Shubho MahaNabami 🙂 The 9th day of “debi pakkha” or “the Navratri”!

Pujo fervour in Kolkata, every year goes an extra mile. Brilliantly lit up streets and pandals with expert creativity and grandeur is only getting bigger and better with every passing year.

My last post was about getting prepped for the Durga Pujo Celebrations, considering the beauty part.

Durga Pujo practically becomes an unofficial fashion show, where the saying by Coco Chanel, “Every day is your fashion show and the world is your runway.” fits so well into the lives of Bengalis.

It’s a treat to eyes to see the people around, it’s a pleasure to notice the minute details taken care of by all the beautiful women and handsome men.

Right from the kids to the teenagers to the young women and men to the mid-aged pandal hoppers to the elegant older generation, everyone presents themselves at their best.

This would be a majorly the pictorial blog post presenting the Pujo fervour in Kolkata and the certain capture of Pujo fashion.

I asked Soumosri (a forever Kolkata lady), to decode her Durga Pujo style statement. This what she has to say, “Style is an expression of individualism, mixed with Charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style” For me fashion is modernity and style is eternity, hence this pujo – Durga pujo 2017 was all about being eternal ethnic. Being a quintessential bong, my love for handloom is unconditional and unavoidable. So this pujo, handloom ruled my wardrobe almost everyday, except the days when I was too tired to wear sarees.
Needless to say my love for saree is inevitable and everlasting ,as I believe, saree is one attire which can mould your look accordingly. It can make you look smart, modern, ethnic, royal, sexy and what not. It entirely depends on how one drapes the saree and matches the jewellery. My style of draping saree is a bit different. I like it a bit loose, instead of the pallu being pleated and draped to perfection ( in Bengali we say “Aluthalu” looks). This year my sarees had a range from linen gamcha, khadi cotton, gheecha etc. This year pujo was full of experience, so I tried experiencing with a black sleeveless crop top with a black Ajwani printed half and half saree, and the outcome was quite widely appreciated. Coming to jewellery, my eyes and efforts are always on big bold junk earrings rather than a set of ear and neck piece. That big dangler earpiece just adds upto the charisma of the saree look. And another quintessential saree look is never complete without that big bold bindi and those kohl-smeared eyes.”

Share with me your Pujo style pics or your Pujo special moments in Kolkata through #bloggersDurgaPujo and @the.aesthetic.goodtimes and those would be featured in this blog.

Every year, I get to read this post, quoted by Vir Sanghvi, “A man in Delhi once asked me “What is so special about Durga Puja In Kolkata? It’s just as big as Diwali is here in the North”. I simply smiled and replied ‘You have no idea’. Waiting for my late evening flight to Mumbai at the airport, I thought that there probably isn’t any festival in any city in the world that can match Kolkata’s Puja in intensity. You can take the craze of Diwali in Delhi, Christmas in London, summer carnival in Rio de janeiro, Valentine’s day in Paris and then add it to the month-long madness of Olympic Games or the world cup and cram all that into a span of 5 days and you still wouldn’t know what you are missing if you haven’t been in Kolkata during Durga Puja”

And myself being a Probashi Bengali, who manages to be in Kolkata during Pujo every year since last 12 years, definitely, agree to what Vir Sanghvi mentioned. Before I read that, I always tell all my friends irrespective of their origin and linguistic aspect, “you must visit Kolkata atleast once during Durga Pujo; it would be a lifetime experience.”

 

 

Durga Pujo is celebrated with immense joy and enthusiasm by Bengalis all over the world. Join Four bloggers from four different parts of the country as they bring to you a kaleidoscope of festive fervour in the form of blog posts and videos for an entire week. We hope to entertain, inform and enthrall you in a quest to involve everyone in our moment of joy. I am happy to be one of the co-creators for this creative team called #bloggersDurgaPujo

Let’s have a look at how the 4 bong bloggers associated with #bloggersDurgaPujo styled themselves 😉