Ramadan was running and Durga Puja was approaching and was going to start just one day before EID. Nishu had a plan to keep fast for all days and we thought to go to temple to offer evening prayers. But our mail concern was whether the temples will remain open by that time in evening. Luckily 3 /4 days before the Druga Puja, we were passing by a temple and the president of the management committee of the temple (a person known to us) met and updated us about the puja. It was a kind of surprise to know that temple we remain open till quite late during the days of Durga Puja, so we were kind of assured that at least we could go to the temple in the evening.
On the first day of Durga Puja, we tried to reach the temple a bit early to be on safer side, still can not trust that Mauritius can remain open till late. We were in temple by 6:45PM and to add to our surprise we was a proper arrangement for people to come and offer prayers. Temple was fully decorated with lights and a musical group was singing Bhajans there. A nice sitting arrangement was also done for the people to sit and enjoy the Bhajans. Quite a few people were there to offer their prayers and then enjoy Bhajans. During these days one saint was also there in temple giving Pravachans.
This was nice to see so many people offering prayer and temple was nicely decorated. Now we were completely assured that we would be able to come to temple during the 9 days of Durga Puja. We managed to go to the temple during the days of Durga Puja. We used to offer our prayers and sat there for some time to enjoy Bhajans. We never had a chance to listen to that saint as it used to start a bit late. Anyway was not that interested too.
Since surprises are a by default gifts (at least for us) in Mauritius, two more surprises were also waiting for us. When the day of Navmi, we went to temple as usual we found it closed, means there was nobody to offer prayers on that day. On the next day Vijay Dashmi was there and as usual people were busy in their daily activity and there was a kind of no sign of the festival. There was no firework, no fair nothing at all. Since office was open that day we did puja early and went to our offices… This time it was good at least we could go to temple for most of the days… Now Diwali is approaching, let’s see how it will be.
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