Rajibul Rahaman returned to his hostel room groggy-eyed at dawn on Friday, after spending the night setting up the Saraswati Puja pandal with several hostel mates, including twin brothers Sarifuz and Arifuz Jaman, Souren Mallik and Prithwish Mutsuddi.
“We slept for barely a couple of hours as puja was starting at 8am,” Rajibul told Metro.
A stone’s throw from the state BJP headquarters in central Calcutta, the Eden Hindu Hostel of Presidency University has long celebrated Saraswati Puja with students participating regardless of community.
“This hostel was shut down in 2015 and boarders were shifted to a premise in faraway Tarulia, Rajarhat. After a 70-day agitation, we fought our way back here in 2022. Saraswati Puja and iftar were started as a mark of celebration,” said Rajibul, a postgraduate student in life sciences who checked in just after the agitation.
Rajibul Rahaman points to pictures of the student agitation to reopen the hostel. (Sudeshna Banerjee)
This year, the backdrop for the goddess, inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, was Rajibul’s idea. “I had a small one in my room. I suggested painting this on a larger scale,” he said. He was helped by fellow boarders and an artist friend, Aritra Mal, who is not a hostel resident.
Work was divided among groups. Some went to fetch the idol, others shopped for puja requirements, while Hasanujjaman joined those putting up colourful chains of flags across the ground. The boy from Karimpur in Nadia had seen Saraswati Puja before but had never participated in one.
The hostel boys see nothing unusual in their participation. “We see ourselves as a hostel community, not a religious community. Saraswati Puja and iftar are equally important here,” said Asik, a political science student.
Pointing to Room 207 on the first floor, where India’s first president, Rajendra Prasad, spent five years as a student under British rule, the boys said the room must have hosted meetings supporting the freedom struggle. “If they could fight for the country unitedly, why can’t we hold a puja or an iftar together in the same hostel?”
“Many of our Muslim friends also offered anjali,” said Dipta Mandal, a chemistry student.
“We see this as an Indian festival, not a Hindu ritual. We want to give
a message to divisive forces,” said Md. Taufiq Sk. The Murshidabad boy spent time at the puja venue until 10.30am before heading to read Friday namaz at the College Square mosque in the same clothes, along with 14 of his hostel mates.
Asked how their families reacted, all students from the minority communities this newspaper spoke to said they received nothing but encouragement. “Had that been an issue, could we have shared a hostel?” asked Hasanujjaman.
“We had Saraswati Puja in school as well,” said Irfan Habib, a history freshman from Sagardighi in Murshidabad.
To some, though, the puja was a novelty. “This is my first puja. When I came out of my room at 8am, everyone was praying. It was an amazing experience, somewhat like Sunday church. People are so welcoming at the hostel that I have had no problems fitting in. They even teach me Bengali,” grinned Lheewang Dhendu Bhutia from Kalimpong.
“I danced a lot to Bollywood music,” laughed Jules Boudet, nodding at classmate Sunayna Mukherjee. The exchange student from Sciences Po, Paris, had come late and missed anjali but, after a year in the hostel, did not look out of place at all in kurta-pyjama.
As Metro walked out of the hostel grounds, all the students spoken to — Hindus, Muslims and Christians — dissolved in the sea of happy faces on the field facing the deity, united in merriment.