Festive fervour
Durga Puja and Navratri are observed with as much pomp and festivity in the United States of America as they are in India. The celebrations were naturally dampened in the last two years owing to the pandemic. The Bengali diaspora thus looked forward to celebrating the Pujas this year. The East Coast Durga Puja Association, established in 1970, was the first formal, non-profit organiser of Durga Puja in New York. It hosts events with bhog, music and performances over three days of the festival. The events are attended by more than 1,000 people. The New York Kali Mandir in Baldwin also opens its doors during the five days of the Puja. Initially, the mandir housed only Goddess Kali but has since displayed other Hindu gods and goddesses. Unesco declared Durga Puja an ‘intangible cultural heritage of humanity’ in 2021. This pumped up everyone’s spirits overseas to celebrate the festival with pride. The migration of Bengalis from India and Bangladesh has increased over the years, with a sizeable population concentrated in the East Coast and the Bay Area. For the first time, an entire Puja mandap was transported from Kumartuli to California, the Millennium Post reported. The pandal took almost three months to complete under the supervision of the artist, Sandip Chatterjee. Most of the idols in California were made of fibre and were unlikely to have been immersed in the California bay.
Autumnal spirit
The most wonderful time of the year is still around the corner but its predecessor — Fall — has arrived. The change in weather from hot and humid to crisp, cold and sunny happened almost overnight. The season is marked by pumpkins, apples, orange leaves, Halloween and students heading back to school. The pumpkin spice — a blend of cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg — has become synonymous with Fall. Starbucks was the first to debut the pumpkin spice latte back in 2003, pioneering an industry-wide trend. There are several foliage trails and hikes that can be taken during this time. Amtrak — the national rail system — offers journeys on ‘leaf peeping’ routes. Most national parks have online maps facilitated by a complex algorithm that predicts when and how the leaves will change colour. Shopping for interior decorations has perked up. #FallDecor has garnered over eight million views on TikTok. Indoor decorations for the season include adorning the front porch with a pumpkin, orange and yellow leafy decorations and bringing out the warm and fuzzy blankets. Oktoberfest, a beer-on-tap festival, is also a part of the Fall line-up. According to TripsToDiscover. com, the top three places that celebrate Oktoberfest are Cincinnati in Ohio, Chatham in Massachusetts and Wenatchee in Washington.
Electrifying the future
While the sale of cars slumped during the Covid-19 pandemic, the electric vehicle market in the US is witnessing an expansion. Recently, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, announced that all gas-powered vehicles will be banned by 2035 in order to transition to zero-emission infrastructure. The US president, Joe Biden, has set a target for the sale of EVs to cross the 50 per cent mark by 2030. Major car companies have invested billions of dollars in the electrification of the transport system. “New York is a national climate leader and an economic powerhouse, and we’re using our strength to help spur innovation and implementation of zero-emission vehicles on a grand scale,” the New York governor said. However, experts have been sceptical about the target. The president of Toyota termed California’s zero-emission goal as ‘difficult’ to meet. Regardless, the sale of EVs has tripled in the last four years. Charging stations are also popping up across the country.
Meaningless trend
The Food & Drug Administration has issued a warning saying it is dangerous to cook chicken in NyQuil — an over-the-counter medicine that is used for treating flu. Last year, a social media post dared people to boil chicken in a mixture of acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine — the key constituents of NyQuil.“One social media trend relying on peer pressure is online video clips of people misusing nonprescription medications... These video challenges, which often target youths, can harm people — and even cause death,” the FDA stated. Ironically, some media outlets pointed out that it was not a viral post until the FDA posted its public warning. The trend is similar to the online Tide Pod challenge of 2018, which dared people to take a bite of the laundry detergent.
Footnote
TikTok’s ‘Butter Board’ trend has taken the internet by storm. It involves serving softened, sometimes flavoured, butter on a wooden cutting or cheese board in a decorative fashion with some toasted bread on the side. Since mid-September, #ButterBoard has been viewed over 116.4 million times, while #Butter has been searched more than 9.4 billion times on TikTok, according to Yahoo News. It is ultimately just bread and butter but presented in a fancy way to make it entertaining for the guests.
