The Durga Puja pandal at Bhootnath. Picture by UB Photos

Oct. 9: Durga Puja is incomplete without mesmerising pandals. This year, the Bhootnath Durga Puja committee’s pandal will resemble a super-sized, 50-foot-tall Shivling, which will be made up of 11,000 small Shivlings.

“The people of the city have never seen such a pandal,” said Amit Dhirasaria, executive member of the Puja committee.

Led by Montu Das, a team of experienced craftsmen from Calcutta is making the “innovative” pandal, he said.

“The craftsmen are working very hard to make the pandal one of the best and one of the most attractive in the city,” Dhirasaria said.

Of their total budget of Rs 12 lakh, around Rs 8 lakh is being spent on the pandal, he said.

Dhirasaria said the reason for using Shivlings was that Durga is Shiva’s wife.

The theme of this year’s Puja is “Mahakay (big), Mahaan (great), Mahakaal (another form of Lord Shiva)”, he said.

Their quest for uniqueness is not just restricted to the pandal. It extends to the idols as well. “The idols of our Puja will resemble the idols at the Jagannath temple in Puri,” Dhirasaria said.

“With less than two weeks to go for the Pujas, our idols and pandal have already taken shape. Artists are now adding colour to the clay idols,” Dhirasaria said.

The Puja at Bhootnath will be celebrating its 10th anniversary.

According to Dhirasaria, the committee makes “themes and concept-based” Puja’s to be the biggest crowd-puller in the city.

“Last year, we had a multi-storied pandal, which was over 40-feet tall, decorated with pulses and mustard and the design was widely appreciated by the visitors,” he said. “In 2010, our pandal was built on the lines of Chinatown. For the past three years, we were constantly searching for uniqueness to attract more pandal-hoppers,” he added.

This year, the Durga Puja at Bhootnath will also highlight social issues such as female foeticide, atrocities on women and negative effects of inflation.

“We will illuminate the entrance to the pandal with solar-powered lights to spread our motto: ‘go green.’” Since electricity is becoming scarce, we want to motivate people to explore alternative sources of energy, he said.