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Khuti puja in progress in FD Park on Friday. Picture by Madhumita Nandi
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For the 50-odd residents who turned up at the khuti puja of FD Block Sarbojanin Puja Committee on Ultarath last Friday, there was one question on everyone’s lips — “What will be the look of the puja this year?”
“Gyanchokshu (Wisdom eye)” is the single word answer that block president Santanu Biswas gave them.
The 28th edition of the puja was flagged off with the customary ritual at FD Park. “For the last three years, we have been holding khuti puja — worship of one of the poles of the pandal before the start of the construction— on the day of rathyatra. This year, we needed a little more time to finalise the theme. Hence the delay by a week to coincide the ritual with Ultarath, which is also an auspicious day,” said Biswas.
In earlier years, khuti puja happened much later, on Janmashtami. “But the late start was leaving us with less time to construct the pandal.”
Suman Halder, who is in charge of both idol and pandal this year, plans to start the pandal in mid-July. He was in charge of the AJ Block and BE (East) puja in 2011.
“It is said that the third eye is present in human beings too. It opens when one attains knowledge (gyan). One ultimate truth to be learnt is the inevitability of the victory of good over evil. This will be the theme of the pandal,” Halder said.
The pandal will be in the shape of a 10-ft eye. At the entrance there will be Nrisingha avatar killing the demon-king Hiranyakashipu. Inside, the sound and light design will be such that all five senses will be involved. The idol will be in keeping with the look of the pandal.
“But we have told him not to do anything that will clash with the traditional image of the Mother Goddess. Ten years ago, we had faced a situation where the image was so unlike Durga that we had to buy a mini idol and worship it,” Biswas said.
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