Dondi @ Kalighat, Kolkata - riding piggy back

Dondi is a Hindu religious rite or ritual, an act of penance and worship to the Goddess Shitala to keep diseases at bay
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitala
It is performed mainly in Kolkata and Bengal, that I’m aware of & at quite a few locations. This particular event is held annually at Kalighat Kali temple area in the peak of summer. Devotees prostrate themselves on the bare ground in prayer, then get up to walk a few steps before prostrating all over again. The journey starts with a dip at the Ganga river banks in Kalighat and terminates about a kilometer away with a fire ritual
Most participants are women and children, with the odd men thrown in
Water is liberally strewn out onto the streets, by water tankers, volunteers and well wishers - by buckets on to the streets and participating devotees just to make this event possible
In a nutshell, www.joydeepmukherjee.com/gallery.php?id=NzE=

The golden rule if you wish to get into the thick of things is to get your foot wear off
needless to say my footwear came off very early on
first time i was witnessing this event, so i did not know the rules or the tricks
next up, is to save your gear from all the splashing water

little children are often placed on the backs of the performing devotees, they are also placed on the ground and the devotees asked to step over them
the water volunteers are extra careful not to drench these tiny tots with water
am not sure they care as much for all the photography gear around, so i was more than scared to say the least

Taken on: April 25, 2015

Tags:

dondi

kolkata

kalighat

sitala

water

splash

bare feet

simmering hot summer heat

hot tarmac

fuji

fuji hs50 exr

women

children « less

Sets appears in: • Dondi • Fuji Finepix HS50

Groups appears in: • Flickr Addicts • Calcutta / Kolkata more » • FlickrToday (only 1 pic per day) • Kolkata Amateur Photographers • flickr (unofficial) • Fuji HS50 EXR Users group « less

Camera: Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR, f/3.6, 1/210 sec, 7.9mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR
Aperture:	f/3.6
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/210)
Focal Length:	7.9mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Digital Camera FinePix HS50EXR Ver1.01
Show full info

Stats: 2,488 views / 3 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder