For actor Raima Sen, the festival time of Durga Puja is all about indulging completely in the fun festivities and lip-smacking food! While the actor will have to give the initial days a miss due to work commitments in Mumbai, she will go to her ‘base’ Kolkata towards the end and make up for the lost time. Nevertheless, she says that there is a tradition that she and her family follow every year regardless of where she is.

Grand-daughter of legendary actor Suchitra Sen and daughter of Moon Moon Sen, Raima tells HTCity what the festival means to her.

“We don’t follow a single family tradition as such but we make it a point to meet all of our relatives. We keep meeting our friends but relatives we don’t get to meet. Our mother always buys us five new sarees for the day and she new jewellery,” says Raima, who quickly adds, “And we make it a point not to diet so we have a lot of sweets and I think this the best time to let go and enjoy.”

Also Read | Raima Sen: The last couple of years I have only done OTT work and I love it

The festival is incomplete for her without talking about the food she loves.

With glee in her voice, the actor shares, “We love our Kosha mangsho, we love our Ilish mach”. These are two favorites. Then there is Aloo Posto, Bhendi Bhaja, Potoler Dorma. But my favorite is Mutton Kosha and Ilish mach.”

Even though Raima has grown up in Mumbai, during the festival of Durga Puja, she remembers going to her maternal grandmother Suchitra Sen’s house.

“My grandmother Suchitra Sen used to celebrate Durga Puja in her house, every year. So we used to dress up, take our friends from school, wear our little sarees and my grandmother used to draw with alpana, she used to dress up the murti and it was very big in her house. All our relatives would come and we would eat on those banana leafs on floor. We just remember fun. It was just four days of fun, eating, meeting people, dancing,” shares Raima, who sounds nostalgic as she remembers her childhood.

While she confesses that a busy schedule deprives her of enjoying the festival the same way as she did during childhood, there are perks of it too.

“With the busy schedule now I don’t get to have that kind of fun that I had when I was little but we are always called to inaugurate a lot of pandals in these four five days and we get to judge the pandals, we get to travel a little far away from Calcutta, I get to see more pandals than I ever saw as a child. I get to see some of the best puja pandals. We don’t miss out much but ofcourse its a lot of crowd but I still get to see,” shares Raima, who was seen in Bastar: The Naxal Story, Aliya Basu Gayab Hai and Bengali film Chaalchitro: The Frame Fatale