhi Annual Poetry Awards 2019-2020. She is attached to a social group named Share A Smile and volunteers for social causes and upliftment of the destitute. According to her, hope, belief and perseverance are the powerful mantras that can pave our path towards success, no matter what. Her write-ups often revolve around these keywords.
Nature brings the message of Devi Durga’s arrival even before the Goddess starts her journey. We dance in joy long before Maa Durga steps on Earth. Writer Priyanka Bhuiya speaks for all of us when she expresses how Durga Puja is not just a festival, but a Profound Emotion. And we at Clips and Pages are proud to present her poem.
Photography: Sanchari Das
Profound Emotion
Scattered with wispy white soft cloud,
The Autumn sky, a profusion of blue;
The smell of Nyctanthes wafting in the air,
The ubiquitous sight of pervasive catkins,
That abundance of white against green,
Indelible beauty put on display by nature;
The air is filled with joy by Her approaching,
The time of coming back, returning home.
Religious tradition without discrimination,
Heartily worshipping the divine idol,
Hearing the music of the dhaakis,
Beat of drums mixed with nostalgic frenzy,
The gracious Goddess is on her throne;
Symbolizing the victory of good over evil,
Neither a festival, nor a mere custom,
Durga puja is an emotion, a profound sensation.
Author’s Bio:
Born and brought up at Kolkata, Priyanka Bhuiya graduated in Zoology from Calcutta University. By profession, she is a Technician at the Indian Railway and a freelance writer by passion. Priyanka loves to read and write. Her other passions includes photography, cycling, traveling, playing guitar and cricket.
Clips and Pages 