Durga Pujas

Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava or Sharadotsava, is a major Hindu festival honouring the goddess Durga and commemorating her victory over Mahishasura. In 2021, ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata‘ was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

It used to be our favourite festival once upon a time before we had Coco and realised how pet-unfriendly it was. We would all dress up and visit various Pujas all day, over 5 days.

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Durga Pujas in Delhi

The puja at Kashmere Gate was always the first Puja we went to each year. More often than not, we would arrive a day early and have to go back.

Chittaranjan Park was where all the action was, in Delhi. We would park our car wherever we found space and walk around visiting the different pandals or take e-rickshaw. Our daughter’s favourite Durga Puja was the one at Navapalli grounds.

The Durga Puja at Minto Road Kalibari is very old, one of the oldest in the city.

There was a lesser known Durga Puja at Timarpur, North Delhi.

Durga Pujas in Gurgaon

There was Puja only one year at DLF Phase 3, moved from DLF Phase 1.

My favourite one was in DLF Phase 1.

We discovered the Durga Puja at Sector 56, Gurgaon after a few years and indeed, it was the biggest one in Gurgaon.

In more recent years, a smaller one appeared at the community centre of Sector 56.

There were multiple Durga Pujas in Sushant Lok, all of them quite homely.

The Gurgaon South City 2 puja was our own (We were members there), although it has moved to a different location since COVID.

The puja at DLF Club V started in recent years and was quite elegant and upscale.

In our final years in Gurghaon, we discovered a small homely Puja near our home in Rail Vihar.

There was an old-school Puja at Sector 15.

There also opened a new Durga Puja in Sector 47, where we lived. Too bad, we moved away before we could get more involved.