Taiwan has been back in the global media headlines thanks to the intensifying geopolitical wranglings and rumblings involving China and the US-led West.
However, a significant part of the overseas Bengali population in the island’s capital of Taipei seems to be unfazed by the cross-strait tension. Despite the recent streak of geopolitical developments, they are gearing up to welcome Goddess Durga and her family in a landmark year that saw the biggest festival of Bengal being inscribed in Unesco’s intangible heritage list.
Taiwan is known for its resilience, and the Bengali community in Taipei seems to have imbibed that spirit quite well. Their chins are up as the island recently witnessed a series of earthquakes.
But believe it or not, the onus of performing the puja and the rites and rituals related to it will be shepherded by a woman scientist. Dr Symphony Chakraborty is a reputable international scholar and an ace applied mathematician with a slew of globally renowned science institutions her alma maters.
“Various young scholars and university students from Bengal used to act as priests in our Bengalis in Taiwan (BiT) — Bangadarshan Durgotsav for the last few years, and I used to assist them in making arrangements for the puja. But this time, we haven’t found anyone who can take over the important mantle of being the priest for various reasons in this pandemic-affected year. After being motivated by a few of our BiT — Bangadarshan members, I have taken up the formidable challenge,” Taipei-based Chakraborty said.
The mechanical engineering doctorate from the French institut d'éminence, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie (UPMC), currently part of the prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris, is also a former post-doctoral fellow of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. Chakraborty has been swiftly but quite intensely switched over to a non-STEM subject these days amidst her hectic scholarly schedule as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Applied Mechanics at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taiwan’s bustling capital.
For her, “it’s complicated to deliver such an elaborate and intensive affair like Durga Puja in one day, but it’s not rocket science”.
“I grew up in Siliguri and used to help my father during our household puja quite regularly. That’s how I was inclined towards these rituals and, more importantly, spirituality, as I have found solace in it over the years,” Chakraborty said.
But has the switch from science to spirituality or from deciphering the dynamics of the God Particle to the Goddess of religion been really easy? “Well, I believe where science ends, spirituality starts exactly right from there. As an open-minded science scholar, I am against all religious restrictions and want to practise my religion the way I want. But I am quite a religious practitioner of my belief and spirituality. That’s beyond the science books and the theories or various scientific postulations,” she said.
Even though her parents presently reside in Siliguri in north Bengal, Chakraborty has been living outside India for more than a decade. But she has neither heard of professor Nandini Bhowmik, who has been solemnising marriages for more than a decade as Bengal’s first Hindu priest, nor watched the recent award-winning Bengali blockbuster Brahma Janen Gopon Kommoti (2020) that delicately depicted how a woman shackled the regressive chains and medieval patriarchal supremacy barriers in religious affairs through its main protagonist Shabari.
“I do puja for myself and feel happy about that. I don’t look at others or poke my nose into others’ lives. But if I find time and the option to watch it in Taipei, I will definitely watch the film,” Chakraborty said.
True to her given name, Chakraborty has orchestrated each essential element of the Durga Puja rituals so far. “Her sense of responsibility and passion for performing the puja have been music to the ears of the organisers and fellow members of the BiT — Bangadarshan in Taipei. We are really upbeat and happy that Symphony has been a saviour for us in this year’s Durga Puja,” Pinaki Sarkar, a Taipei-based software engineer and a key member of the BiT — Bangadarshan said.
(The writer is a journalist and MOE Huayu Scholar in Kaohsiung, Taiwan)