Durga Puja is the biggest festival for Bengalis who wait all year long for the five days of festivities. Vijaya Dashami, being the last day of the festival, is hence a sombre occasion when Goddess Durga is bid adieu for a year. Even though it’s a day when people feel sad, and emotional scenes can be seen at most of the pandals, there is a special group of people who religiously wait for the day. It’s the womenfolk. After ‘ghat visarjan’, a symbolic immersion of Durga declaring the end of the Puja rituals, women apply sindur, or vermillion, on the forehead and the feet of the Goddess and offer sweets to her. After that begins Sindoor Khela, when they apply sindoor on the feet of the older women among them and then playfully smear sindoor on each other’s faces.

Sindoor Khela, or Sindur Khela, literally means ‘vermillion game’, and is celebrated by Bengali Hindu women. Traditionally, this ritual is meant for married women who are supposed to follow a set custom and protocol while playing Sindoor Khela, believing this will bring good luck for them and long life for their husbands.

Breaking all the stereotypes, this day has been celebrated by Association of Transgender and Hijra Board in West Bengal where Socio-Legal Information Centre,Kolkata unit was invited to be a part of the auspicious occasion.