Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Bengalis add novelty to Dasara

VIJAYAWADA: Amidst chants of “Durga Matha ki Jai” and the rhythmic beats emanating from ‘Dhaks’, a traditional percussion instrument of West Bengal, the city’s Bengali community on Thursday took out a procession to immerse the idol of goddess Durga in the Krishna, marking the end of Navratri festivities.

The local Bengali community celebrated the festival with religious fervour and gaiety at the renovated Railway Institute, where hundreds of Bengali families from other parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh too took part in the regular puja and other programmes.

Sarbojanin Vijayawada Bengali Association members made elaborate arrangements for the puja in the most authentic manner, as done in West Bengal. The dazzling red dominated the interiors and the three idols were aesthetically placed on the stage for the devotees to pay their respects to the goddess.

“Bengali artists came to the city specially to design the idols. Priests from Bengal conducted rituals for five days. Sarbojanin Durga Puja means celebration of Dasara cutting across caste and creed,” said P. Guha, president of the association.

“This is the 32nd year when we had conducted the puja in Vijayawada. The local support was overwhelming,” said Arun Kumar Bhaduri, a committee member.

The festival witnessed special pujas and ‘arti’ along with cultural activities in the evenings. Magic show, a cultural show by the children from SKCV Trust, and a song and dance programme, which included singers from Hyderabad, were featured on all the five days.

On Wednesday night, singer Mohammad Khaja of Mayur, along with Priscilla, Rasool and Aziz from Hyderabad, enthralled the devotees by crooning several popular Hindi and Telugu songs.

The association conducted a poor feeding programme on Wednesday.

The association would perform Lakshmi puja on October 14 and Kali puja on October 28.

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