Our Pujo Their Christmas

Courtesy: Prabashi

I still vividly remember my first Christmas in London. The Indian Airlines flight IC 814 was hijacked on 24 December 1999, and I was on duty on the Christmas Day.

We were supposed to manage the holiday season - from the Christmas to the New Year, with skeleton staff. I was told that a cab would pick me up from home as there were no public transport on that day.

As I woke up on the Christmas Day, the place in West London where I lived seemed like a forbidden city. Few vehicles sped through the Great West Road, I couldn't see a single person on the streets and all the shops had their shutters down. It was a sort of  cultural shock for someone from Kolkata, where Christmas Days are specifically chosen for, party, picnic, feast and celebration.

The Asian cabbie who drove me to work told me that he was working since the night before as there were fewer drivers on the road.

"The White people generally do not work on a Christmas Day," he said, and it was a good opportunity for him to make a few bucks.

To my surprise he explained that Christmas was a very private affair in Britain and people generally visit their parents and the elderly relatives on that day, have quiet lunch and retire early to gear up for the Boxing Day Sale.

For someone from Kolkata, where every opportunity is for festivity and fun, it was a huge dampener.

My colleague and myself had to work flat out given the big story on board, with a bare minimum service available in the Bush House canteen and all the shops in Aldwych closed.

At the end of the day as another cabbie drove me past the Harrods in Kensington on my way home, I was a dejected soul. Expectations were high as 1999 was the last year of the millennium and I had thought that Christmas would be huge fanfare in Britain.

At the end of the day, the only luxury was my former colleague Vishnu Shankar and his wife Sabita Bhabi treating us with warm and delicious Indian cuisine and the company of their two lovely daughters Annapurna and Divya.

That was my first Christmas in London. Compare that with the din and bustle of the Christmas Day back home. And to compare the Christmas Day with the Durga Puja would be absolutely outlandish and bizarre.

Durga Puja is marked by all-round festivity. New dresses, delicious meals, pandal hopping, mouth-watering food, catching up with old friends and what not - the chains of control are taken over by uninterrupted merry-making.

Prabashi, a registered charity set up by a group of enthusiasts in Hounslow, wants to re-create that air of festivity and merry-making at a place which they call their second home. Their endeavour is to bring the East to the West so that one can complement the other.

Please visit the website of Prabashi (http://www.ukprabashi.org/) for more information, and join in the celebrations of the good over evil.

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