The Air Is Thick With Bhoots!

The Air is Thick With Spooks and Sprites and Demons

From Pre-Diwali 2016
Though written as a Morning Page this is disqualified from Pages and is presented to  you as a well researched article!!

Even as the veil gets thinner, the air becomes denser. It feels loaded with the weight of anticipation in celebrating hearts and the thick vapors of oil and ghee as homes hasten to prepare their traditional goodies. The demons of cracker smoke add to the autumn regulars – the acrid vapors from piles of smoking trash mixed with heaps of drying leaves. The Indian motto is “sweep it out and then burn it away”. Yes the air is thick indeed!

We are creating our own death trap this time of the year. Explosions and fires from dangerous crackers and other carelessly handled fireworks. Sulphur fumes from the whole lot. The macabre aspect of Bhoot Chaturdashi takes on a contemporary idiom. About the ghosts of the future! Perhaps previews of our own ghosts appear before us in this dense, smoky. lethal air. There has always an aspect of the grotesque to all the Kali puja celebrations. If you notice the accompaniments to Kali images they can be ludicrously ugly creatures with mean grinning faces, quite farcical if you ask me. But then demons have always been known to leer and mock and laugh demoniacally to celebrate the success of the evil deeds they perpetrate. 

As a child, Kali Puja would frighten me because of those demons, and not really because of the Goddess’s ferocity and bloody tongue. Dad had taught me to befriend her so I hovered between awe and a respectful holding back, but I didn’t ever think of her as ferocious. I will never forget the conversation with a guest Thakurmoshai (priest) who was a regular for some years at Durga’s Pandal. There was an animated discussion on the munda mala or garland of heads that Kali strung around her breasts. He explained that she held them close to her heart in forgiveness. The entire “slaying” was about realization, atonement, forgiveness in that single instant. Kali’s silence that I have often mentioned - that moment when the world appears to stand still in complete silence and awe at the end of her battle - is perhaps the same instant the sinners enter her heart?

Even as people in Bengal light akhanda deepam (lamps burning through the night) to commemorate our ancestors on the night before Kali Puja - one for each of the 14 days of the dark fortnight leading to Amavasya (new moon)- they revel in sitting up all night listening to ghost stories told by family elders while the lamps watch over them and light the path for the ones from another dimension. No, not spiritual and profound stories but creepy stories of the Halloween sort. 

That same night Krishna bumps off a demon Narakasura and people in South India(especially the Tamils) feast in anticipation of the victory and wash away the grossness of the demon’s leftovers in a pre dawn ceremonial bath. Piping hot "Shanti Jal" instead of the cool spray you get after any other puja, from abundant sprigs of mango leaves dipped in a pitcher and shaken all over the gathering. And for people who have no access to the Ganges it is ironically termed “Ganga Snanam.” Maybe heating up the water magically turns it into the Ganga. Rivers are mysterious beings aren’t they? It is all over before the new moon rises invisible and unnoticed, as dawn steals over us. And the bathed and refreshed South Indians sit down to a repast. 

This year the Bhoots of Bengal and Battling Krishna are vying for time slots with Lakshmi and Dhanvantri and Yama. Well fending off Yama seems appropriate on the night of overcrowding by ghosts. We have one ghost less to deal with, sweet young Prince Hima who is threatened with ghosthood before his time. Though Yama oftentimes has his own night which he shares with Lakshmi and Kubera and all those benevolent folks, this year they are all vying for time slots on the 28th. And Kim’s birthday happily coincides with that! 

I’ve never been clear whether we are meant to welcome those ghosts on Bhoot Chaturdashi or shoo them away. The creepy tales, the spooks on the prowl and the ancestor worship! Methinks the good ghosts are meant to keep the nasty ones in their place. Returning to the thick air, for me that is personally the most menacing ghost as it truly foretells doom. A ghost in the making is more scary than one that has already “happened” and can’t un-ghost itself, merely appearing before us to scare us or sometimes chill with us like Casper. And in my case the beloved ancestors anyway drop by for parties and festivals and even on a normal dull day to spark it up - kind of senior Caspers!

When my mother departed she left me with two promises. One that life would get better for me after she transitioned zones, and the other that she would always turn up whenever I needed. That sense of having her a call away, has never really left me. Nor can I say for all my trials that life got worse. I have been enveloped by so much love, enduring love from unexpected sources. For me Naraka Chaturdashi is about making the connection with her and my dad, with family and memories (memories are also spirits aren’t they?) Welcome to another Frontier Festival*. While above the ground it’s about sweets and fancy diyas and candles, below there is a more exciting zone to explore!

Ganga Snanam in this house is done using water directly piped from the Holy River (via a distributary thereof) - via some filter beds of course - and boiled to strengthen its powers over demons!

Footnote:  In Bengal the 14 lamps commemorate ancestors on Bhoot Chaturdashi. Meanwhile the living have a repast made from 14 kinds of greens. They combine the lot and sell them in the market for this occasion. Perhaps their real purpose is to prep the tummy for the fasting/feasting that follows? Here is one version "Bhut Choturdoshi And Choddo Shak." Don’t miss the Yama connection. All these legends are in some way mixed up together to convey the same essential messages. Now I’m off to find the botanical names of those greens. Because this is heritage! The article has valuable insights and conveys the writer’s very authentic Bengali experience.

The picture is of Dhanvantri’s green deepam from a past year. I believe as the resident doc for the festival he tells us to eat those 14 herbs/greens and helps us keep fit so we handle all these mixed energies, banish the dense, smoking demons (tamasa) and come out in the light! Not sure all the herbivorous Bengalis will like my tongue in cheek, but at least the blogger above is mostly on the same page as I. Anyway it gives me a good reason to eat them. Detox, oxygenate and flourish!

*the ones that choose liminal zones*

Déjà vu – An Epilogue Of Sorts – Enjoy the conversation on heritage and sundry other memories between me and the aforementioned Kim whom you are all familiar with.

 Kim: Well to start off I just can't believe you know about Casper the Friendly Ghost!!! LOL Lord I haven't thought of those old cartoons in years.... Anyhow I was going to chat with you more today about Dhanvantri...the manifestation of Vishnu as healer...because it's his birthday on Dhanteras right? Prasad are neem leaves wtih sugar. You told me "neem flowers, 10 tender leaves, 1 spoon honey, 4 spoons of other soaked herbs, pinch of asafoetida, grind together into a paste." (gosh she remembers!) And that's what I've been thinking of today in conjunction with the 14 clay lamps and the 14 green herbs/vegetables for Chaturdashi. I'm gathering what I need for those 14's, and I'm appreciating so much their implication for both unity with those who have passed on, and with the Ayurvedic principles of healing in this world.

Me: Wait I don't seem to remember that recipe. Sounds like some dreadful tummy mixture. God save me from the asafoetida. I have that once a year on Diwali.

I recall the year that we were in Chennai a little before Diwali. We went shopping for sweets all over the place. We had quite a feast that year on our return to Kolkata and we still have the sweet box from one of the shops (Sri Krishna) used by mom for conveniently storing her numerous meds. We found there was no trace of the sacred their celebrations. It felt like pure hedonism!  I'm thankful for the thin veils we still sense here in Kolkata, despite the crass commercialization.

I recall, on the late evening journey back from the airport, we saw the illuminations at every corner in readiness for the festival and a stillness of anticipation  in addition to some real silence(those were the years the sound pollution laws had just started to be implemented after the noise rakshasas had held sway for decades). And mom sighed and remarked "It's a relief to be back. Now that tells me I'm home!" That year we also returned to a rousing welcome from the whole posse of boys/men who "helped"(household and sundry help) us. Friends had dinner ready for us. Dear young Manu (RIP) cleaned up the place and readied the beds for us in a flash. We had also carried a bunch of goodies in our luggage including the very special gunpowder that Latha (my cousin’s wife in Chennai) had made. The best thing about it was that it had no HING (asafoetida) but sesame seeds (til) instead and a little gur (jaggery). I have resolved to make that one year, but the hing calls me away. Mom thought hing was important and Diwali is about memories. Looks like Dhanvantri agrees with Mom. There's an almost frightening "maleness" about the pungent aroma of asafoetida (hing) and a gentle feminine quality about til.  Til would seem just as appropriate, if you consider that it's offered to ancestors. And it's great for the uterus. The oil that the Diwali idlis are dipped into is sesame oil and methinks the hing is meant to counter its soporofic effect. But hell, they add up to send one into a python-like retreat after the meal. I will never figure out these Ayurvedic cocktails and just how they induce the balance we need.

But thanks Dhanvantri - I don't need to solve these mysteries. I put my trust in you and get by.  Happy Birthday in advance and keep our tummies fit this silly season.
Kim, sesame crosses many cultural thresholds. It is a cultural unifier :) I have many sesame stories from my cache of memories. I have also shared my airport gunpowder story with you.

Wait I forgot! I use hing in my annual salted pongal as well.
(I have meandered in and out of the conversation)

I've enjoyed Casper comics since forever :) He is very popular here. My CTT spooks and sprites are a bit like him as are some other little children we both know. And even for those who don't know him, Brad Silberling brought him to life very dramatically! 

 And this song will always make me cry because so many I love are in another realm.