Celebrating Diwali late this year because of school exams, we joyfully carried home sheesh kebabs, samosas, jalebis, aachars and mango lassi from the nearest Indian deli, cooking two kinds of daal and a big pot of mutton-aloo-gobi to go with it, as our teenagers lit twinkling diyas to the strains of Anoushka Shankar

xThirteen years ago, in a column for The Guardian, I wrote about taking my tenderly young half-English children to a temple in Leicester to experience their first Durga Puja. Not a patch on the Pujas of Kolkata, with its amazing artistry, dazzling illuminations and epic hustle and bustle, this modest event still managed to capture that spirit of bonhomie. The ‘bhog’ was delicious and generously apportioned, and the organisers warm and welcoming to strangers like us rocking u

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