This year, Durga Puja was unique. The sad part was I did not get to see a single thakur. Ma Durga appeared virtually on a computer screen at home. The happy part was I got to participate in cultural programmes of two pujas — one in California, where we live, and another in Greenwood Park, our former home in New Town, where my grandparents live now.

I have not attended Greenwood Park’s Durga puja for a while. I was born in Noida and moved to New Town when I was a year and half. Since then, I participated in Durga puja there every year until we moved to Los Angeles in 2016.

When my mom was part of the Greenwood Park puja committee, I used to tag along with her to puja meetings, shopping and post-puja prize distribution ceremonies. In the cultural programmes, I used to sing and recite poems.

For my last puja in Greenwood Park, I took part in a play with my neighbours Takai, Pablo, Rishav, Gogol, Arya, Rishi and his sister who would come over to our house daily for over a month to rehearse. Different competitions were organised in our complex in those Puja days by The Telegraph and I used to hang out in the pandal with my friends. After Puja got over, we got on a truck with the idol for immersion.

After we moved to Los Angeles in March 2016, our family joined a group called Valley Bengali Community (VBC) where the members started Durga puja that year. A community school auditorium was rented for the weekend. The school was only two miles from my house. Most of the others had to drive an hour or two to get there. There were more people and a lot less decoration in the auditorium than there would be in our Greenwood Park pandal. I remember reciting a Bengali poem that year.

Abhiyan Lahiri playing synthesizer Sourced by the Correspondent

Later, I joined Path Bhawan Bangla School to pick up the language as we do not have Bengali in school. Classes take place on alternate Sundays.

We, the students of Path Bhawan, put up a performance at the puja held by the Bengali Association of Southern California (BASC). We usually stage a Bengali play, for which we rehearse at someone’s house in the weekends leading up to the puja.

Last year, too, we attended the BASC puja, which is about 50 miles away from home. So we had to stay in a hotel for two nights. The puja was held in a school auditorium. At night, famous singers performed in a concert which people had bought tickets for. At the end of the Puja, we hired a U-HAUL truck in which all the idols and decorations were loaded. Then we drove it to someone’s garage where it would be stored till a year later when the same idol would be worshiped again. There was no immersion.

This year, everything was online. The BASC puja was held in someone’s backyard and live-streamed. I gave virtual anjali and did a programme with my friends on puja in various regions of India. I spoke on Calcutta puja.

I also played Rabindrasangeet on synthesiser and sent the video to the Greenwood Park organisers for their cultural programme. It felt nice to get to take part from so far away as my first performance there was when I was barely two and half!

Abhiyan Lahiri is a 12-year-old student staying in California