Part 1

For Ritabhari, durga puja was more of a work showcasing phase than an actual holiday. There was very little of bingeing on street food (she lives in Kolkata that’s famous for this), not much of shopping (Kolkata is equally famous for pre durga puja shopping too) and precious little time for extended gossip sessions (another speciality of the city of joy). What she had in abundance was however lots and lots of pandal sightseeing, long hours of touring the city and her bulky canon camera as her friend. You see, Ritabhari was a photographer and she always got super busy in Puja’s as her editor invariably put her on some or the other Pujo parikrama assignment where she was supposed to click pictures of assigned pandals and the surrounding cornucopia. So for her pujo meant sensible clothes and shoes (so that her feet weren’t tired), sensible food (couldn’t afford to fall sick during the festive season and real long hours of crowd battling. Despite all this dusky skinned doe eyed Ritabhari loved her job….she had fought long and hard with her folks to be allowed to take up photography as a profession. I wish my editor gives in to my long pending request this Pujo she thought as she headed off to office.