Ladies of BD Block gathered near the pandal on Ashtami for back-to-back conchshell-blowing and candle-lighting contests.
The first drew 12 participants. Srimonti Ganguly could only blow the conschshell for four seconds but jokingly blamed it on her full stomach. “I could have blown it for longer, but I just ate before coming and my stomach’s too heavy now,” she laughed. “This contest is for fun; coming together itself adds to the mood of the festival.”
Sarmistha Banik won the first prize in both competitions. She played the conch for 20 seconds, beating Chandana Das, who secured the second position with 18 seconds. “There was no special practice, but I daily play the conch thrice in the morning and thrice in the evening,” said Banik. She won the next contest by lighting 11 candles with one matchstick. “Last year I lit 20,” she added.
There was a tie between sisters Sarmistha Chakraborty and Sudeshna Raha for the third position, where they both lit nine candles.
But after two rounds of rematch, Sarmistha secured the third position. “This is strange, but we kept lighting the same number of candles,” smiled the younger sister. “It took two rematches, but finally I could win by lighting six candles,” smiled the younger sister.