The five-day-long Durga Puja festival came to a close on Wednesday with the immersion of idols on 'Vijayadashami' at various water bodies across the country.(HT Photo/Santosh Kumar)
2/8
During the day, women participated in the traditional 'Sindoor Khela' (smearing vermilion on each other's faces) and offered sweets and prayers to the goddess before bidding her farewell for the year.(AFP)
3/8
Sindoor Khela is known as the 'vermillion game', and is celebrated by Bengali Hindu women.(AFP)
Traditionally, this ritual is intended for married women who are expected to follow a defined custom and procedure when doing Sindoor Khela in the belief that it will bring them good luck and long life for their husbands.(ANI)
5/8
Devotees carry an idol of the Hindu Goddess Durga for immersion in a pond during the final day of the Durga Puja festival on the outskirts of Allahabad.(AFP)
14
Tribals and farmers affected by the Ken-Betwa river-linking project stage a symbolic Chita Andolan (pyre protests), Jal Satyagraha and hanging satyagraha by placing nooses around their necks, over their demands of better compensation and rehabilitation, in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh. The 15-day protest ended after police removed them from site.
17
Parallelly, the crackdown on protesters to maintain law and order situation in the sensitive areas of Central Delhi continued with lathi charge, tear gas firing etc.
5
Television evangilist Joni Lamb sings a praise song during 'Celebration', a show that she and her husband Marcus host on the Daystar Network, on July 30, 2001.
