The scantily crowded Balaka puja pandal. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

BD Park glowed this Kali puja. Its tiled walkways and pretty pagoda gleamed under Diwali lights but conspicuous by its absence this year was the crowd.

The park has been the venue of the Balaka Sports Club puja for about 20 years now and its massive idol and attractive cultural programmes have always drawn hoards of visitors. But this year the puja seemed subdued. Organisers said it was intentional.

“BD Park was renovated less than two months ago and residents did not want to see it rampaged by visitors. So we scaled down the puja this year,” said the club’s assistant secretary Tutu Dutta Gupta.

For almost three years before this, BD Park was in a mess as a temporary market was built there so BD Market could be renovated. But the temporary market never took off. The park was done up at a cost of Rs 38 lakh. “Residents have got the park to themselves after so long that they wanted to see it untouched at least for one year,” said Dutta Gupta.

While the budget last year was touted to be more than a crore rupees, this year it was Rs 25 lakh. Over the last few years Balaka and the Salt Lake Maitri Sangha puja near the swimming pool have given each other stiff competition, especially over cultural programmes. Residents were in a fix last year over whether to watch Sonu Nigaam and Sukhwinder Singh at Balaka or KK and Sunidhi Chauhan at Maitri Sangha. While the latter got popular singer Mika Singh this year, Balaka had local artistes.

“This is a puja, not a competition. We don’t care how big our neighbours’ puja is,” said Dutta Gupta.

A big-ticket show, he said, would require digging the ground to set up equipment and the thousands of guests would leave the park in a shambles. So they chose instead to donate money for relief work in Uttarakhand and distributed clothes to the needy.

IB Park too was the bone of contention before Durga puja this year since the ward committee had rented it out to Mohun Bagan Athletic Club for its junior players to practise. but residents wanted to hold the puja there instead. Ultimately the puja was held damaging the park.

“Residents were reluctant to hold Durga puja on BD Park too but there was no option. That is why we did not even build a separate pandal for Kali puja but reused the one made for Durga puja,” said Dutta Gupta.

“The park is looking beautiful and it’s good to know that it will remain so through the year. But the spark is missing in the puja this time,” said Shalmoli Das who had come with her friends from Ultadanga.

The organisers are eager to revive the puja next year. “But we will consult the residents first,” says Dutta Gupta.

Do you appreciate the Balaka move to save BD Park? Write to saltlake@abpmail.com