Charaka : The most painful way to praise Lord Shiva

The fan over head is trying its level best to cool the things up, but with 35⁰C temperature today and a sun burning as hot as it can, it’s just impossible to maintain composure. As my core body temperature neared boiling point, a knock on gate was heard. As I opened the gate with disgust, an older man with a drum (we call it Dhak in Bengali) hung from his left shoulder and a young boy dressed tip to toe in red entered. The man started playing his drum and the young boy started playing his best moves. On close inspection, I saw the boy was carrying a bunch of rusted iron nails atop his head. I was confused about what I was supposed to do. Then my mom appeared to my rescue. I asked her what they were doing. She told me that they came to collect funds for Charak puja.

The two devotees who came to enlighten me.

Charak puja! Yes, I heard about it. I saw a picture depicting charak puja in horoscope book commonly known as panjika or paji. It shows a men hanging from a pole. Few days back, when I was doing my duty at Emergency block of my Hospital, I attended a person who came with chest pain, when I inspected him, I saw 3-4 wounds over his back, on asking how he got the wounds, he told shyly “kichu din age Charak korsilam” (Attended in Charak festival few days back). I didn’t have the chance to enquire him what Charaka was, but today as I got the scope, I decided to make use of it. I rushed to my room and returned to them with my DSLR. 

As I returned, my mother was transfusing mustard oil from her bottle to a bottle they brought. She also donated 50 rupee to them. The little boy smeared Sindur (red powder) over her bangles. As the ritual was over, I asked them if I could click their picture. The man was interested but a bit shy, but the little one was so much enthusiastic. He managed his dad to give consent. I clicked a picture of both. Then the boy asked me to show the picture to him. As he saw him on the display, his eyes brightened, he asked me if I could click a single picture of him. I did it gladly but as the boy decided to go quiet in front of the cam, not a single picture was as lively as he was in person even he was not impressed with his picture when I showed it to him.

The little red monk carryimg nails over his head.

As the photo shot was over, the man cordially invited me to attend the puja. I informed him about the fact that I don’t know a single thing about this puja and requested him to enlighten me about the puja, how it was started, how it is done etc. He humbly admitted that he didn’t know much about the history of this puja, but he can certainly elaborate the methods of puja. The puja is celebrated on Chaitra Sankranti, the last day of Bengali calendar, it continues for 2-3 days. They collect fund for puja like this, by singing and dancing on the beats of drum. The puja is actually done to praise Lord Shiva. It revolves round charaka tree; a small shiva linga wrapped in a red cloth is placed near charaka tree. Then a pole is attached to long bamboo structure. (Now comes the horrific part) The nails I mentioned are nailed in the back of two devotees, after short puja they are hanged to the poles with the help of some ropes and they just revolve around the centre Charaka tree. During this act banana, batasha (small sugar cakes) are thrown at them. They catch those and return those to the devotees. The devotees who are hanged to the pole are supposed to get direct access to heavens and the devotees who catch the Prasad are sure to have a Great year ahead.

The flying devotee, enduring immance pain to praise the Lord. Source: Internet

After acquiring all the knowledge, I bid them good bye with promise to attend the puja. Back home I asked mom if the Shiva-Gauri who used to come to our homes and these people, are they same? She confidently answered in negative. I asked her if she could tell me more about the custom, she declined. I asked dad, even he was not of much help. As the last resort I decided to Google it. With the help of Ridmik Bengali keyboard I asked Google about charak puja. A wiki page does exist about charak puja, but the link was not that informative, so I further researched, not only on internet but also in small amount of religious literature available to me.

The research shows that Charaka puja is mainly a festival of bengali backward class, it never enjoyed any respect the influential class of Bengal. There is a reference in religious scripture about Shiva worship in the month of chaitra, but there is no reference of the word Charaka. The Charaka puja was first documented to be observed by Raja Sundarananda Tagore, a small king of Bengal in the year 1485. The festival is also known as Nil puja (The praise of the blue, Shiva), Gambhira puja, Shiver gajan (The songs of Shiva). Regarding the procedure, the things the man mentioned was true. Apart from these, some people loves to take the things to the extremes. Piercing tongue, walking on burning charcoal, nails are some examples. Some even pierce their body parts with red hot nails. And yes, The Shiva-Gauri and Charaka both the rituals are same. Sorry mom, you gave me wrong info.

The Shiva and Gauri. Yes, they are supposed to come in pair to collect funds. Our cute nail carying Shiva was not that happy probably because his Gauri was not accompanying him today. :). Source : Internet.

People around India do a lot of weird things to praise their beloved God. Specially for lord Shiva, the sacrifices are always high toned. Girls do fast on 16 Mondays to get good husband. Devotees even travel to china for Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra. But regarding Charaka festival, I have never heard of any other festival that includes so much pain, at least to please lord Shiva. So I think it is the most painful way to praise lord Shiva. Do you know about anything more painful ritual done to praise the lord, do share in comments.

PS: I wrote the whole piece while watching Harbhajan Singh hitting boundaries. So if there are typos and grammatical errors, please help me correct them by pointing. Thanks, please keep visiting. :)

April fool memories. :)

April fool meme. Source :Internet

“Hey, Yesterdays IND vs. WI match was fixed, listen to the conversation here.” It was followed by a sound file. This was the first things my sleepy eyes saw today morning on whatsapp. This message was shared on our college whatsapp group by a friend of mine who was known to be an avid cricket follower. So no confusion downloaded the sound file hurriedly. As I tapped the play button, a vintage music started flowing; the music was followed by lyrics “April fool banaya to unko gussa aaya”. With a smile on my lips, I confirmed the fact that was evident by now, yes it was 1^st April.

I was 6 years old when I first fell a victim of April fool day prank. I used to be a huge badminton fan back then. I used to play with my 2 years older sibling. Back then shuttle cock used to be a luxury for us, we used to have only one shuttle cock to play with, if its lost, we were done for that day. That day when I went to play badminton with my big bro, he welcomed me with a grin on his face, “see what I have today”. He waved a bottle like thing at me it said Vicky shuttlecock pack of ten.

I was confused what it was. He told me that it was a collection of ten shuttlecocks that from Vicky Company that used to manufacture tennis balls we all admired. I was like in heavens and started pleading him to show me the box. At first he resisted, but as I insisted, he agreed to show that to me and handed over the bottle to me. I opened the bottle with the high enthusiasm, but to my utter surprise, the bottle was empty. As I was thinking what just happened, the big bro screamed “এক গোল খাওয়াইসি” (fooled you once) the term homologous to April fool!

It was the first time I fell a victim of April fool day and the trend continued and for last 20 years. It was not like only I was fooled, I fooled others too on occasions. The tricks included sudden screaming to carefully crafted prank. As I grew older, the fun too increased. At times, the pranks were played even on days that were not April 1. Today I would like to share such a prank that was shared by Rebika, a friend of mine. It’s a sure shot prank, may use it to scare your friends as hell.

Settings: Dark room, friends chatting while seated.

The story starts with a girl who just shifted to a hostel. She was accommodated in a single room where a girl names Ankita hanged her. The girl joined the school midterm and was unable to cope up with the studies. Teachers asked her to collect the notes from her batch mates, but none provided her the same. The teacher used to scold her every day for not bringing the notes.

One day just before class exams she was crying silently in her room, suddenly someone knocked at her door as she opened a girl of her age was standing there. The girl asked “I heard you need notes, here are mine, you may keep it for today, I’ll take them the day after tomorrow.” The girl was very happy; she thanked the second girl a lot and took the notes. She studied the whole night and faired really good in exams.

After the results were published the teacher called her and asked where she had the notes from. She narrated the story. Teacher told her “If you meet her again, do ask her if her name was Ankita.”

6-7 days passed after the incidence, the girl almost forgot the incidence then suddenly one night someone knocked the door again, as she opened the door she found the girl who lend her notes has come to take her notes back. The girl returns the notes to the second girl, after receiving the notes she was leaving. Suddenly the girl remembered that the teacher asked her to enquire if she was Ankita. The girl interrupts the second girl and asks, “Hey are you Ankita?”

The second girl suddenly turns back and screams “Tumhe kayse pata?” (How do you know that?)

Act the last line yourself and scream too. It’s sure to scare your friends as hell. Try the prank this April and have fun. Thank you, keep visiting.

Happy Holi!!!

Many parts of India will celebrate the festivals of colour today, my present location kolkata included. Though at my native place agartala, holi will be observed tomorrow. Today we celebrate Dol (দোল), we apply colours over tulsi tree and at the foot of idols. In simple terms, today we dedicate colours to the devine and tomorrow we'll be smearing colours on the faces of our friends. So the people who are celebrating holi today, many many greetings for them. Stay safe, play safe. Check the website to know more about precations to be maintained while playing holi here.

What the Callous!

A common man from Tripura may not know about many medical institutes, but he must know the name of Apollo Hospital. Apollo Hospital are of two types, one found in Chennai and another found in kolkata. The better one is in Chennai, but in Kolkata we have an Apollo Hospital that is good enough, but costly. In Apollo hospitals, doctors are actually Gods, every thing is good there. This is the perception, people from Tripura have about Apollo hospitals.

I never got a chance to visit Apollo hospital chennai ever. So, when I got a chance to visit Apollo Kolkata, I just grabbed the opportunity (lol, I went there to accompany my mom and aunt to senior doctors). So the procedure was really cool. you go there, reception desk would refer you to doctors chamber, attendant  there would refer you to cash section. The suited booted staff on cash will charge you the amount and refer you to a nurse who will take your vitals and then allow you to go to the consultation chambers of doctors.

The other things went of smoothly, but vital monitoring part came as a big shock. The young nurse there put the BP cuff around the arm of my aunt, kept her finger on wrist and started inflating the cuff. It is called palpatory method of Blood Pressure measurement, you can measure only systolic BP (the numerator) in this way. At the end of measurement, I thought they would write the Systolic BP only, but to my utter surprise she wrote both systolic and diastolic BP(the numerator & denominator both).

I approached the nurse and asked her how she could comment on Diastolic BP as it can't be measured in palpatory method. With a puzzled look on her face, she told "It must be normal! that's why I wrote normal values."

I was like WTF! How could staff of such a reputed medical institute like Apollo kolkata could be so callus! Vitals are most important for diagnosis of a disease or conditions. If the vitals are measured like this, how can we expect the doctors to make the diagnosis and treatment correctly?

The perception that the doctors in Apollo hospitals are so good, no doubt about it. But if other staff do such blunders, how could we expect good services here! Here my intention is neither to blacken the image of Apollo hospital nor to do negative publicity. I would just like to have the attention of Apollo hospital people. Come on guys, you have created the brand equity with much difficulties, why ruin it like this. I don't personally have problem with doctors or their attitude but how could we expect your doctors to perform when they are not fed with right info?

PS. I have a suggestion for you Apollo people, why not equip nurses with electronic BP monitor.

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Offf Flipcart..

In India, online shopping is synonymous to Flipcart. With 44% of market share, flipcart is undisputed leader on the board. Second place is occupied by Snapdeal with 32% and amazon is on third position with 15% market share. Report says that flipcart is not yet making any profits yet as they are more concerned about expanding their business. It's probably first time in modern India, a "Make in India" company is kicking the ass.

Market share of major e-retailers. Image curtsy: Business Standard

All these stuff made me very happy once. As I live in the North east where most companies don't establish their show rooms as this is not profitable for them, could get my hands on hands on latest tech by ordering them online. First few days were euphoric. Every thing was delivered and every damn thing was good. I remember prebooking and buying Revolution 2020 from flipcart. There were shops who used to order LCD TVs (they were in fashion then) and resale them for some profit.

But as the time passed, flipcart started curtailing products that were delivered in north east (and some areas in UP, Bihar too). The share of not-shippable products increased with time, at  some point even less than 20% products of 15Mn strong inventory of flipcart became not-shippable.

I remember, Motorola unvailed their flagship phone Moto E, G and X just after it was taken over by google. It was only available on flipcart. That time flipcart had a policy of not delivering products costing more than 10,000 rupee in north east. I was not able to procure the Moto G phone I wanted badly, rather I need to settle with a Micromax HD mobile.


Things have moved a bit forward in last few days, Flipcart increased the quantum of products shippable to North-East. I heard this info from my friends. So when I had to buy a pair of shoes few days back, I went streight to the play store and downloaded the flipcart app (flipcart is not accecible from mobile without app). I went to the shoes section and after say half an hour of scanning, I sattled on a pair of shoes and went on to order that. As I entered my pin code, BANG! It was not available! The second choice, not available. Third, forth nopz.. not available.

This is when I tried to buy Moto X today.

With a broken heart, I just casually copied the product name and searched it on snap deal, the product was there. I entered the PIN code. Yes, it was available. Ordered it from snapdeal and recived the curier after around 10 days. It was available after just 7days, but due to neglect on part of bluedart the delivery was delayed. At Amazone too, the product was available and was shippable.

I am not advocating for any perticular brand here, I am just putting forward the plight of people from Agartala and the North-East. We too have the same right as the people from main land of India to shop products online and get good deals. If flipcart is not willing to do so, let them declare this openly that they wont deliver to North-East. We have other online retailers to choose from. It's a request to my readers, kindly put pressure on flipcart authorities..