Diwali and Kali Puja

Mrinal Chatterjee

Window Seat

As autumn deepens, India illuminates in a spectacular celebration of faith, though the essence of the festival shifts beautifully depending on where you stand and what you celebrate. While most of the north and west of the country celebrates Diwali, the grand festival of lights, parts of eastern India including Odisha, West Bengal and Assam simultaneously observe Kali Puja. Though both occur on the dark moon night (Amavasya), their spiritual meanings and legendary roots are distinct.

Diwali primarily celebrates the triumph of righteousness and inner light. Its most prominent legend follows Lord Rama’s return to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana. The citizens lit rows of clay lamps (diyas) to welcome their king, a tradition that evolved into welcoming Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity, into clean, brightly lit homes.

In contrast, Kali Puja shifts the focus from gentle prosperity to intense spiritual transformation. It commemorates the cosmic fury of Goddess Kali, who manifested to destroy the rampaging demon Raktabeeja. According to legend, Kali became so intoxicated by the slaughter that she danced a dance of destruction, threatening the universe. To calm her, Lord Shiva lay in her path; upon stepping on her husband, she stuck out her tongue in sudden realization and shame, halting her fury.

While Diwali seeks peace, wealth, and domestic harmony, Kali Puja confronts darkness directly, celebrating the raw power that destroys ego and ignorance to pave the way for ultimate enlightenment.

 Bandhna Parab

Bandhna Parab is an ancient harvest and cattle-worship festival celebrated by indigenous agrarian communities like the Kudmi, Santhal, Munda, and Bhumij across West Bengal, Odisha and the Chota Nagpur plateau. It coincides with the Diwali and Kartik Amavasya period. The festival honors the profound relationship between humans, animals, and nature.

Families clean their homes, meticulously bathe and groom their livestock. Cattle horns are anointed with oil and vermilion, and the animals are garlanded and fed special rice cakes. The festival is filled with Ahira folk songs, the thunderous beats of Madal drums, traditional dances, and symbolic games like Gorukhuta, creating a heartfelt thanksgiving ceremony for the animals that sustain agricultural life.

As part of the festival families usually paint exterior walls with natural pigments. Over time, a distinct wall art form has emerged cantered around this festival in the Purulia district of West Bengal.

This art is not painted. Right after the wall is plastered with fresh wet mud, women press their fingertips into the soft mud to carve these patterns. No extra colour is added later, it stays like this. The beauty is in the natural colour of the mud and the light and shadow on it.

Photo: Sukhen Paramanik

Our Pathetic Civic Sense

It is pathetic! The way we treat our public facilities in most parts of the country (some north-eastern states like Sikkim, Meghalaya and Mizoram are exceptions) is disgusting. And then we expect world class services!

This is a water kiosk, set up at the roadside near Gatikia area in Bhubaneswar, the capital and smart city of Odisha in 2017. Within ten years, it stands non-functional, the nozzle has been taken away, the cladding ripped off, the façade dirtied and plastered with random advertisements.

Go to any railway station and see the 'drinking water' outlets. See how people are using them to brush their teeth, spit, throw food waste into it, and then buy plastic water bottles, drink from the bottle and throw the empty bottle on the platform littering it.

Go to any public toilet, in nine out of ten places you would find it unusable. People do not even take the trouble of flushing it.

When people treat public facilities like this, unscrupulous babus and contractors build them accordingly- it would be non-functional soon. And then build another. It follows a familiar loop pattern.

And we expect to have world class public space!