The Season That Was Wrong
The Goddess sleeps in summer. This is not metaphor but cosmology. In the older ritual calendar, Devi's wakeful season runs from the cold months into spring, Chaitra Navratri, when the world is tilting toward heat and the nights still carry a chill. Sharad, the autumn that now hosts the grandest Durga Puja celebrations across Bengal and beyond, was her time of rest. To call her then was to call her at the wrong hour, against the order of things.
