“Don’t light the diyas here. We have to take care of the safety inside the pandal,” remarked Joy Uncle while attending to people and asking them whether they had the prasad or not. Half of his kurta is drenched in sweat. I stand inside the pandal, asking Thakurmoshai to give me something that I can keep for a lifetime, just like my saree.

“Thakurmoshai, only 4 minutes are left. Read the Shaktirupena mantra and do three pushpanjali at once and get over with the puja,” instructed Joy Uncle. He has not been able to sleep for the past seven days. The Bengali community in the area is calling him for the details of the Durga Puja at 3 am. The arrangements of the puja essentials are something that is not allowing him to sleep properly.

Nandini is a homemaker for about last three years of her life. She is only twenty years old who run away from her parents in the middle...