Calcutta Diary


THIS is an ersatz season. Going by the grammar, the current week is to be set aside for festivities. Perhaps there was, and has always been, a differentiation by clashes in the matter of sharing the enjoyment which supposedly goes with the dusserah festival: the upper- caste, upper-class Hindu landlord used to collect the year's loot during this season and organised gala celebrations; the exploited, rack-rented peasantry, in rags and without food, watched from the sidelines; the gods and goddesses always belonged to the rich.