The pandal at Eastern High in New Town was cordoned off with a rope. At the entry stood a guard, sanitizing hands of visitors. And taped to the rope all around the pandal intermittently were paintings, some with sketch pen, some with color pencil and some with water color. Some carried messages on chart paper.

“The puja committee asked us to create awareness. We decided on posters as the medium,” said Sanhita Das, a Class VII student of Salt Lake School.

The children divided themselves into sub-groups, choosing to work on three topics — Covid-19, dengue and water and environment. While Sanhita had two more in her Covid-19 group, Maitreyee Roy worked alone on the last-mentioned topic. “Sanhita helped me at times,” said the Class VII student of Our Lady Queen of the Missions.

Children check out one of the posters on Covid-19 awareness outside the pandal at Eastern High in New Town. Picture by Sudeshna Banerjee

Their posters were accepted with open arms by the puja committee. “It feels great to have people coming up to see and read our posters all through the Puja. We are overhearing some comments. Those who know us are coming up to praise us,” said Sanhita.

Asked whether the involvement and appreciation made the 2020 puja more fun, they stridently shook their heads. “Half our friends are not allowed to come down from their apartment. There is no sit-down lunch which is so much fun. As we are not having on-stage cultural programs this year, yesterday we broke into a dance together on the field just for fun. We missed our friends,” they said.