A 13-year-old is the priest at the debut Durga Puja at a home for girls in north Calcutta.

From pandal to food, everything has been arranged by the girls. A three-and-a-half-year-old is the youngest and most exuberant member of the organising committee, keeping “a keen eye” on the decorations and running around the pandal.

A condition binds all the residents — all of them are HIV positive.

Snhneer (abode of affection) in Teghoria is home to 26 girls. The youngest is three and a half and the eldest 19 years. The girls come from different districts. Over half the girls are orphans. Some of them have been discarded by their families. The girls reached the home — set up in 2004 — via Childline India Foundation.

They live at the home, are enlisted at local schools and receive vocational training alongside formal education.

“In the past years, some of the girls visited their parents or relatives during the Puja break. But this year, because of the pandemic, they have not been allowed to leave the home since March,” said Tania Das, the director of Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust, which runs the home.
Das said the girls came up with the idea of hosting a puja inside the home this year.

“I was a little apprehensive when I heard the proposal because Durga Puja needs elaborate preparations. There are so many things to take care of. But the girls were determined and I had to give in,” she told Metro.

A small pandal was built in the courtyard of the home. Three sides of the pandal are open and the roof is covered with tarpaulin on the base of a net. The background of the idol has been decorated with thermocol plates of varying sizes.

The idols — 15-inch miniature of goddess Durga and smaller versions of her children — were brought from a studio in Bagbazar by Das.

A 13-year-old girl from Nadia is donning the role of the priest. She was trained for a week by a professional priest with the help of a book of shlokas.

“I was nervous at the start of the training. But day one went off smoothly and boosted my confidence. I have been told that sincerity is most important, not the nitty-gritty of rituals,” the teenager told Metro over the phone.

Food is also an important part of the celebrations here. The menu is simple. On Day One (Sashthi), breakfast was Maggi. The menu for lunch was rice, daal, alu bhaja and machher dim bhaja (fried fish roe) followed by chutney. Egg rolls were served for dinner.

A local phuchka seller has offered free evening snacks to the children, said Das. Similarly, a patron has promised a hilsa lunch and another a mutton lunch.

The youngest member of the home, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl, was found on a pavement over a year ago, said Das. She was extremely weak when she came to the home.

But with proper food, medicines and care, the girl is able to run around now. The centre of everyone’s attention, she “tries her hand in everything” related to the pujas, including drawing alpana on the floor.