The Kar festival has just ended. Despite the heavy rain the chariot was drawn by hundreds of devotees. By the evening, it seemed like the drummers were vying with the thunder. The eventful moment was when the soul of the goddess entered your aunt and she danced energetically. Usually, she has trouble even lifting her morning cup of tea and babu has to take it to her chamber. But last evening she gyrated for two whole hours in the middle of the main parade and was cheered on by her cronies and total strangers. I walked for two hours as if my rheumatism and arthritis were imaginary friends.

The new police chief was there. He created a ruckus about the men playing with swords. No need to blame him. Those who serve the government live by its rules. The next day, the Times wrote that there was ‘debauchery and bacchanalian orgies’. I asked a learned Englishman, who is often at the temple, what a bacchanalian orgy was. He said that I would not care to take part. But according to the Times, I was in it already. The dictionary says it is an ancient Roman festival in honour of Bacchus. If that is so, there is a connection between us and the Romans which needs to be drawn out. Also, this festival predates Christianity. Will you look into the matter? I am attaching a copy of the article:

. . . During the great festival of Durga Puja, celebrated in honour of the goddess, religion is invoked as a cloak for orgies that are more obscene and boisterous than those of Bacchus. Parties of both sexes meet and give themselves up to unbounded licentiousness. The rites observed at Kalighat (near Calcutta) involve scandalous gesticulations with the fingers not once but many times throughout the ceremony. The moral influence of these grotesque representations is pernicious in the extreme. Apart from the hardening effects of idolatry, the Durga Puja, with its three-day vigils, is an opportunity to disregard productive activity, which has always been at its ebb irrespective of the constraints posed by festivals and festivities. . .

Now they write this. But during the time of the Company, the government performed a puja right here in Kalighat.

Last week, during the discussions for Purna’s wedding, an issue came up about employing a Mohammedan caterer for the Mohammedan guests. Your father said that these are not the problems that Queen Victoria is concerned about.

We can continue where we left off. Your nature is constructed before you learn to distinguish it. Nature determines ability. Ability determines your duty. Duty determines your action. This is what the Gita tells us. I assure you, your parents have left nothing unfulfilled in your nature.

Yours,

Dada.

11

Banerjee sat looking through the window into the sari shop across the street when Natwarlal came up to him.

‘Banerjee sir.’