Kolkata, Oct 4  The full moon day after Dussehra, when Bengalis worship goddess of wealth Lakshmi in most homes, brings a whiff of nostalgia to those settled abroad. Bengalis in Nashville, Tennessee, like many other places in the US where the community is settled, got together Saturday to celebrate the occasion in a special way, community leaders said on phone.

The women took the lead in fasting and praying as they meticulously performed the rituals.

"Here we do not have Lakshmi Puja at our individual homes. We organise the puja in the hall of the Ganesh Temple in Nashville. It starts after 4 p. m.," Arijit Basu, a research analyst staying there for the past three years, told IANS.

"We kept fast like we did in Kolkata. After puja we had bhog and then we came back home," Haimanti Ghosh, another Bengali staying in Nashville, told IANS.

Like Haimanti, other women such as Shyamali Ghosh, Arati Saha, Biva Halder, Supti Chowdhury and Dolly Das all participated in the puja to get a feel of Bengal 13,000 km from Kolkata.

One such Bengali in Nashville, Koel Chatterjee, who longs for her hometown, said: "We try to remind ourselves every day that we are essentially Bengalis and that reflects in our dealings with the people here... the courtesy, the gentleness, the goodness we hold very dear to our hearts. These occasions help us find our roots."

The Bengali Association of Greater Nashville (BAGN) has 175 families as members besides a floating population of students.

"This year we had an added attraction on Lakshmi Puja day as one of our community members got engaged in the morning. So we had celebrations from the morning," Arijit said.

With Lakshmi Puja falling on a weekend this year, the non-resident Bengalis got more time to participate.

BAGN tries to add to religious celebrations through various cultural programmes as they did during the recently concluded Durga Puja. Cultural programmes include classical and modern songs, dances and plays.

"I lived the first 28 years of my life in India... in Kolkata. Now, I have been living in the US for 20 years. I do feel that I am part of American society now. However, I do also hold on to my roots," Arup Bandopadhyay, an ardent Rabindranath Tagore fan, told IAN on phone.

Saying that Durga Puja and other such festivities help them to remain Bengalis, he said: "Just like I was part and parcel of such events when I lived in India, I do the same, I feel the same here in the US as well. I am highly involved with all aspects of Durga Puja in my present hometown Nashville." (IANS)