Durga Pujo - Festival of the autumn !

It's 8 pm in California and I am glued to the television to watch a live stream of Durga Pujo back in Kolkata, India. As I am miles away from home; this year for me is pure nostalgia.

Durga Pujo - The festival of the fall or Sharadotsav as we Bengalis say is one of the world's biggest street carnival. What makes Durga Pujo so special and Bengalis so crazy about the festival is because it's FREAKING AWESOME!!

The sheer excitement of Pujo aashche ( the wait for pujo), the last-minute rush for pujo shopping, asking your friends and cousins about "Kota Jama Holo". It's not just Ma Durga's homecoming but also an excuse for friends and family to get together and enjoy these 5 days.

Till last year, pujo meant whole night pandal hopping with friends and family, waiting in queues and squeezing through a human swam for hours to get a glimpse of that famous pandal, Durga idol, and lighting decor. And how can I forget to take SELFIE with Ma Durga at the backdrop while Baba giving continuous bokuni (upbraid) to move ahead? Pujo meant to pray and give anjali with ma, baba and asking baba for a biryani feast at shiraz or amenia and various other bhuribhoj. One has to be in the city of joy - Kolkata to feel it when the city looks like a newly wedded bride.  The city turns into a big street carnival with people thronging from all walks of life despite their caste/creed/religion/nationality- this festival is SARBOJONIN meaning for all. The festival represents a breathtaking display of Pandals(Festive Tents) and Idols made with clay with their innovative themes and exotic artwork which is a spectacle to watch with not only eye-catching craft work but also with powerful social messages as it's a theme. Pandals are the center of attraction during pujo made with bamboo frames, clothes, and other materials.

For Bengalis, Ma Durga is the symbol of Shakti and epitomizes the triumph of good over evil. She is depicted as a warrior with ten hands carrying different weapons with hand gestures or mudra representing the teachings of life. Her arms carrying Chakra, Conch, Sword, Club, Lotus Flower, Bow and Arrow, Trishul, and Fourth Lower hand represents Dharma to perform our duties sincerely, to be happy in life, to eradicate the evil within us, to face all difficulties with courage, to forgive oneself and others, to not get intimidated by limitless power and control animalistic behavioral thought process like anger, greed, jealousy. Her mount - the ferocious and powerful Lion; she reminds us to control such feelings and use the power within us to protect the virtue.

The festival means lip-smacking food, illumination of extravagant lights and Bengali's favourite ADDA. For Bengalis, pujo also means-

# Pandal Hopping - Pujo means pandal hopping with friends and family some time for the entire night. Pujo means to walk, walk and walk and get either a muscle cramp next day or to get a blister from the new sandal.

# Dhaak and Dhunuchi Naach - Pujo means to wake up to the sound of dhaak(drum) and dance to its rhythm with dhunuchi or earthen pots filled with coconut fiber and incense. The aroma from dhunuchi is so mesmerizing and beat of dhaak so foot-tapping, you just can't sit idle but dance. I really can't think of another song but to sing " Dhaker thaale komor dole; Khushi te naache mon".

# Pet Pujo- We Bengalis love food and pujo means closing the home kitchen and enjoy bhog at pandals with khichuri, labra, payesh, chatni and mouth-watering street food like phuchka, rolls, biryani, fish fry, telebhaja and so on and on and on...

# Let it glow - Pujo means an extravagant display of creative installation of lights from Chandannagar. For me, since childhood sparkling lights always meant College Square.

# Pujor Adda -  Adda is an integral part of Bengali life as we can discuss and debate about just any topic, anytime, anywhere. So, Pujo means adda at your parar pandal and an evening adda at Maddox Square with friends, guitar, and food.

# Sindoor Khela - Well, it's the last ritual and to say farewell to Ma Durga until Aashche Bochor (Next Year) where women wear red & white saree and apply red vermilion to the goddess and to each other and wishing shubho bijoya for a happy year ahead.

So no matter where you are in the world; enjoy this wonderful festival with family and friends. Eat, eat and become a bit fat and of course, enjoy the adda and have lots of fun.

Incredible Women @ Workplace

March 8th as defined by UN is the International Women's Day to celebrate the achievements of women all around the world despite their socio-economic background, beyond cultural/political differences, geographic boundaries, despite all the struggles how women fight it out with their strong will, women who despite their hardship never dither from achieving their dream, their dedication and integrity makes them incredible in every way.



So what does it mean in 2016, where is the disparity, how do we unblock the bottleneck, what's the future of women's human rights @ workplace, equality and empowerment, how far we have come in delivering gender equality and willing to provide opportunities that best ways continue towards true parity, and how are some organizations taking path-breaking steps to treat women not as special but equal.

Women have struggled to work alongside men as equals still there has been a lot of work done since the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s still there is a lot remain especially when it comes to a leadership position and in developing countries. Numerous studies have shown that companies with more gender parity in top management roles do better financially still there exists a glass- ceiling.
A recent Mercer gender diversity survey shockingly published that around 40 percent of the global workforce consists of women however they account for only 19 percent of executives, 26 percent of senior managers and 36 percent of managers. To reach those conclusions, Mercer looked at workforce data from more than 1.7 million employees in 28 countries, including more than 680,000 women. The statistics obviously looked better in the USA as compared to other developing nations due to cultural/political/social barriers as a contributing factor. 

On a positive note, there are many organizations in the corporate world who have taken extraordinary steps and have invested in social empowerment of women which worked positively for both sides-

1. Hindustan Lever’s Shakti program,  which empowered women to reach remote markets the company couldn’t otherwise. Launched in 2000, the program offers microcredit grants that enable rural women to become direct-to-home distributors. This new sales force has significantly boosted sales of the company’s products in rural villages, a market that is otherwise dauntingly expensive to reach. By the end of 2008, the Shakti network had grown to include more than 45,000 saleswomen covering more than 100,000 villages and more than three million homes in India

2. Some of the most striking employee benefits from Tech Giants are infertility treatment coverage, in addition to surrogacy and adoption benefits. Companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, have all started offering these benefits to its employees apart from providing benefits like alternative schedules, remote & mobile work options, transition coaching for women re-entering jobs, mentoring programs, etc.

3. Accenture is celebrating 2016 women's day with a theme called "Being Greater Than". The vision of Accenture is to go beyond boundaries, expectations and raise voice and sights of people to advance the women, the ideas and the goals that will drive the next generation of leaders. It’s not just a movement. It’s how they believe in working everywhere, every day.


4. The UN is campaigning "Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality". Pledging For Parity! Everyone – men and women – can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly – whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias.
Let's have a look at what exactly are the targets of the 2030 Agenda:

1. Ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.
2. All girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education by 2030
3. Terminate all discrimination against all women and girls by 2030.
4. End of violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
5. End practices like child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

To conclude, women are teachers, farmers, businesswomen, politicians, mothers, homemakers, law enforcers - women contribute every day in many visible and invisible ways. That's the essence of being a woman. And International Women's Day is a time to reflect that progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.