This year students offered Saraswati puja anjali at Hariyana Vidya Mandir on Sital Sashthi instead of on the prescribed tithi of Basanta Panchami. Not that it mattered, because most of them had already performed the puja at home and come.

As per the almanac, Saraswati puja timings this year stretched from 10.35am on January 24 to 8.21am on January 25. The school had announced that its festivities would take place on the second day but even at 8.30am on January 25 there was just a handful of students present in school.

“I woke up early and reached school at 7.30am but there is no priest to conduct the puja or the anjali!” said Shantanu Ghosh of Class IX, who was killing time by watching some boys play football in the ground outside. “I wanted to say a special prayer for social studies but time has run out. Hopefully the goddess won’t mind as it is not my fault.”

Shantanu was watching football along with Aman Jaiswal and Archit Agarwal but the two others were less perturbed than him. “That’s because we have already performed puja at home and come,” they smiled. 

Soon the teachers arrived and started arranging puja items for priest Basudev Panda, who finally showed up after 8.30am. “It’s not my fault that I reached late,” said Panda. “I had two pujas to conduct early in the morning at other schools in Bagbazar and Ultadanga. And then when I was coming here, some people spotted my priest’s attire and tried to hijack me to conduct their puja.”

Panda has been conducting puja at this school for many years and had to reason with the other party to let him go. “I knew students here would be waiting. But it’s all right, the puja can still be conducted now,” he claimed and got to work. 

By 10.30am, a round of anjali had been offered and students started pouring in for the highlight of the day — the cultural programmes. 

Nilanjana Ganguly of Class VII recited Tagore’s Saphalatar sadupay, Sagnik Sinha of Class VI sang E tumi kemon tumi from the film Jaatishwar and Rajeshwari Dutta of Class I danced to Amra Sobai Raja. Rajeshwari’s mother had been coaxing her into eating the puja prasad before her performance. “We couldn’t reach in time for the puja at school today but we held a puja at home yesterday. That way my daughter could concentrate on her dance,” said her mother Mithu Dutta. 

Raj Agarwal of Class IX, too, had his hopes pinned on the prasad. “I reached after the anjali got over but I have had prasad so I hope I get the blessings,” he smiled. None of the students spoken to planned to eat food cooked the previous day, as is the norm on Sital Sashthi. “I’m eating vegetarian today but we’ll be going to Mani Square after school and so I’m planning to eat lunch there,” said Kishalay Chakraborty of Class IX.

Girls were draped in every possible shade of yellow but few boys stuck to the colour code. “I wore my yellow kurta for the puja at home so I’m wearing a blue one to school. I wanted to look smart as I have a busy day planed after this,” said Shubham Kapoor of Class XII. 

Could you hold Saraswati puja within the scheduled time this year? 
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