Rangoli Journal

Four or five days after Dashami the house does its own puja. It is a quieter occasion than anything in the week before —...

The saree came through six days of pandal-hopping, one anjali, and in all likelihood some sindoor. What happens to it this week decides whether...

Vijaya Dashami was yesterday. The pandals are coming down, the sarees are going back into their cotton wrappers, and most people will now buy...

Vijaya Dashami, 20 October. The goddess goes home.Darpan visarjan in the morning, sindoor khela through the day, mishti and embraces and asche bochor abar...

Maha Navami, 19 October. The last full day, and everybody knows it.Navami has a mood the other days do not. The crowds are enormous,...

Maha Ashtami, 18 October. The most important day of the six, and the one every purchase since August has been aimed at.Three separate occasions...

Saptami, 17 October. Before dawn, the nabapatrika — nine plants bound together, banana at the centre — is taken to the river, bathed, dressed...

Today is Shashthi, 16 October, and this evening is bodhon — the ritual awakening, when the covering comes off the idol's face and the...