From the archive record
Women all lined up to worship at Chhat Pooja, with offerings of coconuts and bananas aplenty! Worshipping the sun god by an artificial plastic sheet lined water body, by the Purvanchali population of Delhi. Sugarcane stalks, banana bunches and banana leaves signify fertility, success, a good harvest and an offering to the gods... What a festival of colour Chhat has turned into. Women dress in almost bridal finery to pray to the Sun god, standing shin deep in cold water in the late autumn season, as music blares from loud speakers, in an improvised government-created water body lined with plastic, to emulated the Yamuna river. This has been done since water immersions are now banned, and to facilitate local communities to pray and also build a political support base with the important Purva