Durga Puja is celebrated in various parts of India in different styles.
The main aim of this celebration is to propitiate Shakti, the Goddess of power, to bestow upon man all wealth, auspiciousness, prosperity, knowledge (both sacred and secular), and all other potent powers.
Aikatan, a recreation club established in 1983 in Vijayanagar, will celebrate Durga puja with great enthusiasm this year.
The club which is trying to bring to the people of Bangalore the principle of Rabindranath Tagore ‘Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,’ will celebrating Durga Puja at Vasavi Maha Kalyan Mantapa in Raja Rajeshwari Nagar, South Bangalore from October 20 to October 24.
Dr Prabath Kumar Saha, the president of Aikatan Club says that Durga idols cannot be prepared locally, so he has brought down an artisan Sri Tarun Pal from Kolkata specially for the event.
Bengalis celebrate Durga puja in a slightly different way. They think that Devi Durga (Uma) is the daughter of West Bengal.
They feel the presence of their mothers within their daughters. Durga lives in the Himalayas with her husband Lord Shiva.
Durga Puja which is also known as Navaratri commences on the first and ends on the tenth day of the bright half of Ashina (September to October).
It is held in commemoration of the victory of Devi Durga over Mahishasura, the buffalo-headed demon.
Her image is worshipped for nine days and then cast into water.
The tenth day is called Dasara. Processions with her image are taken out on the streets of villages and cities.