By Biswamoy Mukherjee
Kolkata, Aug 23 (UNI) With barely six weeks to go for Durga Puja, affectionately called
pujo by many Bengalis, the momentum has already started gaining ground across the
state as one can easily gauge the festive mood wafting everywhere.
Several big clubs in Kolkata have announced the artist and also conducted Khuti
Puja.
In Kolkata, the excitement begins much before autumn even arrives. Shops start
announcing puja sales and there is frenzied buying of gifts everywhere.
It is a tradition in most Bengali homes to wear a brand new outfit each day of the
puja and exchange new clothes much before the actual puja week. This is done so
that there is enough time to buy matching accessories or make alterations, if
required.
Durga Puja festival is an extremely social and theatrical event. Drama, dance, and
cultural performances are widely held. Food is a huge part of the festival, and street
stalls blossom all over Kolkata.
In the evenings, the streets of Kolkata fill with people, who come to admire the
statues of Goddess Durga, eat, and celebrate.
A few weeks before the countdown begins, Artisans come in droves from
surroundings villages, towns and suburban Kolkata to construct, design and
decorate the pandals – the temporary temples – that will house the deities.
The pandals crop up all over the city, tens of thousands of them. Anywhere
where there is an iota of space really. Parks and pavements, playgrounds and
parking lots – nothing is spared.
Major roads are cordoned off and sometimes when you are driving down your
usual route to work or returning home, you may suddenly have to stop, turn back
and take a detour.
The skeletal structures of pandals are made from bamboo. The frames are then
covered with cloth or canvas. The pandals are usually elaborate works of art with
themes borrowed from history and religion.
Many of them are modelled after famous temples or monuments such as the
Taj Mahal and are often as imposing as the India Gate.
The structures often look so real that it is impossible for an outsider to know
that it’s not a permanent structure.
During the Durga Puja Festival the city explodes with more than thousand
thematic and colourful pandals and reveals several forms of goddess Durga
idols, thus pulling in a huge number of crowds and making it one of the biggest
autumn festivals in the world.
MORE UNI BM SJC