Managed to post the penultimate episode from the ongoing 'Arrah' chapter on www.littlebylittle.online. Durga Pooja was not as intense a festival as Chhatth Pooja, but it was around for ten days and that meant the festivities and rituals surrounded our everyday routine like a dew drop rolling on a leaf. Our home would smell of dhoop, agarnbatti and postadana halwa. To this day, participating in the aarti feels slightly heavy because of how religiously my father participated in the ceremonies. The thing I really looked forward to was visiting the pandals early in the morning on Dashmi. The handiwork of different craftsmen trying to outdo each other with their effort on stitching the corners of the pandal's cloth or how beautifully rendered the stage backdrop was a marvel for a six-year-old. I have always felt that from the onset of Durga Pooja, the wind took a different turn, slowly opening the doors to the nippy winter, and the festivals would just pour in from that ajar door one by one, leaving you no choice but to be soaked in it.