Karva Chauth in Nagpur

Yups, am now married and observed Karva Chauth on the 7th of October. Due to work I was in Nagpur that week.

There was an article in Times of India that day on how Karva Chauth was a festival that "trapped women". That's my reading from the article anyway. Apart from the article being badly structured and having no point, what I couldn't understand is how a festival, which celebrates the deep union between a husband and a wife, is actually sweet in its own way and has a completely peaceful agenda can be subverted to be a tool of patriarchal repression.

If you ask me, they're reading too much into it.

It was tough fasting without water. But more than anything it was an endurance exercise. Hell, I've done worse and felt worse while I was trekking upto 15000 feet in the Himalayas. My body was acclimatizing and at the same time I was trying to get as much oxygen in my body as I could.

I had a typically traditional karva chauth. I woke up at 4 o'clock, bathed, ate some fruit and the sayweeya. Then I fell back off to sleep because I had a long day of work ahead of me.

The day went keeping away from food and all forms of strenuous exercise. Needless to say I did not rush out and go jogging. I took the day easy and then after work came back, changed into the lovely saree I'd gotten from my Mom and got all ready for the pooja ceremony in the evening.

The pooja ceremony consists of worship of the karva (the earthen jar) which represents Lord Ganesha. You have a simple prayer in your head and wish for the good and long life of your husband and all your near and dear ones. A thali is arranged with all sorts of items (16 in my case) which are regularly used by you, which will be donated later. Since it was my first karva chauth, I also had in the pooja items that I was going to give my Mom, which I did the pooja with.

Around 8:00 the moon was sighted (thank god!!) and we broke the fast around 8:30. My sweet husband waited for me to have dinner first before he did, so that even though we were in different cities at least we could eat dinner at the same time.

Did I feel that I was being suppressed? In fact, the four of us married ladies who did the pooja together shared a common bond that day. They also took special care of me since it was my first karva chauth, and I'm glad that I had them around.

If anything, I felt it made you stronger as a woman and united us all together.