Commotion at a Durga Puja!

 

The Durga Puja pandal was quiet in the morning hours, except for the occasional bursts of incantations from the priests, amplified by the mics. Suddenly, there was a commotion. Two street urchins, probably around 7-8 years of age, entered and marched ahead confidently and occupied two empty plastic chairs in the front row. Their tiny skinny bodies black as coal and clad in rags. Somehow, they were in possession of two toy pistols that they were firing continuously. The decent devotees at the adjacent chairs looked askance at them, horrified in some unnamed way. They immediately asked them to silence their pistols, and the kids gestured they wanted food. A senior organizer looked around annoyed, perhaps not finding the volunteers assigned with the duties of crowd control. Even as the firing continued unabated, a seemingly resourceful lady devotee consulted the priests on the altar and eventually managed to collect some particles of food--of sweets and fruits--that she gave away to the urchins. Although not apparently pacified, the kids took those and left the pandal, firing and chatting louder. However, all those in the pandal were back to their undisturbed devotion.