Devotees perform rituals, ask for a day more of Durga Puja

NAVI MUMBAI: Festive fever gripped the city on Tuesday as devotees sought the blessings of Maa Durga in hordes on the occasion of Saptami.
Amid dhak beats, people, decked up in their puja best, started thronging the pandals from early morning. They were seen greeting the Goddess, offering pushpanjali or socializing with each other.
As the day progressed, footfall at the pandals only increased.By noon, snaking queues were seen with devotees lining up for the puja bhog or Prasad. The range of Bengali cuisine available at most kiosks set up outside the pandals were also huge attractions.
On Wednesday, Ashtami coincides with Navami. So, it’s a kind of damper for most Bengalis, as they would have to curtail the celebrations by a day. Avijit Majumdar from Panvel Milan Tirth puja mandap said, “We wait the entire year for this occasion, which usually lasts for four days. We keep aside our tensions and miseries just to be a part of this festivity. But this time we have to be happy with just three days of the celebration.”
Following the sacred timing, Ashtami, Navami and Kanya puja will be performed within two hours from 7.30am to 9.30am. Nirupam Mukherjee, the priest from Navi Mumbai Bengali Association, said, “Ashtami puja, Sandhi puja and lighting of 108 lamps will have to be performed one after the other in a span of a couple of hours. We have to be careful as we cannot skip even a single word from the sacred texts while performing the pujas.”
Describing Sandhi puja, Barun Chakraborty, a priest from VCA, said, “It is said in the Puranas that the last 24minutes of Ashtami and the first 24 minutes of Navami is the most propitious time and Sandhi puja is done within these 48 minutes. As per mythology, it is the time when Ram performed Devi puja.”