Mahalaya came early this year but Palash Prangan, a township-based group, was punctual with their Agomoni programme. Though the virtual show was open to the public in the evening, internally members had begun performing from dawn.

“Our member Buddhadev Bhattacharjee began chanting slokas and Agomoni tunes from 5.30am and the rest of us too performed and shared our clips with one another throughout the day. The evening slot was for guest artistes,” said an organiser.

In the evening, Ranendranath Ghosh, a student of Dwijen Mukherjee, began with three songs from Mahisasuramardini — Ya Chandi, Jago Durga and Namah Chandi. “These are the three basic songs for the inauguration of any programme on the subject,” he said.

The narration between songs was by elocutionist Mou Guha, who wove the tradition of Durga puja in Bengal with the defeat of Siraj-ud-Daulah in the battle of Battle of Plassey and with poets and musicians like Ramprasad Sen, Bharatchandra Ray and Ramnidhi Gupta, better known as Nidhu babu.

The next segment of the programme was Durga vandana, a 12- minute pre-recorded dance recital by members of DB Block-based dance school Kolkata Uchchhas. Mother-daughter duo Mehul and Moumita Chakraborty danced to Jago tumi jago, Shuvasree Roy danced to Dhak baja kasor baja and Srimoyee Kaushiki Basak Dey put up a powerful performance to Ayi giri nandini.

Sonali Basak (in picture), who directed the show, danced to Durge durgati nashini, praying to the goddess to end the pandemic. Priya Srivastav, a former student of the institute, logged in from Gurgaon and performed Aaj bajey monomajhey from the film Durga Sahay.

“Amid tremendous work pressure, it was blissful to get the opportunity to choreograph, dress up and dance with my group members after so long,” said Priya, an IT professional.

“Since auditoriums are closed and social gatherings are prohibited, our venture is to rejuvenate people through some cultural programmes that they can watch sitting at home,” said secretary Subas Ray.

There is almost no one who doesn’t suffer from some kind of acidity or gastric problem and so this awareness camp has been organised with them in mind,” said Asim Kumar Sikdar, convenor of BJ Block’s health committee at their programme on dyspepsia.

Before the pandemic, BJ Block Residents Forum had held a talk on dyspepsia, in collaboration with AMRI Hospitals. Associate consultant, gastroenterology, Chayan Kumar Roy, conducted a discussion. “Symptoms of dispepsia are a vague sensation of fullness after eating very little, belching, heartburn… any problem of indigestion, hyperacidity or epigastric pain is termed as dyspepsia,” explained Roy.

Those like Tapas Kumar Karmakar of BJ Block had come armed with their file of gastric problems. The doctor heard the patients out and suggested a healthy lifestyle and weight control as preventive measures.