They chop fruits and vegetables for prasad, cook bhog, ensure that the priest’s requirements are at hand, choreograph dances, direct plays — all of this while juggling daily chores at home. Durga puja would be a near-impossibility in the block or the housing complex without the Herculean effort put in by these women in the ritual or the culture department. A tete-a-tete with some tireless toilers nominated by neighbours as the pillars of their para puja.

Ila Chatterjee

Block: AK

Resident for: 10 years

Madhumita Nandi

A bond is forged: Chatterjee did not participate in her first puja in the block as she barely knew anyone then. “But I liked the homely atmosphere and decided to take part from the next year. I had always wanted to work in a puja but wasn’t able to earlier as my children were young,” she recalls.

Role in puja: From chopping fruits to lighting the 108 lamps and cooking the sandhi puja bhog, Chatterjee does it all. Over the years many more people have started staying till the end of sandhi puja and Chatterjee kakima’s khichudi bhog deserves part of the credit. “This year I shall make khichudi or pulao with 2kg of rice,” smiles the 61-year-old lady. She will also make bhog on other days.

No time for timeout: “A Puja vacation is unthinkable. And I dislike the madding crowd so I don’t go pandal-hopping either,” she says.

Work is worship: “Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda had both said that real worship lies in serving others and in bringing them happiness. That is what I try to do,” smiles Chatterjee.

Shiuli Ghosh

Block: BG

Resident for: 35 years

A bond is forged: When the first puja was held in the block 28 years ago, there were less than 20 families in the block. “Still, we all contributed in whatever way we could. He who had a papaya tree in his garden offered papayas, she who had a banana tree offered kola pata…” recalls Ghosh.

Role in puja: This self-effacing lady, whom neighbours have named Sarada Ma for her devotion and hard work during the puja, insists it is the combined effort of a group of 15 ladies. “We do not have any formal division of labour but just go help wherever help is needed. The puja committee provides support and we organise the bhog, fruits and puja items. We are very particular about time,” says the lady who even shied away from getting clicked.

No time for timeout: Ghosh adjusts duties to ensure the younger women can go pandal-hopping but prefers to stay by the purohit throughout the rituals. “Sitting at Ma’s feet in our block is as good as seeing Ma at other pandals,” she smiles.

Work is worship: Such is the devotion among the women serving the goddess in the block that Ghosh has had visitors from other blocks come and ask her if this is their home puja. “I tell them it is,” smiles the 70-year old.

Shipra Ganguly

Block: FD

Resident for: 21 years

Madhumita Nandi

A bond is forged: Ganguly has been working for the block puja before it became the big brand that it is today. “There were far fewer residents then and we were more close-knit,” she recalls. In the initial years there also used to be an Anandamela where ladies would put up stalls and sell home-cooked food. “It has been discontinued now as the scale of our puja has grown so much.”

Role in puja: Ganguly is involved with the puja right from collecting subscription to immersion. “Generally residents do not refuse women so we end up raising the money faster,” says Ganguly. On puja days she wakes up at dawn and readies the ingredients for bhog that the women cook together in the community hall. “We have VIP passes which we use to enter the community hall. Thereafter, no matter how thick the crowd is outside, we have our peace and quiet inside to get our work done.” She also helps with the rituals.

No time for timeout: Many women who work for the puja have children abroad and October is a good time to visit them but Ganguly never leaves the city during the pujas. “In fact it is with great difficulty that I make time to visit my family puja in Beleghata and a few neighbouring pujas too,” says the 60-year-old.

Work is worship: Ganguly finds it extremely satisfying when someone praises the bhog. “We use the same ingredients and measurements every day of the puja but sometimes everybody starts licking their fingers on one particular day. I feel the added flavour is the goddess’s blessing.”

Rachana Basu

Block: Karunamoyee G Block

Resident for: 30 years

Rachana Basu (right) directing this year’s play. (Madhumita Nandi)

A bond is forged: When Basu first moved into Karunamoyee, there were less than 10 families but they still organised Durga puja. “Our pandal was modest and community lunch was a simple machh-bhat affair but even then we held cultural programmes with three women singing with a harmonium,” says Basu, who has since been in charge of cultural activities during the pujas.

Role in puja: In the initial years Basu would knock on every door, ask what the residents’ areas of interest were and coerce them into performing at the puja function.

Every year she directs a ladies’ play and in the years she can find another director, she acts. “I also direct a children’s play but for the first time this year we are skipping that as most kids are suffering or recovering from dengue,” she says, quite upset. Before the block got its community hall, 40 to 50 kids would rehearse in Basu’s flat. “My husband would return home from office and immediately start serving soft drinks to the kids.”

Basu encourages as many people to join as possible and sometimes adds characters to existing stories to accommodate more. “Once a three-year-old landed up on the day of the show, crying. She had never come for rehearsals but wanted to dress up like the dadas and didis and be on stage. So I got her dressed like a king, gave her a sword and asked her to walk around the stage while the others danced to Amra sobai raja,” smiles the lady.

The 65-year-old starts working on the scripts for the plays months in advance. For the last 30 days or so before D-Day, rehearsals keep her away from home from 4pm to 11pm . Her daughter-in-law Srirupa helps out with cooking as well as rehearsals.

No time for timeout: “Let alone a holiday, I don’t even have time to buy blouses for my new puja saris,” laughs Basu. “But my son takes me to see pandals on Panchami night.”

Work is worship: The love and respect of neighbours make all her trouble worth the while. This year, being unable to cope with the stress, Basu had wanted to call it quits. But the puja committee threatened to cancel the programmes all together. “And a youngster in the complex, Dhiren Saha (Dablu) took a bottle of water, poured it around my feet as I stood in the community hall and told me that it was a laxmanrekha that I could not cross and leave the block’s cultural committee. I was touched.”

Chhabi Chaudhuri

Block: JC

Resident for: 12 years

A bond is forged: Chaudhuri did not take part in her first puja in the block but got to know her neighbours during the festival. “The ladies were having great fun working and I decided to join in from the following year,” she says.

Role in puja: Chaudhuri started taking on responsibilities of the rituals and tried to ensure punctuality. “Back then our block did not have a park and so the puja would be held on the road,” she says. JC Block has a park now and the puja is held there but they still do not have a community hall. During the pujas she is busy arranging for purchases, co-ordinating with the residents in whose apartment the supplies will be kept, chopping fruits, keeping material ready before the priest comes….

No time for timeout: Chaudhuri never steps out during the pujas as besides the work, she would miss her neighbours too much to be elsewhere. “My husband and I actually stay in Barasat on weekdays and come to Salt Lake on weekends. But we are so attached to JC Block that we have not spent a single puja in Barasat since we moved here,” says the 62-year-old lady.

Work is worship: The work is exhausting but she waits impatiently for this time of the year. “I have bought five to six new saris this year and I plan to wear two every day, one while on duty hours at the mandap and another in the evening, while watching cultural programmes.”

Mira Basu

Block: EE

Resident for: 14 years

A bond is forged: Basu moved into the block in 1998 — the same year that the block’s puja started. The venue was the park. But the absence of a community hall posed a problem. “Since our house is next to the park, I volunteered to store the puja items at home,” says Basu, who has found herself immersed in puja action every year since then. To date, the puja’s utensils are kept in her loft.

Role in the puja: Basu cooks setal bhog of around 80 to 90 luchis and suji for the evenings on puja days. Neighbours help out when they can. “Some ladies are reluctant to chop fruits as their nails get ruined or the acidic juices burn their fingers. So I chop fruits and they arrange them.”

The utensils are brought back to Basu’s house after puja every day. Her domestic help is paid by the block to wash them in the morning but she washes the evening batch herself. “I would be happy to pass on some of the responsibility, particularly that of preparing bhog, to others but no one volunteers,” says the 60-year-old. Depending on the puja timings, she sometimes wakes up at 4.30am. “But I never need an alarm. The tension wakes me up on time.”

No time for timeout: Basu has never left town but a few years back she went to the FD Block puja after work at midnight. “I couldn’t enter, thanks to the crowd,” she says sadly.

Work is worship: Basu admits that she sometimes gets angry with the amount of work she takes on. “But then I imagine Ma Durga asking me if I would be angry doing chores if my own mother came to visit me for four days. I seek her forgiveness and get back to work,” smiles the devotee.

Pushpa Bose

Block: HA

Resident for: 21 years

Pushpa Bose makes offerings to the goddess at a past puja in HA Block

A bond is forged: Before moving to HA Block, Bose lived in BC Block and was very active during the pujas there too. In her first year, she didn’t take part in the puja but thereafter got neck-deep in both the rituals and cultural aspect.

Role in puja: Before Bose entered the arena, the pujas at HA Block were mostly an all-male effort. “The women’s role was restricted to chopping fruits and looking after the children,” she says. But Bose introduced some changes that are still practised. “Instead of the women cooking bhog at home and bringing to the puja, I got everyone to cook it together at the community hall. I also got women to create alpona designs at the pandal on Chaturthi night. There are so many artistic talents in the block who never had a chance to express themselves before this.”

She also started inviting four purohits to conduct the puja instead of one. “That added to the grandeur of our arati. It also sounds enchanting when four voices recite stotras in unison,” says the 63-year-old who underwent a bypass surgery in the 90s.

Bose also directs plays for women and children. “We’ve performed Chitrangada, Shyama, Shapmochan, but everyone remembers me for a play we did on the freedom struggle. Such shows made cultural programmes popular. When I directed the children’s play Alibaba, even the boundary walls of our park were lined with viewers.”

In the years when she finds someone else to direct, Bose takes up acting. This year she shall star in Bishnupriya Briddhashram alongside municipal Opposition leader and block resident Ila Nandy.

No time for timeout: Bose rarely goes out during the pujas, as her duty in the cultural department begins once her work with the rituals ends. “My daughter and son-in-law take me out to see neighbouring pujas sometimes but I don’t step out of the car. I conserve my energy for my own block,” she smiles.

Work is worship: “I know we cannot keep up with age but I don’t want myself and my neighbours to become couch potatoes,” says the gritty lady. She even sends cars or rickshaws to fetch the elderly to the pandal. “My doctor warns me about my hectic lifestyle but I have told him that I will work till the day I die.”

Kalpana Talukdar

Block: CG

Resident for: 27 years

A bond is forged: The year Talukdar’s family moved into the block the residents’ association decided to start organising Durga puja. “We came from Delhi where I used to work in the local puja. So when a team at CG Block came scouting for volunteers, I stepped forward,” says Talukdar.

Role in puja: Besides helping out in the rituals, Talukdar got the block’s womenfolk to hold Anandamela simultaneously from the very start. “On Panchami we cook home-made items and sell them at stalls outside our pandal. I also initiated a conchshell-blowing and ululation competition,” she says. This year Talukdar is the block’s ladies’ club representative for the pujas.

Her responsibilities include meetings with the puja committee to draw up the list of requirements and dividing the women volunteers into groups that will be responsible for groceries, flowers, dashakarma items etc. “This is my third year as representative,” says the 73-year-old.

No time for timeout: “I cannot even imagine visiting pandals in neighbouring blocks, let alone going out of town,” smiles Talukdar. She stays put at the pandal from 7am to 3pm and returns in the evening to watch cultural programmes. “That is enough relaxation for me.”

Work is worship: “Since this is service to the goddess, I work without expectations. Earlier, there used to be more ladies of my generation actively involved with the pujas but most of them are bowing out due to age-related health infirmities. The younger ones are reluctant to take on responsibilities. I pray that I am able to serve the Mother for many more years,” she says.

Dhira Sur

Block: BJ

Resident for: 11 years

Dhira Sur dressed as an elderly lady in a play at a past puja function in BJ Block

A bond is forged: During her initial years in the block, Sur was busy with her consultancy business and her ailing husband. She joined the puja actively in 2007, after her husband passed away and she wound up her business .

Role in puja: Sur is the backbone of the block’s cultural programmes, acting in plays, directing children’s acts and teaching kids recitation. “In school, I would sing, dance, recite and act and I enjoy performing even today,” she smiles. Sur tries to involve as many people as possible and the rehearsals are often held at her place. “Since children enjoy modern dances I try to ensure they have professional choreographers to train them. This helps keep them interested and draws them to the pandal.”

To ensure a high standard in shows, this year BJ Block will be auditioning interested participants before allotting them roles in the items. “But residents are accosting me everywhere I go asking when rehearsals will start,” laughs Sur.

No time for timeout: Sur visits the US every summer to spend time with her daughter’s family but makes sure she’s back in Salt Lake by August. “I could never be anywhere else during the Pujas,” she says. After working at her para puja, she often drives down to other blocks too. “I take off at 4am and visit every single puja in Salt Lake,” says the 65-year-old proudly. “At that hour I get parking spots near pandals, get to see the lighting and the queues are short.”

Work is worship: “This annual week of hard work is my oxygen, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” confesses Sur, adding that she finds it challenging and enjoys managing the show.

Suparna Kundu

Block: AG

Resident for: 28 years

A bond is forged: Kundu got involved with the block’s puja quite accidentally. “Our block decided to hold a puja in 1986 and the spot chosen was right outside my house. On Panchami morning that year I was walking to the market when some puja volunteers asked me to help out with the jogar,” recalls Kundu. The next thing she knew she was doing A to Z at the pandal.

Role in puja: For the first 18 years when the puja was held outside her house, Kundu did everything from cooking bhog to shopping for puja items. “Since we did not have a community hall then, the puja utensils and groceries would be kept in my bedroom,” says Kundu. The dhakis and purohits would eat in her house and the volunteers would run to her house for sundry requirements. “Year by year my responsibilities increased,” she says. Kundu admits that it is difficult juggling puja with household chores. “I have to be with the purohit all the time but whenever he is engaged in anjali or chandi path I run home and cook for my family.” She still cooks the sandhi bhog for the puja as no one else agrees to fast the entire day to cook it.

No time for timeout: Kundu cannot afford to leave her block when it needs her the most. “I long to see neighbouring pujas but can never take a break during the festive days. On Dashami I take a rickshaw ride to check out other pujas in the township.”

Work is worship: Kundu says the work is backbreaking but she consoles herself by saying that it’s a change from her daily routine. “For a week I work for Ma Durga,” she smiles.