It is now raining here in New York.
It is the peak time on the four-day Durga Puja celebration. We went to a Bangladeshi Hindu temple last night, and absorbed as much fun and music and spirituality as possible, being outsiders. They even invited me to sing a couple of songs.
But, on this morning, we are back to reality again. Not even a remote aura of any festivity in this capital city of the so-called American diversity. Dhaaks (drums) won’t be heard. No decorating lights will be seen anywhere. No Indians or Bengalis will be seen walking on the street in their festive dresses; in fact, we practically never buy anything special at this time. Not a single news item on CNN or New York Times or local media about this wonderful, colorful religious and cultural show.
I am not a “religious” person in the conservative sense: in fact, I am as anti-fundamentalist as possible. But Hinduism is a critically important part of my identity, and I am not anti-religion at all. Especially this immigrant life is so intense with alienation that religion often is essential to hang on to our identity. Just like Tagore, Ravi Shankar, Bengali poetry, Satyajit Ray, or even Hindi film songs.
Life in USA is impossibly bereft and empty, when it comes to mainstream compassion or understanding of our history, tradition, and culture. On these special days, watching on Indian TV channels the incredible, rich social gathering of millions of people of all religions, castes and classes, it feels like I am standing on an American street, homeless and naked.
I am shivering in this cold emptiness. Indian or American media won’t tell our real-life stories.
Durga Puja in This So-called Land of Diversity
They never report on the P’s – Polite, Peaceful and Powerless. It looked like beautiful celebration
Thank you. Hope you can come with your friends and family to these celebrations. Let me know.
Did you try contacting any type of media before you held this year’s celebration? Or maybe there is a way that you could start a petition for there to be more coverage by the media of the different cultural celebrations.
Here in Belfast, we have finally gotten rid of celebrating Columbus Day, and now we call it Indigenous People’s Day, and we will spend the whole day recognizing our native peoples’ history and culture. We made this happen by petitioning our town council.
I have asked many times, unsuccessfully, the people who organize these events. They don’t care. Neither do the U.S. media and their journalists, some of whom know me personally. Only a handful of friends have done online stories, and that’s about it.