It's been a happy coincidence that we are travelling around in one of the biggest Hindu festivals of the year, Durga Puja -apart from being a religious festival for the Hindus. While the rituals entails ten days of fast, feast and worship, the last four days - Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami - are celebrated with much gaiety and grandeur in India and abroad, especially in Bengal, where the ten-armed goddess riding the lion is worshipped with great passion and devotion. There's the most elaborate temporary temples all around every town, with light displays displays and spectators all in their finery and they seriously look real! In Kolkata we saw a huge display of statues and that evening it was shut down, as tens of thousands of devout came to see the and people were seriously injured and crushed. Now we're in Mirik the festivities continue and a parade with floats goes through town.
Later we head to the temple in the forest and are promised that there will be great festivities in the evening, and sure enough when we come out of the restaurant there's a parade with a fire pit being taken round town, and so we head back up through the forest by torch light in the evening to join the the festivities and are so warmly welcomed. Asking what time the fire pit will arrive I am told "there is no timetable, they are just walking"