At the Vodafone Agomoni

September 23, 2014: I landed in Jaipur today morning with not more than two hours of sleep. I was at the Vodafone Agomoni 2014 event of Vodafone at Kalamandir, Kolkata. Agomoni has marked a special place in the city’s social calendar. This was the 14th edition of the event.

It starts at around 8:30 pm and goes on till the first rays of the sun. I watched the whole performance of Sharmila Tagore with Soumyojit and Sourendro of You & I group. In fact, I was also impressed by the Das brothers dhakis. The whole group has the surname Das and was looking very elegant in the red Vodafone dress. The dhaks, also covered in red, made it look all the more spectacular.

While the performance went on on the stage, the artist from Kumartuli drew the Goddess’ statue hour by hour and by the time the event ended he completed the whole statue which means “Agomoni” or “The Arrival” of Maa Durga. Interestingly, as per the mythology, each year Maa Durga is said to come in a different mode of transport. This time it is said that she would arrive on a boat and leave in a palanquin.

Thank you Vodafone for giving Agomoni to the City of Joy.

In Jaipur I have a packed schedule and would be leaving for Bangalore for the Bangalore Literature Festival where I have two sessions: one on September 27 on Kala Rupankar – interface of Hindi Literature and the Arts and the other is on September 28 on Going Places – Travel Writing for which I am looking forward to.

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