Students at Handique Girls? College on Sunday. Picture by S.H. Patgiri

Feb. 13: The city wore a colourful look today with cheerful and vivacious youngsters thronging the streets and educational institutions to pay their obeisance to the goddess of learning.

The city?s young and the young-at-heart made full use of the Sunday holiday to wear their festive best and come out of their homes to join the revelry associated with Saraswati Puja.

The revellers and devotees thronged the puja pandals set up at various schools, colleges and government offices besides housing colonies and alleys.

The main attraction of the day was obviously a floating puja organised by a club at Dighalipukhuri. The idol was placed in the middle of the large pond, an important landmark in the city.

Leading educational institutes, including Handique Girls? College, Cotton College, B. Borooah College and Gauhati Commerce College, were abuzz with activities. ?Cotton College has been celebrating Saraswati Puja since the time of its inception and over the years the enthusiasm of the students to celebrate the day has only increased,? said Bhagwan Goswami, the head of the department of history.

?Saraswati Puja is one of the most auspicious days for an educational institution. Students with help from their teachers have made proper arrangements to celebrate the day in a befitting way,? he added.

By afternoon hours, the traffic peaked as public and private vehicles thronged the posh localities of the city, where maximum numbers of pandals were installed.

The city?s traffic managers were not complaining, though. Being a Sunday, it was a lot easier to maintain order. ?Had it been any other day, things would have been really difficult,? a traffic police official said.

The eateries in the city also did a roaring business.

However, a quarrel over an eve-teasing incident marred the merriment of the day to some extent. The incident took a violent turn at Bishnupur area under Bharalumukh police station this afternoon. Police sources said six persons were injured in a group clash sparked by an eve-teasing incident in the area.

Apart from injuries, windowpanes of some houses were smashed in stone-pelting. But timely intervention by police prevented the situation from deteriorating further.

Senior police officials, including additional SP (city) Bibekananda Das, rushed to the spot to control the situation. Das said the situation was tense, but under control. Investigations into the case are on.

The celebrations are likely to spill over to tomorrow on the occasion of Valentine?s Day.