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INDIA | Tuesday, 18 November 2014 | Views [891] | View Smaller Image

Baptism - After the deities have been on display in elaborate and colourful dress around the city for the festival week, they are brought back to the Ganges. For this whole day, there are several popular ghats along the river bank where truckloads of locals arrive amid the throng of bhajans and the ecstasy of celebration. Colourful powder is thrown in the air, as people sing and dance in the street. Once the deities are offloaded, the men bring them down to the water. A microcosm of the Hindu idea of reincarnation, once the festival is over, the deities are unceremoniously and dumped in the Ganges, from whence they came.

Tags: india, kolkata, durga puja, religion, travel, monochrome

The Face of God - While most of the artists in the area are working on larger than life sized deities, there are some who work on smaller scales. Again, each piece is treated with the reverence and care that you would expect of a proud parent. Everything is done by hand.

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Fate of the Gods - For the sake of efficiency (with constant traffic of life-sized deities arriving at the ghat throughout the day), the deities are fished out of the water feet from where they were dumped. A microcosmic ritual mirroring the Hindu belief in reincarnation, the gods are added to the divine pile of cloth and clay, waiting, as they must, another 51 weeks to be reborn for next year's Durga Puja.

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