Monday, October 5, 2009
Visit to Home During Puja Holidays
Ever since I stepped out of the cocoon called home to study Engineering at a different place, it has almost become a ritual for me to look for the holiday list after getting the annual calendar in the new year.Then the expert eyes would start making permutations and combinations to fill in the gap between seemingly consecutive holidays to produce a contiguous long one with the help of French Leaves . Since our institute followed the maintenance of stipulated number of Net Instructional Days very religiously, there were very few unscheduled holidays. Mass - Bunking was a big No-No as there was this fear of delay in the semester completion which would ultimately result in prolongation of the course duration. No company was expected to wait long er than usual for admitting the new recruits. So mass bunking during my time in my institute was not without the fear of jeopardising one's career. Therefore , these consecuting holidays appearing on the calendar coupled with a few french leaves (without allowing the attendance to drop below 85%) were my only road to making home bound trips other than during the semester breaks. Even though my college was at a place 170 Kilo Meters away from my home town, the very idea of having endless hours of gossip with sisters in the comfort of home and not being forced to gulp the almost unpalatable food provided in the hostel, never failed to entyce me. Even after so many years of leaving hostel, getting married and settled in job , the same hankering for a block of leave and going home to spend them still continues. Earlier I used to think, may be, my going to hostel at the tender age of 16+ or getting married at a young age of 19+ has contributed to this hankering. But later on I realised every Indian married lady, whether working outside or houswife, feels the same way about going to her parents' place.
Since I have always been posted outside my home state, I always depend upon the strategic combination of holidays under NI act and casual leaves or previlege leaves to go home. Now ofcourse situation is little different from college days. That time there were no luxury of CL, PL or Sick Leave. But then I had to only take care of my own requirements. Now a trip is planned only when my husband, my son and I, all three of us are free. And Durga Puja time in the state of West Bengal is one such occasion when the state almost comes to a standstill as far as work is considered. So puja vacation gives you an opportunity to have a long holiday. Thus almost every year during the Durga Puja celebrations, I make a beeline for my parent's place with family. When the whole of Kolkata is abuzz with activities, excitement and thrill before the Durga Puja, I have another excitement added to it, the excitement of home-coming....which starts from the day of booking the reservations. Enquiries from parents and sisters start pouring in from the month of August itself. Since all my sisters are also working and stay in the same city, they make arrangements well in advance so that we get to spend maximum time with each other. Every one goes into a gift-buying spree keeping others choices in mind.
This year too we went to Orissa to spend the vacation on a 10-day long trip. As usual I had a wonderful time at home. All the gossips which were not already disected through phone, were put on table over cups and cups of steaming aromatic tea with fried snacks. The hassle-free movie watching condition at Non-Metros were fully exploited. Even though I am not much of a pandal-hopper, still I accompanied my mother in visting a few pandals to seek blessings of Maa Durga resplendent in her attire. Even though I had carried a lot of novels to read in case I got time, I could not even unpack them from the suitcase. There was no fixed time for getting up from sleep in the morning. Special delicacies were being prepared every day by mother's cook who like Anatole is God's another gift to gastric juice. My parents who are always under the impression that I do not get enough to eat in Kolkata, make it a point to overfeed me which invariable results in making me heavier by a few pounds by the end of the holidays. Great luncheons were hosted by my brother-in-laws at the best hotels. My son had an even more enjoyable time, spending with his cousins. No one left any stone unturned to make our vacation an extremely enjoyable one.
With no office to attend , not having to get up in the morning and no botheration of managing the house, holidays were period of absolute bliss in the company of near and dear ones. But like all good things, Puja Holidays also came to end. With a heavy heart, I started packing for our return. Every one started asking about my next visit to orissa as I was thinking of Maa Durga's next visit to earth coming year.
This year too we went to Orissa to spend the vacation on a 10-day long trip. As usual I had a wonderful time at home. All the gossips which were not already disected through phone, were put on table over cups and cups of steaming aromatic tea with fried snacks. The hassle-free movie watching condition at Non-Metros were fully exploited. Even though I am not much of a pandal-hopper, still I accompanied my mother in visting a few pandals to seek blessings of Maa Durga resplendent in her attire. Even though I had carried a lot of novels to read in case I got time, I could not even unpack them from the suitcase. There was no fixed time for getting up from sleep in the morning. Special delicacies were being prepared every day by mother's cook who like Anatole is God's another gift to gastric juice. My parents who are always under the impression that I do not get enough to eat in Kolkata, make it a point to overfeed me which invariable results in making me heavier by a few pounds by the end of the holidays. Great luncheons were hosted by my brother-in-laws at the best hotels. My son had an even more enjoyable time, spending with his cousins. No one left any stone unturned to make our vacation an extremely enjoyable one.
With no office to attend , not having to get up in the morning and no botheration of managing the house, holidays were period of absolute bliss in the company of near and dear ones. But like all good things, Puja Holidays also came to end. With a heavy heart, I started packing for our return. Every one started asking about my next visit to orissa as I was thinking of Maa Durga's next visit to earth coming year.
Well, holidays are over and it is now time to get back to work and join the humdrums of home-office-home. But then if there would have been no work, would the holidays have felt so great. So decided to work hard after the rejuvenating vacation so that I can party harder the next time....
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep."
-- Robert Frost
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