Students of Handique Girls College pray during Saraswati Puja on Monday. Picture by Eastern Projection

Feb 11: The city exploded in a riot of colours and fashion today, as the student community celebrated Saraswati Puja and paid obeisance to the goddess of learning, music and the creative arts.

From the streets to the educational institutions and the roadside pandals, the students were everywhere, dressed in their festive best to mark the occasion and pay obeisance to the goddess.

Young boys sported the latest hairstyling trends with spiked hair and flowered shirts and roared through the streets on their two-wheelers, while the fairer sex opted for a more traditional mode of attire, wearing mostly saris.

“It is one of the festivals where young girls can be seen dressed in their festive best. I wish Saraswati Puja never ends,” said Raktim Bhuyan, a student of Dispur College, before kick-starting his Bajaj Pulsar and zipping away.

As the Dhoom brigade dazzled the city streets, the police preferred to be lenient in their attitude. “Today it is their day, let them enjoy,” said a police man on the road, as he watched a few helmet-less youths zoom past him.

Priya, a Handique Girls’ College student, said wearing saris added a real feel-good factor and enhanced the spirit of the occasion. “Wearing a sari adds to the festive atmosphere,” she said.

With most of the boys and girls preferring to roam around the city, there were a few others who celebrated the puja in the true sense of the term. Wearing traditional dhoti and kurta, Tapan Das of Pandu College spent most of his day at the institution’s puja pandal, helping the priest conduct the rituals. While Tapan and some of his colleagues were busy at the pandal, many others of the college ensured that everyone who visited the college was well fed with the traditional khichri.

However, not everyone had it easy. Rishikesh Phukon of Guwahati University had a tough day, with cost of puja materials skyrocketing. The funds collected from his hostel colleagues were not enough to meet the costs, especially the increasing demands of the purohit.

The university’s hostels celebrate Saraswati Puja separately. “The puja subscriptions for next year’s celebrations have to be increased. From the coconut to the bottle of oil, the cost of each and every item has gone up,” he said.

The Asomiya Jatiya Vidyalaya, a vernacular-medium school at Hatigaon, had arranged a grand function for kids to add colour to the festivities. “My daughter performed a dance item and was thrilled at the crowd’s applause,” said Anamika Deka, a housewife.

At Euro Kids in Dispur, colours dazzled as kids with parents in tow, thronged the puja pandal in the school. Moreover, the other citizens also celebrated Saraswati Puja with great pomp and show, besides the schools and colleges.

“We have been celebrating Saraswati Puja for several years now. The puja is celebrated with several other people from our locality,” said Rajesh Das of Rehabari.