Lucknow Durga Puja celebrations are the best: Jaya Bhattacharya

Lucknowite and popular TV and Bollywood actress Jaya Bhattacharya is missing the Durga Puja celebrations happening in her hometown while she is shooting for her show

Thapki Pyaar Ki 2

in Mumbai.
Reminiscing the days when she celebrated the puja in Lucknow, the

Mimi

actress says, “Durga Puja pandal in Lucknow has been an extremely nostalgic thought for me, always. Those five days of puja were spent at the pandal since childhood. The whole day went at the puja pandal itself distributing flowers for anjali, giving prasad and experiencing the beautiful rendering of songs in the live concerts in the evening.”

Jaya at a puja in Mumbai two years ago

Remembering one particular puja Jaya laughs out loud as she narrates an incident. “Once the puja was going on and my mother forbade me from going for it saying there were some goons at the pandal. She was scared that those people, who were a part of the committee, may harm me, so I didn’t go. Next day my father, who was part of the committee, was having a meeting with the same people. When I saw him, I walked up to him and said, ‘Why are you sitting with these goons?’ Till date whenever those people see me they smile at me and I feel so ashamed of my silliness as a child.”

Jaya Bhattacharya

A born-artiste, Jaya used to be quite active on the cultural scene even as a kid, especially during the puja. “I remember singing twice in the mahalaya chorus. Durga Puja in Lucknow is all about music and dance and the most beautiful part is that even though the Bengalis from those areas shifted elsewhere, the puja continues in the same grand manner being organised by the rest of the inhabitants of the area. How can it get any better than this,” she says, adding, “For me,

Lucknow Durga Puja

celebrations are the best! I so wish to visit to Lucknow to experience that beautiful part of our city's culture again.”