The last building to the right of Street 296, overlooking the fenced-off DB Block playground wore a festive look last week with the garage space of the apartment block turned into a Basanti puja pandal.
While Ma Durga, as Basanti, with her divine children took centrestage, there was a smaller idol of Ma Annapurna giving alms to Lord Shiva.
“This is the only Basanti puja in the neighbourhood. In fact, we have not heard of any other in the township. Bhog is offered over four days,” said Akhilbandhu Pal, one of the organisers, clad in dhuti panjabi.
“We had people from across New Town visiting over the past couple of days,” he said on Ashtami afternoon.
Though they call it a family puja, the family is of business partners living in the building. “You may say our puja is a barowari Durgotsav turned into family affair,” he smiled, referring to the evolution of community pujas from indoor pujas organised by families.
The puja is linked to the very inception of their cohabitation. “We finished construction fast as we wanted to host Basanti puja, the dates for which were within a fortnight of our grihaprabesh,” Pal said.
The puja, just into its fourth year, has already developed a tradition. “On Dashami, we take only Pantabhaat and Alu Bhaatey. This is because in that first year, we had made elaborate plans for bhog from Sashthi to Navami but it was only on Dashami-eve that we realised that there were no plans for Dashami meals. Hence a simple menu was chosen. We are carrying on with the practice,” he smiled.
The eight families in the building are partners in a software and design factory, with its office in Sector V. “Organising Durga puja is a common practice, so we wanted to do things a bit differently,” said Sourav Jha, also in dhuti panjabi.
Calling himself the “only non-Bengali in the building”, he said he shared an affinity with his neighbours in being a fish-eater as a Maithili Brahmin.
Organising Basanti puja rather than the autumnal version of Durga puja has another advantage. “We are free to go out on vacation during Durga puja as Ma visits us anyway in spring,” they said.