Gajan is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is associated with such deities as Shiva, Neel and Dharmathakur. Gajan spans around a week, starting at the last week of Choitro continuing till the end of the bengali year. It ends with Charak Puja. Participants of this festival are known as Sannyasis or Bhoktas. Persons of any gender can be a participant. The complete history of the festival is not known. The central theme of this festival is deriving satisfaction through non-sexual pain, devotion and sacrifice.
The word Gajan in Bengali comes from the word garjan or roar that Sannyasis (hermits) emit during the festivities. Alternatively, the word Gajan is considered a combination of parts of two words – Ga is from the word gram meaning village and Jan is from the word Janasadharan meaning folk. In this sense Gajan is a festival of village folk.
Source:Wikipedia

Being in Bengal, I had seen this festival in many places since my childhood, but could not experience the real flavor of it, till I fulfilled my long desire of being at Krishnadevpur, Kalna in the district of Burdwan. This year it was a firm decision that I have to go despite all odds. Usually the weather during this period ( mid April ) heats up with soaring humidity. I packed up with some of my friends and reached Krishnadevpur, taking a local train from Howrah at eight in the morning. We reached Kalna at around ten. After checking in at the hotel, we set for Krishnadevpur which is only five kilometers from Kalna. It was 13 th April 2018 and it was Neel Sashti today. We expected some real good face
and body paintings resembling Krishna, Shiva, Kali and many other deities. As we reached the Kali temple ( Mondir Tola ) area, we could feel the ambience around, we could smell the festival in the air and we were really excited that a long day and a full night awaits us, to capture the mood and moments of the festival. Locals confirmed that the night long function with fire and arms will be performed in this temple ground. Though my mythological knowledge is not so good, but I was not worried of that. I knew that I am a photographer and I cannot afford to miss out on very creative moments at the cost of interacting with story tellers to know about the etiology of the festival.There were many visitors and photographers from across the world to witness and
document the last two days of the festival. We could see the face paintings going on in one corner of the temple ground, hundreds of women standing in a queue to offer Puja to Goddess Maa Kali and Sannyasis or Bhoktas dressed up in red clothes. As I was busy photographing some candid moments with Krishna, one of my friend called me to the bamboo forest where a man was being painted like Goddess Kali. I moved there quickly to take some photographs. After our first spell till afternoon, we went back to the hotel and took some rest, because we had to store our energy for the night. As the night unfolded, there were many events to witness one after the other. The entire
village assembled to see their friends and relatives perform. Fire plays, piercing of sharp objects, enactments of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, the killing of Asura by Goddess Durga and the sudden appearance of Bhanda Kali with her ( his ) black painted body and bloody red tongue, were some of the highlights of the night. Suddenly
we realized that it was almost dawn and we needed to go back to the hotel to catch some sleep. The excitement continued as the thought of the next day’s event of Charak kept lurking in the mind.
The next day (14th April) was Charak Puja, the last leg of the weeklong festival. As we entered the Krishnadevpur high school ground at about four in the evening, we could hear the garjan (Roar) of the Sanyasis in the name of Lord Shiva, who is considered the Lord of the Lords. That’s why the Gargan is “Deb er Deb, Maha Deb”, meaning “Lord of the Lords, Great Lord (referred to Shiva)”. In the middle of the ground was installed the Charak Tree. The Devotees, a section of whom were piercing iron rods in their bodies and faces, to take victory laps around the Charak tree, while another group was in the
business of inserting iron hooks on their backs to hang themselves in  the Charak tree and take rounds. I had never witnessed this live, before. It was an amazing experience to witness such devotion and faith; such tolerance of pain to erase all sins of the past to ensure a happy and prosperous life – all in the name of the Lord! I tried asking many devotees whether it pains or not. It seemed that they did not like me asking such questions. They gave a look in my eyes to say, “What pain are you talking of? All in the name of Lord Shiva.” I kept wondering, as I left the school ground. The garjan continued for some time, till it slowly faded away…”Deb er Deb Maha Deb, Deb er Deb Maha Deb…..”