A Durga Puja in Switzerland strictly abides by the Kolkata calendar. From kolabou snan on Saptami morning to kumari puja on Ashtami, all the rituals are adhered to, like they are in a puja in Kolkata.
Not surprisingly, the idol is Made in Kumartuli. The organisers of many pujas in the West tweak the schedule. If the puja falls on weekdays, the rituals are done during the weekend immediately before or after. But no such deviations for the Durga Puja in Lausanne, a city on Lake Geneva in the French-speaking region of Vaud in southern Switzerland.
“We stick to the tradition as earnestly as possible. We follow every ritual. Our idol comes from Kumartuli. A Bengali priest flies in from Mumbai,” said Swayamvara Bose, one of the organisers. The puja is organised by Prangan, a socio-cultural association in Lausanne, home to the International Olympic Committee headquarters as well as the Olympic Museum.
Women are the face of the puja. The executive committee of the organisers comprise only women. The men work in the background. The venue of the puja is an opera hall at the Lausanne Centre in the heart of the city. The Prangan puja is only in its second year but is already a melting point for the larger Indian community. Last year, the puja was held abiding by the Covid protocols. But still it witnessed over 700 visitors, many of whom came from neighbouring cities in Switzerland, including Geneva, Vevey, Bern and Montreaux.
The Durga Puja in Lausanne last year.
“Indians from all backgrounds came to our puja. We could only allow 50 people inside together. So, people had to wait and enter the venue in batches,” said Madhurima Roy, another organiser.
This year, the registrations have already surpassed 2,000. Apart from Switzerland, people living in France, Germany and the Netherlands have also registered in numbers, organisers said.
Many of the organisers are not Bengalis. But they look forward to the Prangan Durga Puja throughout the year. Isha Ranadive is one of them. Isha, who traces her roots to Baroda, lives in Geneva but spends the Puja days in Lausanne.
“I am part of multiple Indian organisations but the warmth that I get here is special.The fact that women are the face of this puja is also an added attraction,” she told The Telegraph over the phone.
Before the puja at Lausanne started, many of the organisers used to go to Zurich to attend the festivities. The Durga puja in Zurich is one of the most popular in Europe. “We used to apply for leave months in advance. We would drive for three hours. Hotel bookings and other logistics were also involved. The fun was worth all the effort. But some of us thought if we were putting in so much of an effort, we might as well start a puja in Lausanne,” said Bose, who was born and raised at a house on Amherst Street in north Kolkata and is no stranger to traditional Durga Puja.
A lavish vegetarian spread — including polau, khichudi, kofta, beguni, luchi, chholar daal and sweets — awaits visitors from Saptami to Navami. After the idol is boxed — because immersions in water are not allowed — on Dashami, comes a non-vegetarian feast, replete with kosha mangsho and hilsa fry.
The puja is backed by the Indian high commission and the local administration, the organisers said.
Cultural programmes are a big draw. An opera by a Swiss troupe, scheduled for Ashtami, is one of the highlights this year.
