Faizan Ahmad | Team TrickyScribe: Chhath Maha Parv is set to begin. The melody of the celebration is in the air. This puja is observed for centuries but it has witnessed a great metamorphosis during the last four decades or so. Firstly it was glamourized and then globalized.
The puja of setting and rising sun on the banks of rivers, and now on any waterbody, was once performed by the poor sections but since the early nineties a remarkable transformation has been seen.
Give credit for this to Lalu Prasad or not, but it remains an undeniable fact that from his first tenure as Chief Minister he would press the entire government machinery into service for the preparations of Chhath puja at all the ghats of Ganga. For the first time his wife Rabri Devi would come out with full devotion for performing puja at the sunset and dawn on the banks of Ganga and would take a bath while Lalu would watch from a distance.
In the sixties, seventies and eighties, I saw very few people, both men carrying cane, a bunch of bananas and other fruits and women prostrating and walking towards Mahendru ghat. I saw this in my childhood and when I was in my teens. There had been no extravaganza, no fun, no pomp and no show. Only devotion.
But the picture changed from early nineties and the puja was glamourized at highest level. Rich and elite class families started joining the rituals and then it became a fashion, not just devotion, to show up at ghats. Nahay-khay became a party with friends and distribution of thekua a must.
Lalu was so particular about the preparations for Chhath that he would personally oversee everything from roads to ghats and cleanliness everywhere. A secular Lalu would use the festival as a symbol of religious harmony. He would ensure that his Muslim party workers lend their supporting hands.
I saw Muslim youths in kurta pajamas and skull cap with brooms washing and cleaning the roads and streets for the Chhath vratisl. And it was not only once but regularly till he and Rabri Devi were in power for 15 long years. During this period Chhath was quite glamourized and it became a popular notion that Chhath was a sarkari festival.
Later on Nitish Kumar not only maintained this tradition but enhanced the celebratory preparations. He along with his ministers and top officials visit all ghats and also cruise to see even minor hiccups. A few years back a major tragedy struck after sunset rituals on the old Mahendru ghat pathway in which several lives were lost. Fortunately a couple of The Times of India reporters who went there to cover the event helped the victims and got involved in rescue works.
After the Chhath was glamourized, the Biharis living abroad got inspiration to hold the puja individually or in groups at the place of their living. During the past over two decades they have globalized Chhath with all the pomp and show and with dedication and devotion.
Today Chhath puja, which was initially limited to Bihar, spread to almost all parts of the country and is now observed across the globe. From Tarari to Texas, from Bhagalpur to Birmingham, from Gaya to Glasgow, from Darbhanga to Doha, from Barauni to Brisbane; everywhere the Indian vratis perform Chhath puja with devotion and fervour.
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