Dasara has different connotations in each state. It means different things to different people. While some celebrate it in the traditional manner, performing pujas on all nine days of the Navratri, some find it an occasion to catch up with relatives and friends. A look at how people from different regions see Dasara.
C Parthasarathi
Information commissioner
Dasara is a unique festival for my family. We have the various rituals surrounding the festival, but the 'bommala koluvu' is special. Performing puja on all nine days is a must for our family. For the children though attending Dandia concerts, meeting friends and making merry is more attractive.
"I come from Armoor in Nizamabad, where Dasara is an occasion to meet friends and relatives, embrace each other after exchanging the shammi leaf and pay our respects to elders. A variety of sweets and savories are prepared, besides a lavish feast on Vijaya Dasami. A chariot of Lord Venkateswara is taken around Armoor in a procession. Besides this, the colourful are made batukammas and women sing and dance around them. It mandatory to buy clothes for Dasara.
The grandeur of Dasara in the villages is not there in the cities.
Ananda Shankar Jayant,
Dancer choreographer
I celebrate Dasara at two levels. One, I look at it as the triumph of good over evil. Two, it's an occasion to rededicate oneself one to one's art. I feel that Dasara is an time to pay one's respect to one's art and craft. I perform the usual rituals and puja on all days of the Navaratri. As an artiste, I also perform a puja to the instruments of my art. Saraswati puja during Navaratri holds a special significance for me. It is the day of Vidyarambham and new students are inducted into the art on this day.
Shankar Melkote,
Actor director, Little Theatre
I'm not a great believer in rituals. We have a special feast on Dasara day. I also celebrate it by giving clothes and a bonus to my staff. It is an occasion to meet up with my friends. A few of my Muslim friends call on me and we invite them home for the feast.
Swathi Reddy,
Communication professional
In my village in Keshavpuram in Telangana, Dasara is an occasion for the whole community to get together. We used to go to the temple and make an offering to goddess Durga. A great feast is held. But all that was twenty years ago in my village. Here in Hyderabad, employers do not sanction leave for the festival. All we get to do is gather at a relative's place and eat until we can't move.
Minal Vakhariya, member of the Andhra Pradesh Gujarati Samaj
For the Gujarati community in Hyderabad, Dasara is about recreating the colours of Gujarat in Hyderabad. The Navaratris are a time of pomp and spleandour at various clubs and garba venues in the city.
The Gujarati community in Hyderabad gathers around five main venues and holds 'yagans' during the 10day long festival culminating in Dasara. This year being Swarnim Gujarat, the 50th year of the Gujarat state, we are celebrating Dasara in a grand fashion.
We Gujaratis celebrate the coming of Dasara with nine nights of Dandiya and Garba.
The fervour of the festival can be felt days ahead of the main festival. While Navaratri is traditionally important to the Gujarati community, Dasara is more about going to friends' places to greet them and spend a day relaxing after doing thje Garba till the early morning hours for nine nights. Most of the Garba and Dandiya venues have the Swarnim Gujarat theme this year.
Sabyasachi Roy Choudhury, member, Bengalis in Hyderabad
The DasaraDurga Puja period is when a Bengali returns to his roots. The ten days of celebration marks the homecoming of Durga to her parents' house. It's a massive social event for Bengalis living in Hyderabad. There are at least 20 different locations in the city where Durga Puja is celebrated, the prominent ones being Charminar, Banjara Hills, Sainikpuri, Cyberabad and Secunderabad.
The community celebrates Bengali cuisine, books, cassettes and clothes at the puja pandals. Cultural festivals are held in the evenings at the Durga Puja pandals where members of the community converge in their best traditional attire. On Dasara day, the idols of Durga are immersed following which people meet each other and exchange greetings, sweets and best wishes for the year ahead.
Vinay Saboo, businessman
For Maharashtrians living in Hyderabad, this is a time of the year when they can once again lay their hands on puranpolis. It is an opportunity to reconnect with our traditions and enjoy the flavours of home. Dasara is mythologically associated with the victory of good over evil and is celebrated with a lot of fervour in the Maharashtrian community. A special lunch is prepared and we meet our elders and offer them the 'golden leaf' as a mark of respect. We take their blessings. Dressing up in traditional wear is an integral part of the Dasara celebrations here.
Usharani, soft engineer
I live in Hyderabad, I come from Bangalore and I'm married into a family from Chennai. So my Dasara celebrations are a mix of the traditions of the three places. Mostly, I practice traditions I grew up with in Karnataka. We have a custom of exhibiting toys during Dasara.
When we were kids, we used to barge into anybody's house in the neighborhood to look at their collection of toys. Singing in each house that we went to was compulsory. Of course, now only nostalgia remains.
We celebrate all the nine days of the festival. I visit the Utharadhimata where everyone gathers to worship the 'Shami' tree. I have gathered a few customs from my friends from northern Karnataka as well. But all said and done, Dasara is a reason to socialize. I try to meet up with everyone whom I know during this week.
There is also a tradition of offering fruits to the goddess on all the nine days of Navaratri. The same fruit cannot be offered twice in these nine days. Then there is Ayudha puja and Saraswati puja which are similar to customs practised in Andhra Pradesh.
I catch up with friends who play Kolata, a dance form from Karnataka. I attend Yakshagana performances.