Monday, October 06, 2003
Durga Puja-Trip to Frankfurt
6:00 AM I wake up to the irritating sound of the alarm. By the time it is 6:30 I am in the kitchen. I cooked Pravannam and offered Naivedyam to the Goddess Durga. It is about 7:35 in the morning and I am in the bus stop. It is a bit cold and the town is still sleeping. I reach the Rathaus (City centre) and a brisk 10 minutes walk takes me to Hoptbahnof-the main railway station. I joined friends in Kaiserslautern station,we catch a train at 8:30 reach Manheim, change train and reach FRA. A 20 minute walk and we reach Salbau a function hall. The Bengalis have put up a Durga Puja function here.
Far away from motherland this was the first place of worship I have visited. The Idols of Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesh, Karthikeya imported from Calcutta looked beautiful and whole scene transported me to India. The women folk were busy making preparations for the puja. Festive atmosphere around, people clad in traditional Indian attire reminded me of Durga Puja festival organised in the TTD kalyana mantapam near my home in Vizag.
The Bengalis install a plantain as the consort of Ganapati. This was a discovery for me. I sat there praying for some time. People going around on various errands, some smiled at us some exchanged polite greetings.
A gentle man then asked us if we could help them in the kitchen. Amit, Renu and I volunteered to help. We spent the next two hours peeling potatoes and kushmandam (gummadi kaya), cutting them. A couple from the organisers were the only other people in the kitchen most of the time. One or two women came in cut a little ginger and disappeared. A lady came in to take something and complained that the kitchen was too crowded. A top official in Infosys (in charge of North American and European operations) was the only other person we saw working in the kitchen. A Ph.D from UC Berkley, this guy was quite simple and friendly. Some one was heard saying that the potatoes were cut too big. My friends chuckled.
Amongst the crowd were some Muslims possibly Pakistanis who came to join their Bengali friends. We also saw a European woman married to a Bengali man, who could speak Bengali, and must have prepared the tasty chole and some of the sweet items served.
We watched the puja and after a 30 min break went back to the kitchen. Another 30 min and we had finished cutting the veggies. We went out of function hall explored the neighbourhood and had a little walk along the bank of river Main that flowed through Frankfurt. A few swans, a rowing boat, traffic on a bridge further up, shining waters, a few pictures and we came back to the hall. The lunch was being served. We joined the people and had a nice lunch, said our goodbyes and were back on our way to the railway station.
We spent half an hour in the market streets near the station which was full of Asian stores. Indians, Pakistanis, Europeans, a lot of strange looking people and drug addicts, a strange mix observed on the streets.
We took a train back home at quarter past five. To my unpleasant surprise the train was worse than a general bogie in a 3rd world country when it came to passenger amenities like.. Ah! Lets cut the crap.. Toilets were all locked up with a poster on them saying that they were defunct.. And only one compartment on the other end of the train had a toilet that was not defunct. The less I speak about this functional one the better it is. So next time you are displeased with Indian Railways think a little before you pass a comment on its inefficiency and lack of cleanliness!!! At least they don’t make people with heavy bladders run in search for a toilet. The fare on a normal day costs 30€ (a 10th part of air fare from Ind to Ger) which makes the quality of service substandard by all standards.
Some Pictures
