Dussehra Memmories.....

The breeze becomes cooler, the sun starts relenting, the music starts blaring a notch higher, happiness seems to be spreading its wings as everyone has a smile on thier face. This marks the onset of the Puja season. The season of Dusseraha, Kumar Purnima and Deepawali.

Dusseraha always has a habit of occurring at the best possible time for students, with no exams in sights for at least of couple of months. What good times does it bring?? Cousins come to visit, grand father and grandmothers decide to visit. Pocket money seems to increase. Shopping time for clothes and shoes. Sweet shops making colorful sweets in Pink and Orange and showcasing them on the road. Somehow, it never mattered to us if they were exposed to flies and dust the whole day. In short you can say everything that is good can be associated with the Puja.

The visit to friends places was of course mandatory and this being Puja you arrived resplendent in your new tailored clothes and shoes or slippers. Slowly there was a common place where all friends gathered starting from 4 PM. Loads of important debates were held. Mind you the debates of NDTV did not stand a chance with our debates being hard fought, neither side giving an inch to the other in the debate. Finally there used to be uneasy calm that would descend and the debate would be pushed to the back burner as the sun had set and the time to see the "Medha's" was fast approaching. After the last latecomers had arrived, a quick calculation of the total money available was done. It never mattered then, if one of the friends did not have any money, the others would readily agree to bear the share of his expense because this was Puja....the equivalent of Christmas .....and the air has a spirit of giving in it.

Cycles would have been already oiled properly and double riding would begin with the double riders periodically switching places. I marvel at the stamina we had then as a round trip of the whole cuttack city was normally done. Of course, it was not a non stop ride....We were not racing...we used to paddle around at leisure...Stop near each "Medha", near each Melody or Orchestra....listen to the beautiful rendition of oriya as well as Hindi block buster chart toppers......Then if one among us caught sight of a pretty girl....then that was the icing on the cake.....and if the girl returned a smile.....the cherry was placed on top of the icing......The cycle gang would follow the girl even though the girl was travelling towards the street where you had already seen the "Medhas"...who cared....the legs were not tired....they could afford another trip that road...and of course there was another smile on offer.....Finally the girl would speed off on her scooty or on the back seat of her dad/elder brothers bike....and the cycle gang would reluctantly have to return...

Famished by this chase, everyone would be on the lookout for some refreshments.....Gupchup Thela Gaadi in view.....park your cycles and queue up for some delicious GupChups.....followed by one full plate of Dahi Bara.....with a Soda bottle to down it all.......Stomachs satiated....we would all head out to the location having our favourite Melody Parties....and listen....to the songs......This used to be the routine for all of us....for the 3 days of Dusseraha....

Its been nearly 7 years...since I saw a Dusserah in Cuttack.....Cuttack has changed so much these days....This time I have several of my friends deciding to meet in Cuttack for Dusserah....but I could not make it.........so no holidays for me....Miss those days....and miss my friends....Hopefully I will catch sight of all the Medha's courtesy my friends who would post the pics on FB......