Your food, my food

I am pretty excited about pendal hopping for Durga Puja. I know it is not Kolkatta but I will take whatever I get as my first experience of Durga Puja in  Delhi – the dhak, dhunachi, the dance, the merrymaking, and most importantly the food. Started the planning already by joining a pre-Durga Puja guided walk (more about it here) and googling for lists of ‘do not to miss’ pendals and food items.

Although Bengali Durga Puja is about the goddess and coincides with the Navaratri celebrated in North India, it has a completely different ethos. Navaratri is about fasting while food, dressing up, and merrymaking are the integral part of Pujo. These are both Hindu people celebrating Hindu festival but the practices are completely different. During the pre-Durga Puja walk a north Indian couple of foodies were telling me about how difficult it is for them during pendal hopping as they see all this wonderful food but can’t touch it as they don’t eat non-veg (meat, seafood) during Navaratri. They were at the pre-Durga Puja walk so that they could eat what they would otherwise miss during the actual celebrations.

In the popular media however, there is utter ignorance about other communities living in such close proximity. Not just ignorance but belief that their version of the Navaratri is The Hindu version of what happens during the nine days.

A comment on article about ‘not to miss food items during Pujo’ ridicules the author for mentioning non-veg dishes. “How can you be stupid to add this during these days. Don’t you know people don’t eat non-veg during this time?” is the general tone in many places on the internet as Bengali people remind sommenters that for Bengalis the rules are different. The bhog for the goddess includes illish, the fish most favourite of the bongs.

On this background I read the news today that a consortium of 22 Hindu groups has threatened to force shut all meat shops in Gurugram (Gudgaon) during the festival of Navaratri. Shivsena, one of the member of the consortium, has gathered 125 members to coax or coerce meat shop owners to comply. First of all what is Shivsena doing in Gurgaon of all the places. It is a local organization from Maharashtra. Secondly, who gave them permission to decide what people should or should not eat during Navaratri.

I am not quite sure if this is being portrayed as a religious thing – Hindus vs other meat eating religions. It is wrong even then. However, it is worse as one way of being a Hindu is being touted as The way. How about look just a few miles away in Chittaranjan park, shops brimming with mutton and fish readying themselves for Durga Puja. Those are Hindus too. That is also a ‘traditional’ way to be a hindu.

This monolithic image of a Hindu being touted and enforced with threat of violence is the most dangerous thing about the right wing spread.  I always thought that acknowledging the different practices of Hindus makes them open to live with people of other religions peacefully and participate in their celebrations.  If we loose sight of the colourful diverse canvas of hindu practices and our ethos of celebrating each one, there is no hope left for harmony among religions.