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More than 1,600 kilometres from their homes in West Bengal, the return of Durga Puja celebrations in Delhi means that a group of drummers have once again travelled to the capital to play at the pandals here.
A group of around 40 men from East Medinipur district arrived at the New Delhi Railway Station on Wednesday after a long journey from the Hijli Railway station. They carried a drum each and 20 kasor (gongs) between them.
For many of the men, this is their sixth or seventh such trip to the capital, which the pandemic had interrupted for the last two years. But in the midst of the festivities, their living conditions have left much to be desired.
From the railway station, they travelled to Chittaranjan Park and have been camping with all their belongings at a bus stand there since.
“The first night, I slept at the bus stop and last night, I slept in front of the temple,” said 54-year-old Nathuram Gorai. Over the last two days, they have been playing as and when they are called to different pandals, like when the idols arrive. With Durga Puja starting on Saturday, the men will disperse to different pandals for the duration of the festivities and will be staying there. Once the festival is over, they will return to their villages together next week.
“It’s a five-day contract that we work on and most get around Rs 10,000 for that. Most of us do agricultural work in our villages but we suffer a lot of losses because of flooding. This is a way for us to earn some money through the festivities. The drums are a khandaani thing, we have learnt to play them when we were boys,” said Nobou Kuila (50). While he spoke, four among their group were moving their belongings to an autorickshaw. They were off to a pandal in East Delhi’s Nirman Vihar.
“There’s a lot of demand for drummers during the festivities from all parts of Delhi. Not just from Delhi, there are demands from Shimla and Rajasthan too and some of the men go off there,” said Gour Ghorai (56), who plays the drum at the Kali Mandir in CR Park and has been living in Delhi since 1986. He too is from the East Medinipur district. “People come and ask me for drummers for their puja pandal. These are poor people from my district who need some money so I have helped them to connect,” he said.
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