It is Durga Pujas. And the beginning of a festive season, when the smell of incense sticks, dhoop, candles wafts through every town and city and the Durga pandals are decorated with fierce competition and grandeur, each wanting to outdo the other. Not a whiff of the air here in Melbourne, hence the nostalgia. Going down memory lane, it was one of the most enjoyable time of my childhood. New clothes, new toys and gifts. What more could one ask for then? My parents, avid Hindus, would tune to the radio six days before the Pujas to listen to Mahalaya. I never understood anything but I did know it was an auspicious moment heralding the onset of Durja Puja. The chants would blare from the radio in the wee hours of the morning. It did something to me, there was an unexplained feeling of happiness in the house as I would cover my head in my quilt and rejoice in passive participation. For the next four days, we would be busy as a family visiting various pandals in our new clothes and return