CORONA The world is fighting a virus and the adversity all around us is at an unprecedented scale. As experts are engaged in developing vaccines within the four walls of their laboratories, a group of women in the rural areas of the Indian state of West Bengal was reported to be battling the virus in their own unique way.
The event marked its beginning in the Nichupura Basti, a city in the Asansol district where the aforesaid group assembled to conciliate Corona Mai or Corona goddess.
Purportedly, a pooja was organized on the banks of Chinnamasta pond located in that area and women across various ages came together in the morning at around 8 A.M, following which rituals were observed during which all went on until 9 P.M. These rituals marked recitation of mantras and CORONA singing songs as the women gathered on the site. In the morning, it is told that the residents of this particular settlement has asked all other women to join the worship too.
This woman lined up on the ground forming a row placing a line of flowers in the line in front of them. They offered fruits, vegetables, ghee, jiggery, and motichur’s laddo to the Devi and lit incense sticks for worshipping her.
All the offerings to the goddess were placed inside the soil as the women sliced out some parts from the soil and after placing all their offerings, covered it well. The incense and flower’s smell took over the surroundings while they were chanting prayers and reciting mantras with their eyes closed.
Nita Das who is 23 years old and formed a part of the group was quoted stating, “We hope that Corona Devi ensures the virus leaves us forever,” further adding to her statement, she said, “Our offerings and chants will win us some respite from the virus.”
While the former group would be drowned in the ocean of faith CORONA , a resident of the close by Rabindra Nagar and operates a grocery store near the venue of this pooja, namely, Nilanjan Mukherjee, forty-five years old raised his concerns on the grave disregard for social distancing rules as she said, “ If things go like this, we will soon get infected by the disease instead of recovering.”
The age bandwith of the devotees ranged from as young as twenty years old to those of as old as eighty years old. Interestingly, this group comprised of daily remuneration earners who spent an amount of around rupees five hundred in procuring the necessary items for performing the sacraments.
Notably, according to one of the devotees, this party is to continue performing these ceremonies every Monday and Friday to aggravate the impacts of the virus.
Ayush Bansal
Grade XII, ST JOSEPH SCHOOL, SILIGURI.
Ayush has keen interests in matters concerning India and has attended numerous mock youth parliament where he has presented his calibre for public administration and policymaking. He aspires to be an IAS officer and serve his country.
