Ask a young Jamshedpurean which is the city's oldest Puja and he is likely to be scratching his head.

Officially known as the SE Railway Traffic Colony Durga, Laxmi & Kali Puja Committee but popular as Traffic Colony Puja, the celebration initiated in 1906 was the first public Durgotsav as we now know it.

Jamshedpur's first Puja, which started 11 decades ago near the railway station, has witnessed everything from the two world wars, Indian independence, man on the moon, the collapse of USSR and Internet and telecom revolutions.

Closer home, it has seen Kalimati station turn into Tatanagar, the fledgling Tata group into huge Indian multinational, and Jamshedpur into a bustling cosmopolitan city with over 300 Puja pandals.

What has stayed the same at the Traffic Colony Puja is the stress on simplicity and rituals, shunning the jazzy theme pandals with their extravagant budgets.

Its organisers, right from stationmaster Dilip Sengupta who initiated the Puja 11 decades ago to the present-day ones, numbering around 120 members of the committee, have always concentrated more on the idol and the sanctity of the rituals.

"Most of us are railway employees so we don't receive hefty donations like the big-budget pujas. We only concentrate on the idol, the rituals and bhog distribution. The members collect money throughout the year and we finally organise this Puja," said Biswajeet Mukherjee, the present-day president of the Puja committee.

Mukherjee added that Kalimati stationmaster Sengupta had been helped by some three-four families in the first few years after he started the Puja in 1906.

"Back in 1906, even Tata Steel was a new company waiting to start its operations in the village of Kalimati," Mukherjee recounted. "As the company ran successfully, more people came to settle in these parts. In 1913, our Puja became sarvajanik or public as people started donating chanda to organise it."

However, he clarified that the committee members even today collected nominal donations from about 400 families in the area.

"We have never been ambitious for a bigger and costlier pandal. We believe in keeping things simple," Mukherjee said. "It's a cosy atmosphere here. And, our Traffic Colony Puja is known for being big on traditions. For instance, our priest Madan Mohan Choudhury, who comes from Anandapur in Midnapore, Bengal, is the third-generation member of his family to perform the rituals here."

Senior citizens also recalled how Tata Steel started its profit-sharing bonus just before Durga Puja in 1934.

"The Tatas started giving their employee bonus just before the festival so that people could enjoy Puja nicely. By the mid-1930s, the city had many Pujas, some even organised by groups of Tata employees," recalled an old-timer.

If you have an anecdote about your city's oldest Puja, share it at ttkhand@abpmail.com