Locomotoring

I am starting to develop new traditions and fungi has a role to play in that development.

For those of us who leave home to migrate elsewhere, whether by choice or not, the traditions can never be what they once were. I have finally accepted the loss of my yesteryear Bengali traditions. One of my favorite was to wake up with my mother and years later, with my grandmother to tune into Mahisasurmardini at the advent of Durga Puja. We would tune into All India Radio at 4 am from the comfort of our bed to listen to Birendra Krishna Bhadra chant the prayer(link). Mahisasurmardini goes back to the dawn of Hindu religion and Birendra Bhadra’s voice goes back to 1931. Back when I was a child, sleep was precious and yet, the connection I felt with my elders pulled me into joining the family ritual and Bhadra’s primal vocals, chosen to wake up goddess Durga year after year, invariably woke me up. Now, my elders are no longer close to me and sleep is no longer precious. The powerful and moving voice of Bhadra gives me the goosebumps still. One year I experimented with tuning in when it was 4 am in India, in order to join million others in Bengal. The wakeful of the mid-afternoon California, with its bright lights and busyness, took me even further away from the pre-dawn experience.

The traditions co-evolve with the environment – like the fungi to its terroir.