It was truly the most joyful week of my life, says Pankaj Tripathi

Even though Pankaj Tripathi follows certain traditions, he says he truly enjoys the celebrations back home in Bihar

Pankaj Tripathi is all set for Chhath Puja, but he surely misses celebrating it in his hometown of Belsand, in Gopalganj district of Bihar. Even though he follows certain traditions, he says he truly enjoys the celebrations back home in Bihar. He asserts that celebrating festivities back home were the best days of his life. "My earliest memory is that, back in my childhood, it was the biggest festival in our village. We would go to the Chhath Ghat to clean it in preparation for the festival. Dussehra se hi hum lagg jaate they. It was a time when new clothes were made; it was the day we would wear our first sweater or jacket for winter, and mufflers were also pulled out. Everyone from the village — relatives and those who had moved away for work — would return home. There would even be plays (dramas) performed. It was truly the most joyful and lively week of our lives," he shares.

Pankaj Tripathi

Now, as work keeps him tied to Mumbai, he says the feeling of the festival is very different. "Sheheron mein Chatth Puja ka bhaav hai hi nahi (laughs). Back home, all our relatives would return. Here, I don’t really have any relatives or people I know. I go and watch the puja from a distance, watch the setting sun and the women offering their prayers, but it just doesn’t evoke the same feeling I had back in the village during my childhood. I’m merely a witness; I can’t celebrate it in the same way.

Besides the celebrations, Tripathi says that food is an integral part of the festival. He loves gorging on Thekua, a traditional, deep-fried sweet snack that is offered as prasad to the Sun God during Chatth Puja. But he also shares that food during this time is all about whatever is produced in the fields. "Chatth ek aisa tyohaar hai jisme nature aur kheti se aayi hui cheezein hi prasad mein dete hai. Bazaar se kuch nahi aata hai. The prasad consists of various fruits and vegetables like bananas, radishes, chickpeas, and sugarcane — all grown in our own fields. Then there is thekua, a traditional Bihari delicacy made from flour and ghee. The day after the festival, my mother used to prepare a dish using the remaining prasad ingredients — raw bananas, chickpeas, and radishes. Everyone in our village used to make this; she would mix all these offerings, add just a little turmeric and salt, and the result was an extraordinary flavour — a taste I have never encountered again to this day."

Tripathi surely misses his mother, Hemwanti Devi, and says that Chatth Puja is incomplete without her. "I miss my mother. Abb voh iss duniya me nahi rahi. Ek dowra (basket) leke unke peeche peeche ghat pe jaate the. Humaare gaon ke ghar ke peeche nadi hai. For almost 25 years, I never missed celebrating the festival at home. Then I used to visit once every two or three years. I used to go home regularly till my mother was alive. I truly miss my mother. Once she stopped performing the puja, my visits also ceased," he shares.