Every Jagaddhatri Puja, Manoj Saha would take his family out to pandals across Chandernagore on Ashtami — which was on Sunday this year — and Navami.

Among the pujas would be the ones Manoj and his team had worked for, doing up the lights — peacocks, swans and birds, in “3-D lights”. In other months of the year, he would do odd jobs to earn a living.

This Jagaddhatri Puja, Manoj is more busy managing his grocery shop in Chandernagore. As the Covid pandemic has robbed him of orders for illumination, the man who would create patterns and life-like figures with lights has switched professions.

Chandernagore Khalisani puja pandal Pradip Sanyal

Jagaddhatri Puja is being held in Chandernagore like every year. But this time, the 177 organisers have done away with the signature lights, dealing a blow to the nearly 8,000 artists and labourers who would join hands to weave magic with LED lamps and 3-D creations.

Some of the artists and workers have taken to selling vegetables and fish, others like Manoj have opened shops to fend for their families.

“I have never witnessed a Jagaddhatri Puja without lights in Chandernagore, except once when Indira Gandhi was assassinated (1984). All lights were switched off that day,” said Sridhar Das, a 77-year-old artist whose creations with lights have seen him travel across the globe, several times to the UK and Russia.

“But I admit that it (the scale down) is the best thing that could have happened to Chandernagore this Jagaddhatri Puja because of the pandemic.”

Between Bhadreswar and Bandel in Hooghly district, the stretch that includes Chandernagore, there are over 125 artists who create designs on lights year after year. Often, important events of the year dominate the designs — such as Amartya Sen winning the Nobel prize and the Gaisal train tragedy. Each artist has a team with members specialising in drawing circuits and fixing lights.

Every Jagaddhatri Puja in Chandernagore, the organisers would award illumination contracts worth lakhs of rupees.

Ghot puja at a pandal in Chandernagore Pradip Sanyal

As many as 177 Jagaddhatri pujas are held in Chandernagore every year. The festivity is overseen by Chandernagore Central Jagaddhatri Puja Committee. This year, with Calcutta High Court declaring pandals no-entry zones, 14 puja committees are worshipping the ghot, instead of idols.

With budgets trimmed and organisers in no position to play big as usual, those who used to be involved in illuminating pandals and immersion processions are hit hard.

“Usually, a big puja would spend between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh for lights and spend anything between Rs 6 and 9 lakh for the tableaus for the immersion. Lights play a big part in immersion processions, too,” said Surjit Chowdhury of Tantir Bagan Char Thakurtala Jagaddhatri Puja committee.

“This year, the immersion carnival has been called off and the budget for lights has been almost reduced to zero.”

“Usually, we would spend around Rs 3-4 lakh on lights. This year the total puja budget is less than a lakh,” said Saroj Dutta, of Ganj Sitalatala Jagaddhatri Puja Committee. “There are persons who

have sponsored each day’s puja like previous years. But we have scaled down our arrangements for bhog. Earlier, the bhog would be distributed across the locality. Not this year.”

Illuminations involve engaging contractual labourers and part-time workers who earn a decent amount at the end of the festival.

“A labourer gets Rs 350 for fixing 1,000 lights on a board. Thousands of such boards are usually required for one puja,” said Ashim Dey, a light artist.

The sweat and toil invested in lights during Jagadhhatri Puja would often fetch contracts from outside Bengal. Clubs, associations and committees from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and

Hyderabad would end up signing contracts with artists for occasions such as Janmashatmi and Ganesh Chaturthi.

“All such contracts from outside Bengal got cancelled this time. Labourers and their employers have been hoping for a turnaround soon but that seems unlikely,” said Babu Pal, a noted light-artist who has worked for a number of celebrities. “The lights during Jagadhhatri Puja in Chandernagore has been a part of a grand tradition which was missed this year.”