Well! That was a mistake! I'd read about Lakshmi puja, & Nandini had shared that it was a much more solemn occasion than Durja puja, so I took that to mean simpler. I was wrong.
There were almost 100 people invited - friends & colleagues from the other three members of the complex. I arrived right at 7, not wanting to be US too early or Indian too late, only to almost barge in on a beautiful ceremony being presented by a holy man, with incense clouds swirling around his head, & token rupee donations being blessed, conch horns blowing at certain moments, reverberating their different tones off the walls of the flat, sending sound waves tingling on your skin, your clothes. Baskets of fruit & bread lay around the makeshift alter & people bowed to the Goddess idol. (The large idol in the pandal remains there until tomorrow when she, too, will be taken to the river. Only then will the pandal be dismantled.) It was too sacred to take photos...
Next came dinner, or so I thought! A plate of grapefruit, banana, pomegranate, orange, fig, date, two sweets, nuts, apples & spice mixture was served to each guest on gold embossed plates while the eldest son of the household carried a lamp with soot from the alter & marked your forehead first with oil & then a vertical slash of inky soot. We sat & talked, people generously saying hello to me & starting up a wide variety of conversations. My "veranda neighbors", the Dey family, were there, so we sat together & talked a long while....then dessert arrived...or so I thought! It was a custard like mixture of over 20 fruits & nuts - cashews & almonds mostly - blended into a thick, creamy, not too sweet cup of yummy! Then they said, will you be eating dinner tonight? No, I said, this has been more than enough? Really, Ms. Dey, asked....but there's dinner for everyone downstairs & we'd love for you to join us! Boy was there more!
I ran upstairs to get silverware & bottled water just in case as they went down to reserve enough seats on a long woven mat used as a temporary dining room. The helpers attached to the complex - Anita, the housekeeper, the security man, the caretaker (for items like plumbing) were the primary servers, with the hired catering staff loading up gigantic buckets of food to serve.
Bengalis eat with their hands...not just using the wide variety of bread as utensils, but actually balling up the rice & sopping up the main entrees like a sponge. I've wanted to learn how to eat that way but have always been in a more formal, or professional setting, & didn't want to muck it up, spill or make a general fool of myself. The Dey family is very welcoming, though, as is Anita & the complex families, so I asked the Dey's son, who is 19, if his family would mind if I ate with my hands for the first time, explaining my reluctance in other settings. He paused, turned to his parents & said a couple of sentences in Bengali, then looked directly at me, smiling, and said, "You are cared for in this neighborhood, and very kind. This is a safe place to relax. Of course, eat like us!" So I did. Such a wonderful night.
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Yes, the galvanized steel cylindrical bucket he's carrying was the serving vessel - it had to hold at least two or three gallons of food!
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While having people hired to do tasks at the complex & flats is still an odd circumstance for me, they both seemed genuinely proud to be serving the efforts of their day & each wanted pictures with me to "send to the US to show how we celebrate in Kolkata!"
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This was the first plate...they brought around lochie -fried scrumptious hot sizzling bread, freshly steaming off of a wok filled with oil that was two feet across.
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They kept bringing more & more...I finally said no more to servings because its rude to not clean your plate & the plate kept reproducing helpings! Clockwise - the "noon" brownish red was main entree of carrots, potatoes, cashews, peppers, onions, chat marsala spices & red beans. The yellow is a Bengali specialty which translates into "hodgepodge", made only during the monsoon...kind of like our hot dish...dal, rice, herbs, little tiny nuts that are crunchy...made when its too hot & steamy to stand over an oven & cook separate courses. Then a lotchie with the tomato chutney ready to wrap around & eat. The brighter red is the tomato chutney @ 10 o'clock position. I'd not had it before - it was tangier than other lime or fruit chutneys, with more vinegar & large chucks of fresh tomatoes, chili peppers, almonds - very tasty!
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The Dey family & I enjoying our meal...their son was taking the photo
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