Devotees bids adieu to Goddess Durga after ‘Sindur Khela’ 

Bokaro: After ‘Sindoor Khela’ (smearing each other with red vermillion) devotees paid a teary-eyed farewell, as the idols of goddess Durga and her four children – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik were immersed in the water bodies across Bokaro district on Tuesday.

The banks of the Damodar and Garga Rivers along with other water bodies were decked up for the occasion; people from all walks of life joined in the colourful immersion processions.

On Tuesday (the last day) married women of Bengali community play the traditional

‘Sindur Khela’ and pray for long and happy married lives. First women apply sindoor, on the goddess’s feet and forehead and then start applying it to all the married women, smearing each other with it.

Unmarried women or widows are not allowed to celebrate Sindoor Khela, said Neelam a puja committee member of Hari Mandir Hirapur at Dhanbad. “Married women smear sindur (vermilion) to each other and pray for long and happy married lives,” she added.

Another puja participant Punam Sinha said, the main purpose of a married woman to celebrate Sindoor Khela is to be proud of having a husband no matter how worthless and stupid he is and to wish a long happy life of the husband. “The sindur gives some kind of social importance to women, only because their husbands are alive,” she added.

Amid tight security cover, devotees, as well as puja organisers, were throngs near the water bodies at Bokaro. Over thousands of devotees joined hands in gently lowering the idols into the river.

Meanwhile, other than maintaining law and order during immersion, the teams of police and disaster management groups patrolled near the river. CCTVs were installed at certain ghats, said a police official.

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