There's a strange little detail buried in the Durga Puja story that most people who grow up celebrating it never stop to notice: the festival is happening at the wrong time of year. According to the older scriptural tradition, Durga's proper worship — her real season — was always spring. The autumn version that half of Bengal now builds its entire calendar around is, mythologically speaking, an improvisation. A workaround. And the story of how that workaround came to be is on