With Durga Puja and Diwali around the corner, we understand that feeling of homesickness that bothers you. The nostalgia of your childhood and being with your family may be a void that we can't fill, but we sure can help you get a piece of your home right here in the city. Chennai isn't your second home for no reason, and we will prove it to you. Check our list of best things to do as a Bengali in Chennai.
Feel At Home This Pujo With This List Of Best Things To Do As A Bengali In Chennai
Feast On Some Bengali Home Delicacies
The stomach is the easiest way to get to the heart. Don't you agree? With food just like home, the satisfaction of the heart is incomparable to any other feeling. There are restaurants in Chennai which serve some of the creamiest Kosha Mangsho along with luchi, aloo dum and so much more. You can taste the street style Kolkata rolls or the maach bhaat just like how it is made at your home. Most of these are even made by Bengali cooks! Click here to know about the Bengali restaurants in town.
Cure Your Sweet Tooth
What is a festival without some sweet delight! They say it generates happiness within. Even when in Chennai, you can treat yourself to some readymade rossogolla, rosomalai, rosomanjhari, kala jam and so much more. When the sugar syrup trickles down your tongue in one bite, it will take your right back to the good old days. KC Das sweets are one of the oldest sweet shops from Kolkata and they are in Chennai as well to give you a treat of home. Of if you are in for some gulab jamun or jalebi, you can try those too at these sweet shops in Chennai.
Go Pandal Hopping
The extravaganza may not be as luxurious and grand as that back home but Chennai is doing its best. With your Bengali brothers and sisters joining hands to fill your spiritual needs, you can go around the city to pray to the goddess and participate in pushpanjali. These pandals may be small scale but present you a grand statue of the divine goddess along with recitals and so many cultural shows. Click here to know where to head!
Attend The Sindur Play On Dashami
The last day of Pujo is nonetheless even grander than the day of Durga puja itself. As the puja comes to its end, you cannot just contain that excitement without a few thumkas and the most famous sindoor play! You don't have to miss out on that while being in Chennai either. While the goddess is being taken for her visharjan, you can lad your loved ones with the colour that the goddess herself left you with, vermillion. The pandal by Dakshini Society hosts a sindoor play on the last day every year!
Visit Ananda Mela
With puja comes the fun and frolic of the events that surround it. Along with treats and delicacies, you can also get a feel of various cultural programs such as music, dance and drama in pandals as well. The South madras Cultural Association as well as Dakhshini Society host an Ananda Mela along with their pandals. If you have missed it in the past years then attend it this year! You can even play some games and best of it, make new friends from your community!
Buy Yourself Some Traditional Handlooms
The festive season gives you all the more reason to appreciate your heritage and culture and what better way to celebrate it than celebrating the people who make it. Adorn yourself and your home with some handlooms from the weavers of Bengal. Apart from the traditional white saree with a red border, you can various home decors, silk sarees, dupattas, kurtis and even Men's wear at Tantuja Bengal Handlooms. The weaves are as soft as they could get!
Attend A Music Show
Music soothes the heart and the festival calls for some music performances. Sure enough, you can play some tunes at your home, but a crowd singing and celebrating with you call for the real fun of it. Pandals set up across the town have cultural festivals with Bengali artists reciting folklores and doing baul gaan that will immediately soothe your eagerness to go home. You can even attend a music show at The Music Academy where classical artists perform regularly. The strings of sitar and whistles of the flute are ever-so-calming!
