Saraswati Puja @my Primary School

Son who fulfills mother’s desire will surely get success in life

During my childhood, I did my primary education at my village school (Saragadia UGME school) that has both primary as well as middle english classes (meaning one can study from class one to seventh class). The school was sorrounded by 5 nearby villages, students from all these village attend the school.

During those days teachers were real teachers, those who were dedicating their complete life providing good education to each students. They consider every student as their own child. They had lot of qualities of a real GURU which we rarely find in today’s school teachers. we had four teacher who took care of the complete school. they are namely (Panda, padhi, Das, Mohanty).

As school are called Vidya Mandir, we tend to observe all kind of celebrations and puja’s at school every year, like ganesh puja, saraswati puja, independence day celebration, guru diwas etc.. Students of the school participate in this puja and do the puja with guidance from teachers. Our Mohanty-sir takes all these initiative and collaborate with higher class student to do all kind of arrangement to make it better.

Saraswati puja is a special puja at school because of two reason, Goddess Saraswati being the goddess of knowledge and second reason is that we used have feast at school during saraswati puja. Normally saraswati puja falls on winter- during which the vegitables are very fresh and easily available at less cost. Hence, it become convinient for school admistration to make a feast during the puja by collecting a nominal money from every student as contribution towards the puja celebration.

However, the special attraction of children of lower classes was feast, for which every children attend the school (that day) without fail and all student come to school wearing nice new cloths.

I and 3 other causin (bara, tapan and bapu) were in class III- which i remember, and we are in school for the saraswati puja feast. Tapan was a very nice and clever child, was a good student and was doing good in academics as a child but was little nimble and naughty than rest of the 3. due to his nimbleness he was always watched by teachers.

In feast days there used to be item like puri, kheeri, alu-gobi curry, khatta, bhaja, dal and few other items served at school, we kids were the first to enjoy the feast then slowly the higher classes. These items are adorable to all including parents and children. Some parents also drop-in to help cater to the service of making all food for children and later they also enjoy the feast and get some for their family. Some parent who can not make it to the event also have craving for this food. Hence sometimes some mothers jokingly say their children “to enjoy the feast and bring the leftovers home which you cannot eat ( if possible)“. May be, similar kind of instruction was given by our sarojini bau (mother of Tapan). to get some puri and curry, while you are eating you can ask for more, you eat and bring the leftover home.

Like every celebration there is a restriction not to provide food outside or outsiders. hence there are few people who play a role of watch-dog to see if outsiders intentionally getting-in to take food. The same thing also applies to student, meaning the student can eat but they can not pack food for their family or can not take food outside of campus.

Here comes the zeast of the story, Since Tapan’s mother has told him get those puri and curry which can he cannot eat and there are watch-dogs around. he was looking for an opportunity how can he keep the promise of his mother, As a son he was very obidient and being a child he also wanted her mother should also get the taste of the food she desired.

Normally in school they provide puri in little number to children so that they dont waste it. They provide 3-4 piece per child. Some child can eat more, hence they can ask for more, depending upon their intake capacity the caterers give more items into their plate.

Tapan asked more and more puri and other items, he is taking a stomach full and still having food in his plate while other kids are emptied their plate. He is eating slowly to delay the process so that he can actualise the plan. The time came when all have finished and get up for hand wash. Tapan wrapped the full plate and started running with ultimate speed so that no-one can catch him. Caricaturing his way thorugh the barren paddy fields from back of the school directely towards his home(our village), taking the crowd into surprise. Everybody was witnessing his swift movement through rough patches and his care for the food wrap for his mother. everyone merrily laughed looking at his deed that day in saraswati puja and merely forgot.

But the point to notice here is, he had stuggled hard to succeed in keeping his mothers words, he is that innocent child who curated the plan in his mind how can he make his job done. Strategically thought a plan at a tender age and had executed it without fail and got his mother the food she craved for. This shows his dedication towards his mother and keeping promises of his mother. That was a small hilarious instance (for all) but for him a well executed job, that has put him in to great success today.

The analogy goes back to our mythology where Devi Parvati instructs her small, beautiful and tender child not to allow anyone inside the cave until she is taking her bath and without her permission. He kept his mother’s promise and sacrificed his life in battle with Lord Sambhu. We all know the story. The result was – the child got rewarded with a success by her mother to be the Gana-nayak, Agra-pujya, Koti-suray-prakash, Vigna-Vinayak, Vigna-Haran and many… Without Ganesha being worshiped no puja or ritual will be successful, that was the power of mother.

Hence whoever keeps promises of their mother whether it is a very silly looking matter like getting “Jhuta-puri” from school or keeping big promises that end -up sacrificing life. Everyone is rewarded with success and will be sucessful in life like TAPAN today.

Thank you 🙂