Cooch Behar, West Bengal.

Durga Puja begins today, October 22. And nothing can dampen the spirit of Durga Pujo in West Bengal, not even a global pandemic that has taken millions of lives already. With a face mask and gloves, I step out for my regular reporting and see how the pujo fervour flourishes, unabated. Market places are packed with shoppers whose face masks, rather than covering their mouths and noses, protect their chins. There is zero fear, or care for the pandemic.   

Since August, almost every store has been offering discounts, sales and special pujo dhamaka offers. Banners, announcements and the sound of the pujo dhaak in the backdrop have set the stage for pujo shopping.  

Just last week, as I was stepping out for an interview, my neighbour asked: “Pujo shopping?” I smiled and said no. “Why? What are you going to wear on all the five days? Have you not bought new shoes yet? Yesterday, I went for my first round of shopping and bought clothes for my mother’s side of the family in Malda, I spent Rs 35,000. I am sending all the gifts today through a relative.” More shopping has to be done for the other relatives.

This is nothing new.  The idea of festivities begins with new clothes, shoes and jewellery, and food. People also do up their homes, either with a fresh coat of paint or by tweaking the interiors. 

Every time I have stepped out in the past two months, I’ve seen that the number of people hitting the shops has doubled, or even tripled. In the initial days when lockdown was just lifted, almost every person wore a mask, and some even had hand gloves on. Now, the masks are off, there is not a glove in sight. 

Photographs of the streets of Kolkata, (so many of them being circulated online) are proof of the fact that many people have stopped following norms. It is more important to get one’s hands on the coveted garment in the crowded shop, rather than worry about not having a mask. 

The phuchka (paani puri) sellers, ubiquitous to Bengal, were badly affected and did not have any income for months. Right after lockdown was relaxed in stages, they were back, slowly adapting to the new normal of gloves and caps, and a bottle of sanitiser in a corner of their mobile stall. This was in June. The customers were back too.  

Now, the picture is exactly the opposite. While people’s livelihoods must go on in the pandemic, the basic rule of physical distancing and sanitising hands has gone out of the window. 

A woman with her little daughter gulped down phuchkas and announced: “All this corona virus is a hoax, and if I have to die, I’ll die. You can’t be so afraid that you stop living,” she said, to much appreciative laughter all around. I didn’t know whether to smile or pretend to be fearless like her.

In many streetside stalls and small restaurants, the same steel plates and spoons are reused after a perfunctory dip in a bucket of water that’s not been changed for a long time.  

Fish chop, eggs rolls, burgers and crispy chicken, baro bhaja, ice golas… everything is being prepared, served and consumed.  A local chaat stall owner said it was difficult to cook while being masked and gloved up. “At the end of cooking, the hand is all swollen. Yes, the virus is still around and can infect us, but what else can we do? I have to earn a living after months of no work,” he explained. I nodded.

In temples too, devotion takes precedence over safety. Recently, maskless men and women gathered in a Durga temple in Cooch Behar to sing Navratri songs. The scene is no different in vegetable markets and grocery stores.

These days every time I step out of the house for reporting, I swing between ‘there-is-no-point-fighting-the-virus’ and ‘why-can’t-people-follow-the-basic-precautions’? Sometimes I seethe with anger, other times I pray the vaccine comes fast. 

Yes, this entire year has almost gone in a locked up state due to COVID-19. And no one knows for how long this new normal will continue. Everyone is fed up. But, lowering our guard is no answer. Yes, we need to celebrate our festivals, but responsibly.