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Diwali with a difference in Bengal

Diwali came with a difference this year for Bengali bhadraloks.

While Calcutta remained surprisingly quiet due to a ban on the use of fire-crackers, a large swathe of rural Bengal embraced darkness for a different reason altogether. Following devastating floods that rendered almost 60 per cent of West Bengal homeless, people appeared in no mood to celebrate the festival of lights.

The quiet Kali puja in Calcutta was due to strict vigilance by Calcutta police and Polution Control Board officials throughout the night.

PCB officials visited puja pandals and residential areas, ensuring that the noise did not exceed the prescribed level of 65 decibels.

PCB representative Shyamal Chakraborty told rediff.com that the noise level was largely under the prescribed limit. Unlike last year, he added, the PCB did not find any puja committees violating PCB guidelines this year.

"The high court's verdict restricting the noise level to 65 decibel (A) in residential areas appears to have had a positive effect on Calcutta. People are now quite scared of crackers after a puja committee was penalised when a 'chocolate bomb' caused hearing impairment to a boy in Salt Lake last year. On Thursday night, we noticed violations of the sound limit in Alipore and Anwarshah Road, but the people were quick to correct themselves. Therefore, it didn't amount to legal action against them," Chakraborty said.

The police claimed to have arrested over 200 anti-socials, but that was primarily to ensure peace during the festival.

Mominpur in south Calcutta witnessed a unique case of communal harmony when a Muslim club supervised rituals related to Kali puja. Club secretary Sirajul Karim said that construction of the puja pandal by Muslims was ''merely to encourage communal harmony among Indians''.

"Of late, the virus of communalism has affected the country a great deal. It now poses a serious threat to the democratic and secular fabric of India. Unless we show this kind of love and compassion towards each other, there will never be an end to this menace," Karim remarked.

However, animal activists had their own ideas. Thousands of animal lovers, under banners of the People for Animals, Compassionate Crusaders Trust and Beauty Without Cruelty staged protests outside historic Kali temple of Calcutta. They were protesting against 'brutalities' meted out to animals in the form of sacrifice.

They demanded an end to the practice of beheading goats on the central lawns of the temple, calling it violence against animals.

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