Hypocrisy and Nari Shakti

Kajal Chatterjee
Though all festivals are supposed to bring joy to all sections of the society, the fact remains that "celebrations" like Durga Puja provide a "nice" platform for the rich and upper-middle classes to flaunt their  wealth in the form of attire, jewellery and what not.
The hullabaloo revolving the festival seems more barbaric due to the fact that scores of poor people, especially children, who cannot afford to have a new dress or two square meals a day, have no role in the celebrations but simply left to glare at the festivities and fun, relished by the upper classes, from their shanties or footpaths.
In West Bengal, Durga Puja is celebrated with much fanfare.Though I prefer to remain at a far distance from the Puja hype just because of the exhibition of rampant inequalities, still I often find myself left with no other option but to succumb to the social and family pressure and go out pandal-hopping. A couple of years ago as I was approaching a pompous and glamorous Durga Puja pandal in South Kolkata at midnight; I noticed a bare-bodied boy, hardly 9 or 10 years of age, sleeping right on the hard surface of a street. Perhaps he was an orphan or went on to sleep in a starved stomach. And surrounding the boy, millions were teeming past in a festive spirit or enjoying snacks on road-side stalls. Though I had ventured out not for enjoying myself, but only due to social compulsions; though I was not directly responsible for the woes of the poor child; still that violent heartless barbaric scene will continue to haunt my imagination and conscience till the last day of my life.
On one hand, we will refer to Durga Puja as 'Sarbojanin' (encompassing all); but on the other, a clear demarcation line will be drawn whereby the minority privileged group will enjoy a field day while the overwhelming unprivileged lot will continue their fight against starvation and poverty!  Durga Puja, and almost all festivals, is nothing but an alien concept for these poor folks who remain the absolute silent majority in India.
Perhaps it would not be out of context if we recall Rabindranath Tagore's short story 'Kabuliwala' in this perspective. Though the marriage ceremony is not a religious festival, it is still an occasion of joy and display of barbaric wealth(who can afford to splurge). In the said story, the bridegroom of Mini's father donated an amount to the poor fruit-trader Rahmat Khan so that he can return to Afghanistan to meet her daughter after several years. In the process, band-parties and lighting could not be organised during Mini's marriage; but the heart of Mini's father glowed with much more vigour and lightened up his horizon. Similarly, only if we cut down our expenditure, sacrifice a little and donate our honest cash or kind to the unfortunate lot so as to include them also in our joy; can the festivals return to its purest divine form and find its real significance.
Last but not the least. While Durga Puja gets projected as symbol of "Nari Shakti" with the spirit being "triumph of good over evil" ; yet at the end of the day the fact remains that it is nothing but a mere cover-up of the daily atrocities meted to women folks in the country reminding us of the adage "Empty vessels sound much".