ফিরে দেখা বসন্তপঞ্চমী

To me… it is a day to celebrate LOVE

                                                                       -        Anindita Jaiswal Jaishiv

Maa Saraswati, as we all know, symbolizes knowledge and arts. And so, we get busy offering our excerpts of academic texts and notes, books and works of skills to seek her blessings on the profound day of Basant Panchami or Saraswati Puja. A day that glitters in the colour “yellow” from marigold flowers, crispy yellow sarees and kurtas, to lip smacking “khichudi, labra and elish maach”. Ironically, this day marked to celebrate knowledge is awaited yearlong for sneaking out of study rooms and books, as a break to the regular routine and elderly reprimands of “porte bosh”. So where do all these free minds engage in ??

This brings me to another significance of this deity- worshipped as goddess of “love”. While we all have crossed the phase when our parents have made us pray on this day to be bestowed with more knowledge, higher scores, and better ranks in education and arts, seldom has it happened that they sought for us blessings of love from the goddess, seldom has this auspicious day been celebrated as a day to exchange love.  Love, that is incomprehensible, and which can at best be described by its forms and attributes- unqualified, unconditional and far from materialism. Yes, many of these will make my readers raise their eyebrows and sound unrealistic and utopian to them. But then, is it not the utopian that we always aspire for- the best of education, the best of career, the best of comforts and lifestyle, the best of success…then why not the best of love?

Let me share some of such best instances of love that has marked this day (often outside Kolkata) in my life…

-        That little yellow and red saree which I have treasured all my childhood- a gift from my parents on Saraswati Puja when I was just three years old, and which they had arranged for after sacrificing small and big pleasures of their life during not so lavish times then.

-        That smeared mark of “altaa” which my grandmother painted around my little feet while dressing me up as a miniature of the goddess.

-        Those fights with my elder brother as regards whose decoration around the idol was better, and making those finest arrangements for the “barir pujo” along with our father.

-        That first attempt to fry “beguni” as my mother held my hand lest the oil spills and I burn myself.

-        Those evenings sitting in pandals after the puja sharing the latest highlights with friends amidst some banging Bollywood numbers, while feasting on “alu kalbi”, “phuchka” and “chaat”.

-        And next morning, waking up to “dodhikarma” sumptuously prepared and relished together with whole of the family before returning to the usual routine.

All of the above small but fond remembrances of this day resonating love, which often go unnoticed, followed me to my adulthood so as to reaffirm my belief in this day.  The first gift I got from my husband (then a friend) was a frame of goddess Saraswati- a token of love that blossomed only later. This was in 2017, a year that marks an eternal journey of love in my life that commenced on the Basant Panchami, and I realized why this day is also referred to as the “valentine’s day” for Bengalis.

Hence, I would urge all new and to be new parents to not miss out on these remarkable gestures of Saraswati Puja while bringing their children up- teaching them the lesson of love, be it with parents, family, friends, peer, that special one, or humanity at large; inspiring them to fall in love with the work that they do; motivating them to a life of passion and simplicity, not of convenience; nurturing relations of depth which make them cry; and gifting them with a moments that are loved and remembered fondly, and not just lived.  Let us first and then help our next generation to learn the meaning of love from scratch – a conception we have lost amidst the jugglery of our lives. 

On this day 22 January 2018, let us vow to live and love boundless….