Devotees bid aideu to goddess Durga, her children

Devotees across West Bengal on Friday bade teary farewell to goddess Durga on 'Bijoya Dahasmi' as she went back to her abode in Kailash after her five-day-long annual sojourn along with her four children to her maternal home.

Following the Dashami rituals, clay idols of Devi Durga and her children were taken from beautifully decorated pandals and households for immersion in rivers and other waterbodies.

Women pay their obeisance to the goddess with betel leaves, betel nuts, turmeric and bael leaves, known as 'Debi Baran' and urge her to come back again next year.

In the metropolis, idols were taken in processions that included bands, colourfully decorated tableaus and people dancing to the beats of dhak, the traditional drum associated with Durga Puja, to the banks of river Hooghly for immersion.

The immersions will continue till well after midnight with most of the idols being taken to Babughat area on the bank of the Hooghly.

Similar rituals are witnessed all over West Bengal with idols being taken for immersion to river banks or other large waterbodies.

On the banks of river Icchamati on the Indo-Bangladesh border at Taki in North 24 Parganas district, the idols are brought on boats from both sides of the border and are immersed in the river.

The sight of the culturally similar people on both sides of the border together going through the rituals of immersion of the idols with equal fervour is a visual delight and is witnessed by thousands of tourists coming from various places.

People of all hues and age forgot their worries and monotonous daily chores as they participated in the almost week-long extravaganza, which is described as the largest community festival in the world by the West Bengal Tourism.

Part of the Durga Puja festivities are good food, merriment, night-long pandal hopping and an escape from the daily routine, which will all be missed along with the going back of Devi Durga with her four children - Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesh, till the next year's 'Sharad Utsav'.