Poila Baisakh-----Bengali New Year

Shuvo Nababarsha to you! Getting surprised? Don’t know what this stuff means? Then let me tell you that it means ‘Happy New Year’ in Bengali. For the Bengalees, new year starts from the first day of the month Boisakh, which apparently falls on 14th or 15th April every year and we call it Poila Baisakh, where Poila means one. Tomorrow, we Bengalees are going to celebrate our new year, 1416. The memory bank of our mobile phones will be flooded with Shuvo Nabarasha wish messages from our friends and we will keep on replying them tirelessly. It is a great day for the Bengalees, not only in Kolkata and other parts of India but in Bangladesh and also for those who are inhabitants of other countries, whom we prefer calling as NRBs (Non Residential Bengalees).

The celebration of Poila Boisakh or Bengali New Year starts from the wee hours of the day at the Ganga ghat. People, specially the business-class people take holy dip in the Ganga, offer prayers to the Sun (Surya Devata) and get their new Haal khata (new journal book) marked with Swastik symbol marked with holy sindur. They seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and Lord Laxmi, as they are considered as God’s of wealth and wisdom and start their new financial year. The ritual is a common practice among people engaged in jewelry business as they seek more profit. In the evening, they throw parties at their shops and offer sweets with other food and a Bengali calendar to their customers. Opening an account on the Haal khaata by depositing some amount or by buying some jewelry is also a part of the Poila Boisakh’s ritual.

As it is a pure Bengali festival, we Bengalees prefer getting into traditional attires on Poila Boisakh. Women wearing laal paad sharee (white saree with broad red border) with hear untied, sindurer tip (Sindur bindi) and dazzling jewelries and men wearing dhoti and punjabi is a very common sight of Poila Boisakh. As we Bengalees are food lovers, the sweet shops in the city witness huge crowds from the early morning. It is a day that we prefer enjoying with our family members. Television channels too offer special programs on Poila Boisakh among which the most popular is the Nababarsher Boithok, which comes on Doordarshan, the national channel.

For young people, Poila Bosiakh is a great day to enjoy with friends and for those who have got love affairs it is simply a golden opportunity to see their girlfriends wearing sarees. As the lifestyle of Bengalees people have drastically changed over the last few years, restaurants have taken over the kitchen-made food, which was a major tradition of Poila Boisakh in the past. Nowadays, restaurants offer traditional Bengalee foods like shukto, chholar daal, begun vaaja, machher kalia and chatni on Poila Boisakh, which is a big relief for the housewives.

Being a Kolkata-based company, we at Aslogtech, wish every Bengalee a very Shuvo Nabarsha and wish the new year will bring all happiness and everything that you desire to get.