The Srishti Durga puja of 2005. A Telegraph picture

The Berlin Wall has collapsed closer home, at Behala. Two big-banner pujas — Srishti and Sahajatri — that together put Diamond Harbour Road on the pandal-hopper’s mandatory map — have come together, putting aside a history of acrimony that led them to part ways seven autumns ago.

“A misunderstanding made us walk out of Sahajatri and form Srishti,” recounts Animesh Chakraborty, a puja committee veteran. The fledgling club threw a challenge to its parent, bagging both the Anandabazar Patrika Sharad Arghya and Asian Paints Sharad Samman in its third year. Since then, it has been a double bonanza for visitors on Santosh Roy Road at a stone’s throw from each other.

But the boon for the crowd was bane for the organisers. “There was tremendous competition. Each club would try to hide its own theme and dig out what the other was doing,” says Saibal Bose, erstwhile of Srishti. “And if the judges of any contest entered their pandal, we would get tense wondering whether we have qualified as well or not,” adds Chakraborty. The biggest problem was the awkwardness that clouded interaction among neighbours who have grown up together.

“It was the women, who along with the elders, put pressure on us to put an end to the division. After all, they never fought amongst themselves. But during the Pujas, if one’s husband was with a club, one would feel uneasy to take the road passing by the other club’s pandal,” points out Bose, who was part of the group that started Durga Puja in 1989.

Now that the boundary has been erased, Puja 2006 will present a new star, Barisha Club. “We had asked all residents to suggest names for the new entity. The suggestions were mostly combination titles like Sahasrishti. But we decided to forget the past and start afresh,” says Raja Ganguly of Sahajatri, who has taken over as the puja secretary of Barisha Club.

The benefits of joining forces are many and various. “There is no tension of collections reaching the budget. Even if residents are not giving us double the subscription, the amount is 50 per cent more. The same holds for advertisers. Crowd management is easier. Earlier, Sahajatri used the Diamond Harbour Road entrance while Srishti used the James Long Sarani side. This time, we get both gates,” Chakraborty rattles off.

It is renaissance time. New forms for membership have been signed. Bank accounts have been closed and a new one applied for. New registration numbers and PAN card are being arranged for. Assets are being merged. “Srishti had an ambulance and two hearses while Sahajatri had a two-storeyed house and a two-cottah plot. All belong to Barisha Club now,” Ganguly says. By a compromise formula, the puja president is from the Srishti side and the club president from Sahajatri. “We used to stay in the background earlier, leaving the limelight to the youngsters. On this memorable occasion we, the middle-aged men, are back on the field.” The result can only be a bumper crop of a puja.