Women painted the town red during Sindoor Khela in Lucknow

The

Sindoor Khela

at

Chandra Shekhar Azad Park

in Aliganj on the morning of Dussehra saw women dressed in red and cream saris gathering in large numbers to perform rituals to send of the devi. The ritual, also called boron in Bengali, was about the women offering paan and sweets to goddess Durga.

(L) Madhulika and

Manushi Chatterjee

(R)

Shilpi Chakraverty

and Rubina Banerjee (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)
During the rituals, Pulak Mandal and Dhananjay Bhattacharya continuously played the dhol and dhak, adding to the celebrations.
Finally, after the puja, came the most awaited moment of the event when women applied sindoor on each other. Marking the end of the celebrations was the distribution of prasad among people.
— Saad Abbasi

(L) Shweta Kirti (R) Alka Sarkar and Arpita Roy (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)

(L) Tanushree Majumdar and Devashree Agarwal (R) Arpita Roy (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)

Tapas Roy and Joyanto Sarkar (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)

Geeta Bera (L) and Parul Prabhat Lahiri (BCCL/ Vishnu Jaiswal)