In response to the question asked in The Telegraph Salt Lake on November 3 about how I spent my Durga Puja, I had an enjoyable festival.
For the last 30 years, I was posted in Jharkhand but one of my colleagues there used to always invite us to visit his ancestral puja in Kumartuli. He hails from the reputed kabiraj Gangaprasad Sen’s family and their puja is now more than 180 years old.
Though we could never go over before this, after my superannuation and shift to New Town we decided to visit Kumartuli this year on Saptami.
I was amazed to learn that the priests performing the rituals there are also descendants of the same family since inception. The puja started with ma-er snan. The ritual used large copper vessels filled with water from the Ganga and a mirror made of silver. The senior-most member of the Sen family held the mirror and recited the mantras, as prompted by the priest. We were told that this ritual was performed on all four days of Durga puja but we had never seen this anywhere before.
Members of the Sen family come down from different parts of the city as well as from out of town. We offered pushpanjali, had our breakfast and proceeded to Sovabazar, hoping to see the puja at the zamidar bari there. But a connecting road was blocked and we were asked us to wait outside. We didn’t wait and instead, returned to the Kabirajbari. We left Kumartuli in the afternoon after visiting the Kumartuli Sarbojanin puja pandal.
On Ashtami, we restricted ourselves in our area and visited most of the pandals of New Town Action Area 1. At the end of the day, we also enjoyed music by Debojit Dutta of Indian Idol and Sa Re Ga Ma Pa fame.
We were eagerly awaiting Navami as my elder daughter and son-in-law would be coming over and I began my day standing behind a long queue at the mutton shop. We didn’t leave home that day and spent quality time with family. We missed our younger daughter, who could not be with us.
One of my college mates, who also lives in Action Area 1, had invited us to their complex for bhog prasad and we decided to go on Dashami. My friend and his wife are deeply involved in organising the puja and we saw ladies there drawing alpana on the approach roads and creating other artistic work inside the pandals.
Our friend from Kumartuli had invited us to return on Dashami to witness the immersion but we couldn’t make it. He sent us a video clip of the rituals.
Though we are senior citizens, we derive the same enjoyment during the Pujas as we did in our childhood. And we are as full of grief when the visarjan dhak beat is played on Dashami.
Sabyasachi Thakur, AB Block, New Town
lThe city looks so beautiful on the Puja days and visiting pandals is a must for everyone. A resident of Salt Lake, I visited so many pandals here.
But I was pained to see the new attraction outside the FD Block pandal that drew huge crowds — the fish tunnel where fish big and small were crammed into small glass tanks leaving them jostling for space and gasping for breath.
Would the mother goddess be happy to see her smaller creatures pained this way during the festival of happiness? I condemn this attraction that torments creatures for the sake of public entertainment and earning money.
Name and address withheld
lIn an attempt to express my creativity, I have been making mini Durga idols at home in recent years. In 2020 and 2022, I made amateurish attempts but last year, I portrayed the beauty of sholar saaj (which The Telegraph Salt Lake had written about). This time I wanted to focus on the grandeur of daaker saaj. Although modern theme-based idols are beautiful, daaker saaj has a special place.
I made everything from scratch — Durga idol, horse-faced lion, six-pack-abs Asura, crown, weapons, sari and silver-look jewellery… I even made a thakurdalan, chandoa atop, alpana below, fixed kerosene lamps and made flower-and-bel pata garlands.
My mother and I also lit 108 lamps as sandhi puja offering as Ashtami ended.
Debadrita Das, CJ Block
lIt was wonderful to learn that Vidya Balan, one of the finest Bollywood actresses right now, inaugurated HB Block’s puja on Mahalaya (apropos the report “Vidya opens her debut director’s puja”, published on October 27).
Vidya Balan at the HB Block pandal
Being a huge fan of the star, I enjoyed reading the report on her visit. My only regret was that I missed the opportunity of seeing her from close quarters.
Then a few weeks later I was deeply saddened to read “Shock demise of HB Block filmmaker”, published on 10 November. Goutam Halder, the national award-winning director was a resident of HB Block and had arranged Vidya’s visit to open the puja.
His directorial debut Bhalo Theko, starring Vidya and Soumitra Chattopadhyay, is one of my favourite Bengali films. With Halder’s death, Salt Lake lost yet another famous resident. It is also a great loss for the film and theatre worlds.
Sourish Misra, Sarat Abasan
