A devotee offers prayers on the banks of the Hooghly in Calcutta. Picture by Sayantan Ghosh

Poonam Shaw was waiting patiently to take the holy dip, an hour before sunrise, on a cool, windy Saturday at Chandpal Ghat in Calcutta, the iconic Howrah Bridge just about visible in the morning haze.

Clad in a pink sari, Poonam had come to pray on the first day of the Chhath festival, along with her family members, including her two-year-old daughter Asha.

But the festival did not mean too much to the 32-year-old even three years ago.

“I was only five when I lost my father two days before Chhath. For 25 years, I never took part in any festival,” she says.

It was a divine intervention that changed the course of her life and brought back her festive spirit. “I got married in 2002. More than seven years into the marriage we did not have a child. It became a cause of serious unrest in the family… It was a couple of days after Diwali in 2009 that I learnt that I was going to become a mother. Seven months later, she (Asha) was born,” Poonam says,

her eyes shining. Little Asha responded with a smile.

“This is her first Chhath,” adds the resident of Dum Dum in north Calcutta.

A visit to different ghats of the Hooghly in Calcutta shows the frenzy of the holy festival that picked up steam from the very first day. There were many like Poonam, who came to the city around 10 years ago, and others like Kailash Shaw, whose family settled in Calcutta in the late 19th century.

“The first day we have Nahay Khay, which is observed at home. But we come to take a dip from the very first day,” says Shaw.

On how it feels celebrating the festival away from the homeland, Shaw, a businessman at Janbazar area in central Calcutta, says: “I have celebrated Chhath only once in Bihar, back in 1990. Calcutta is our home and there is no difference in the celebrations. The colour of the festival has changed over the years. Earlier, only Biharis in the city took part in the fest, but now people from UP and Bengalis, Gujaratis, Marwaris and even some Muslims celebrate.”

Hundreds of people gathered at different ghats along the Hooghly on Saturday, suggesting a much bigger turnout in the next couple of days.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s declaration that Monday would be a holiday for state government officials from Bihar has added to the feeling of oneness.

Maya Devi, 75, who stays at Bansdroni in south Calcutta, says there is no difference between the festival in Bengal and Bihar. “There is no difference. I have been in this city for almost 50 years and the feeling of oneness is the same as it was in Jehanabad. No other festival brings together the people the way Chhath does. Seventeen of us have come. I am the eldest and Namita, four, is the youngest,” she says.

Not everybody could be with their families though.

Rakesh Jha, 25, last celebrated Chhath in the city two years ago. For the second consecutive year he will be away, pursuing his masters degree in communication engineering from Technische Universitat Munchen, Germany. “I wanted to come, but the classes are on and I could not afford to miss them,”

he told The Telegraph in a Net chat. “My family came to Calcutta from a small village called Birsair (Madhubani) in Bihar in 1945. Since then Calcutta has been our hometown. I am really missing my people back home. There is a feeling of emptiness,” he said.

Back at the Hooghly, Sangita Das, 15, had a different take on the festival. “I love the music played during the festival. Chhath is an ideal blend of fun and devotion.”