Sumon paints a Ganesh idol at his house. Picture by Nantu Dey

Raiganj, Sept. 21: Two years ago a 14-year-old boy had realised that if his village could organise a Durga puja, his friends would not have to walk for kilometres for a darshan of the goddess.

But Sumon Goswami did not want any help from the poor villagers of Monipara, 4km from here. The Class VIII boy took his elder sister Papri into confidence and the siblings started saving their bus fare to school for a puja that first took place in 2007.

This year, too, Sumon is busy putting final touches to the idols that he had learnt to make from the local clay modeller. The difference: villagers now contribute to the puja.

“Now, we have a puja of our own. The siblings had shown us the way. We don’t have to pay for the idols nor the ritual. All of us contribute according to our capacity to build the pandal. This time we collected enough money for a feast of khichdi on Ashtami,” said Rabin Roy, a villager.

The turning point came when Sumon got admission to Subhasganj High School. Every year before the pujas, he heard his classmates excitedly discuss and plan the festival for their village.

“I used to feel left out. We, on the other hand, had to depend on our parents to take us pandal hopping. The pandals were so far away that we could only visit one or two. If only we had a puja in our village, I used to think. And then it suddenly struck me that I could make the idols and we could have our own puja,” said Sumon as he dabbed some paint on the Ganesh idol. But Sumon was not alone. Papri, too, came forward to help. “We started saving the Rs 8 that we were given daily as transport fare to school located 3km away,” he said.

In 2007, before Vishwakarma Puja, the siblings revealed their plans to their parents. “We told them that we do not need new clothes and instead requested our father to donate the money to the puja fund and he agreed. We bought straw, bamboo and mats and began making the idols,” Sumon recounted.

However, the sellers of the raw material soon heard about Sumon’s enterprise and gave him back all the money. “Since then, we get the material for free. Besides, since I am a Brahmin by birth, I do the rituals. So there is no expense of a priest,” the boy said.

Mithu Goswami, Sumon’s mother, said she was pleasantly surprised when he had revealed his plan. “I had no inkling what my children were up to. But I realised that they used to leave for school half an hour before others.”

Dilip Goswami, an electrician, said he could not contribute much to his children’s puja funds. “My earning is not much. But since I support my children’s initiative, I help them with the pandal and the idols,” Dilip said.