Calcutta, Sept. 29: Members of the Bengali community in the Bay Area of California organised their first Durga Puja this year, wrapping up the celebration last Sunday with an early Dashami.
"Puja may be over for us but our debut was a great success," said Tania Bhattacharya, in charge of public relations at Agomoni, the organisation behind the first puja in the Tri Valley. "About 100 Bengali families are our members, but we had about 12-13,000 visitors on Saturday.
Until last year, the Bengal diaspora in the Bay Areawould need to travel up to 40 miles (64.3km) to reach the nearest puja. "This April, we decided to start our own puja," said Debashish Chakraborty, vice-president of Agomoni.
The mayor of San Ramon, Bill Clarkson, inaugurated the puja and apparently liked it so much that he returned later to spend some more time there. "He even bought a kurta to wear during his stay," Tania said.
Sathi Chowdhury, a member of Agomoni, said 2,500 luchis and halwa were distributed as prosad. "We had Bengali specialities like labra, gurer rosogolla and phulkopir singara for lunch."
Twelve-year-old Yuvika Mukherjee, who sang the Pratul Mukhopadhyay song Aami Banglay gan gai at the event, has never seen how Durga Puja is celebrated in Bengal. "For us, a programme like this is a chance to meet friends from the community. Having our own puja was fun. For the first time, I sang on stage before an audience,"she said.
Agomoni members battling withdrawal symptoms after the grand celebration have the option of driving down to South San Jose, a town where another puja is scheduled for this weekend.
In the US, Durga has a second coming lined up in a single autumn.