Shiv Gajan day1

8^th April

Sanjay Nanda and a FaceBook friend Udit kalashresta show up in KOL the day keeps me busy with some personal work, and I keep missing my friends, till finally at 6 PM we meet up at a café and head home, plans are made as to how to go about shooting GAJAN festival,

The date- 11^th April and we are on our way to Burdwaan ,

The ferry crossing with some yummy food, staple bengali fare - Luchi and Aloo ( puris and Potato )  that was being served on the boat, but being city bred we stuck to Idleees (steamed dumplings)

Comfortable on the train and digging into local food we suddenly get a call from Tapas our local contact that he is at the station, n the train is about to reach burdwan, he is waiting for us, we part the curtain’s of the window, to realize he was right, n there is a mad flurry of activity as we scramble and get off the train, and are whisked away to the village we will be staying at:  Harrah Gram,  resident of the village has been kind enough to host us for our duration of stay and would also be helping us with any other things we would be requiring like a local guide .

Our homestay was at HARGRAM, 25 KM from BUrdwan and 10 Km from our primary villages of interest KUrmun.   we had a lovely palatial house, with 1 room to ourselves, running water and wonderful hosts Mr. Shoroshi and his wife and son Papon and their  maid Deepa.  Deepas brother turned out to be the driver of the car we rented for the trip.

Evening time we went on a recce to KURMUN village one of the site of our shoot, n while on the way, were got our 1^st sight of Gajan festival

Lord Shiva was being taken for a ride by a bunch of bhakts, they had visited a neibhouring village, n they had made the tour as they just wanted Lord Shiva to have a good time travelling the surrounding areas in the fresh air and seeing what life was like around that part of the country.

 Accompanied by drumbeats in 35 degrees heat.  

We went on to another village and there as the palanquin with Lord Shiva passed, people sat down in the middle of the road to let the palanquin pass over their head, as if asking to be blessed by the good Lord.

Day ended with the sanyasis and bhakts going off to another village for the last trip of the day to return late at night to be followed by dinner and then to start the morning rituals .

The Gajan festival is held over 7 day period, the last day of the festival being the last day of the Month of Chaitra, the day that CHARAK is celebrated, usually on 14^th April, according to Bengali – English calendar.

The next day is the start of the Bengali New Year.

The next 5 blog entry will be about Gajan and how it transpired, if interested in buying images, and or story  please contact : Rajat7549179539@gmail.com

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DAY 2, Morning 

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