ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio USA

The ancient shashtras of our country like Markandeya Purana and Devi Purana says that, Mahishasura was a dangerous buffalo demon. He had done the pitamaha Bramha happy with his dificult tapasya and got the bor from Bramha that, any god or man or spirit or aspect of nature could kill him.

After that he started to torture the gods and the people from earth. Then the gods appealed to Lord Shiva(the god of destruction) for help.

Then by the suggestion of Lord Shiva the three great Gods, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva himself combined their energies to create a beautiful woman - Durga, with 18 arms to kill the demon, Each of the gods gave her weapons and a lion as her vehicle.

After listening about the beauty of the goddess Durga,Mahishasura wanted to marry her. Durga agreed with the proposal in one condition, that is Mahishasura should defeat her in battle first. Mahishasura

accepted the challenge and was killed by the goddess at the end of a nine days battle.And since then we have been celebrating the Navaratri just to celebrate the victory over evil.

We Bengalis are really very much emotional. That is why we belive that, the earth is the parental home of Durga. So she comes here on the shashthi and returns to the heaven on dashami.

On the first day of the puja, some special recitals to invoke Ma Durga in the heaven and that is called Mahalaya itself.

Between the eight and the ninth day, Sandhi Puja is performed. Vijayadashami is known as the day of victory. Before the idol is lifted for immersion the priest symbolically immerses the idol, by capturing its reflection in a bowl of water(darpan visarjan ). Then the Married women plays the sindur khela to grant the long lives to their husbands from Ma Durga.

There are 12/14 Bangla TV Channels are here in the state where we live in,which is called West Bengal. Each and every TV Channel had arranged some special programs on Durga puja. E TV Bangla had arranged - ‘Dev khunjchen DevDevi’. 24 Ghanta had arranged ‘Devi aschhen’, ‘Abasoner sera pariber’, ‘Aamar dugga thakur’. DD Bangla had arrenged ‘Mahishasurmardini’, ‘Sarate aj kon atithi’. Rupasi Bangla had arranged ‘Pujo aschhe’, ‘Dhake parlo kathi’, ‘Pujor ruposi’, ‘Jelar sera’, ‘Sindur khela(live)’, ‘Bhasan live’. Sangeet Bangla had arranged ‘Pujor sera prem’, Star Jalsa had arranged ‘Pujor Jalsa’, ‘Durga Durgatinashini’. etc.

In Zee Bangla, we have seen ‘Mahishasurmardini’, ‘Agamani adda’ ‘Vijoya Baithak’ and ‘Mahapujo’.

Among these, ‘Mahapujo’ was a different type of program and have been shown at 9 AM, every day during the Durga puja. It was a live and phone in program from mad ax square. There were many celebrities were over there to sing the request songs of the viewers or the callers rather.

The program was enjoyable but monotonous and with so many commercial breaks. These things made the program boring.