Half the year has passed, and the biggest festival in India is Durga Puja, and in Kolkata, Durga Puja is celebrated at a different level. If you get time, search how Durga Puja is in Kolkata, and you will know that it is not just Durga Puja there. It becomes a complete festival and a very big one. The festival Durga Puja is celebrated a lot here, and when Durga Puja comes, I also take leave from my college and come to Kolkata, and I also enjoy it. I also feel that this is a thing that is invaluable. I take leave, and I take leave every year because there are so many festivals here, and they are celebrated with so much fun. We roam around the whole night, and such beautiful pandals are made. There is such beautiful decoration that your eyes will be mesmerized.
And India is also famous because there are countless festivals; like you can see that after this Durga Puja will end. After that Diwali will come. There is a lot of lighting in Diwali. Diyas are lit everywhere. Everything is clean because we believe that on Diwali, Goddess Lakshmi comes to our house, so we clean the whole house. We light diyas everywhere and enjoy a lot on that day. On that day food is also prepared very well, and we get many kinds of sweets as well. It is traditional, and we wear new clothes on this day.
We go to many places during Durga Puja. We do a lot of activities. Every place we go to has a different experience. Whenever we go anywhere, we see what all has been built at that place. How beautifully it is built. Every place has its own facility. Every pandal has its own message. In many places, new and very good food is built. That is why whenever we go anywhere, we enjoy it a lot and have a lot of fun because in Durga Puja every person goes out for an outing; even those who are sitting at home go out to roam.
That is why whenever you are in India, do not come during Durga Puja. I because Durga Puja is in India and especially in Kolkata because Durga Puja in Kolkata will be a lot of fun. You will have so much fun that you cannot even imagine, and you will get such a good bike because even if you go out at 3:00 in the night, you will see people everywhere.
Durga Puja is 9 days long, and it starts. Bengalis enjoy it a lot on the day of Mahalaya. Bengalis wake up at 4:00 in the morning and wear new clothes and do Puja. It is their tradition, so I am not Bengali, but I enjoy it a lot. They wake up at 4:00 in the morning, and speakers are installed everywhere. A speaker is installed in the literary hard area. Specially for the locality, and on that day, a song of that locality is played, so you can imagine how much fun it must be. A song plays at the same place at exactly 4:00 in the whole of Kolkata, and how interesting it feels that everyone wakes up and does a Puja.
As soon as Durga Puja ends, Bihari's special Puja begins. That Chhath Puja is considered very sacred. I have seen many people doing this event outside India. If you go anywhere, you will see Chhath Puja happening there; it is very enjoyable because I also go there especially for Chhath Puja. We have to wake up at 4:00 in the morning and go to the Ghat and worship the Sun God, and the women who do the puja have to keep a fast for 36 hours.
They will not be able to eat or drink anything during this time. So you can imagine how difficult Chhath Puja is. This is the toughest puja in the world. In this, you have to not eat anything for 36 to 48 hours and cannot even drink water. So you can neither eat nor drink anything for two days. So you can imagine how those people must be living and how important this puja is and how much fun they have in this puja and how important it is for Bihari.
Lastly, I would like to say that I am very proud of being an Indian because everywhere, at different times, you will find some Puja or some festival. Your Durga Puja will end. Your Chhath Puja will come. Chhath Puja will end. Your Diwali will come, and in the process, Christmas will come. Then New Year will come. Then the whole calendar will start. Then this is our specialty because there are countless food festivals in India. Every festival is so much fun; it has its own style of celebration. We never discriminate between anyone; neither am I a Bihari nor am I a Bengali. But I always enjoy Chhath Puja and Durga Puja because I believe in them from my heart, and I worship that thing from my heart at the right time.