Where men cross-dress to welcome goddess Jagadhatri in West Bengal

In a unique tradition that dates back to over 200 years, men (read straight men) in a West Bengal town near Kolkata ritually bid farewell to goddess Jagadhatri  dressed up as women in sari.  Tetultala Jagadhatri Maa Puja in Bhadreswar in Hooghly district this year stepped into 229 years of worshipping Jagadharti, another reincarnation of Goddess Durga. Here the men cross-dress since the British period to hail the goddess with Barandala (the bamboo tray). The tradition began when women were supposedly advised not to go out. IBNS Images by Avishek Mitra