What is it about Essex that inspires great voyages? The answer might lie in the name of an association of residents that has beaten all odds to organise Durga Puja.

Sankalpo, which translates to “pledge”, has refused to be brow-beaten by the pandemic and has soldiered on amid adversities to celebrate Durga Puja and in the process “spread hope and cheer” in these times of gloom.

If Essex had cradled Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, both tales of epic and transcendental journeys, it has spurred Sankalpo on to dip into its reserves and make the best out of the situation.

Sankalpo, an association of over 100 members at Chelmsford, Essex county’s only city 64km from London, is organising this year’s puja inside a garage of one of the organisers.

The garage and the idols have been decked up by the association members, many of whom till last year participated in a puja at the local church’s sprawling community centre.

The main organisers of Sankalpo during last year’s Durga Puja in Chelmsford, Essex

The festivities, held with strict adherence to precautions at a time there has been an alarming resurgence in Covid cases in the UK, are being live-streamed on Sankalpo Chelmsford’s Facebook page for the community’s 137 members.

The group also aims to “advance cultural values” among South Asian communities through Bengal’s biggest festival.

“Building hope and spreading positivity is the challenge of our times. This very thought led to the birth of Sankalpo this year,” said Meghdut Biswas, 46, an entrepreneur and one of the organisers of the puja, during a telephone interview with The Telegraph.

Over the years, Durga Puja has been celebrated in Chelmsford to the beats of the dhak and the call of the conch at Writtle Christian Centre, which has a church and a community hall.

Although much of the fervour is missing this year owing to the pandemic, the spirit has not ebbed.

A London-based puja committee has donated the idols to Sankalpo.

The organisers said the Facebook group members of Sankalpo were offering “pushpanjali” from their homes as the rituals were being live-streamed.

The intention, the organisers said, is to bring festive cheer and ensure that everyone enjoys Durga Puja from the safety of their homes.

“This year’s puja is different from other years. This time it is a virtual puja. Purohit Proloy Mukherjee is performing the puja in front of the deity and the rest of us are watching and participating from our own homes,” said Debalina Gupta, 46, a spokesperson for Sankalpo.

“My role of blowing the conch shell remains the same, but this time I am doing it from my own home and it is being live-streamed,” said Debalina, senior National Health Service transformation and commission manager.

Debalina said she was originally from Salt Lake.

“We have tried to recreate the ambience of Calcutta. The beauty of Durga Puja is that it is for all — sarbajanin. This year, we are making ananda naru and cooking bhog at our homes and distributing them from the puja venue, maintaining physical distancing. We have done everything to give it the feel of our own parar pujo back home in Calcutta,” she said.

Debalina said only a few of the members of Sankalpo were Bengalis but everyone participated in Durga Puja.

“Despite the restrictions this year, we have had an overwhelming response from the members of the community,” she said.

The main organisers of Sankalpo during last year’s Durga Puja in Chelmsford, Essex

Anurag Lohia, a software consultant from Indore and a resident of Chelmsford, weighed in: “Durga Puja feels like a family wedding…. We feel very much a part of the celebrations and feel blessed to be able to serve Ma Durga during the three days of celebrations.”

“Sankalpo Chelmsford’s Durga Puja is where the east meets the west, the north meets the south, and people come together as part of a mega community festival. Transcending borders, breaking cultural barriers, together we have united from across the globe and the Indian subcontinent to celebrate Puja. It’s a microcosm of India with a firm focus on our beloved Calcutta,” Lohia added.

Meghdut, who has been in Chelmsford for a decade, said it was Sankalpo’s aim to foster cultural values and send a message of inclusiveness amongst South Asian communities in Essex and surrounding areas by organising festivals celebrated in various parts of India.

“In the face of this adversity, we’ll remember it (pandemic) as one of the toughest things that humanity has ever dealt with. The only solace we can take is that once we get through this, we can pledge and build a world together that’s more ready for the future we know is coming,” Meghdut said.

Sankalpo also plans to raise funds to help the needy in Essex and also in India in fields as varied as education, sports, food and shelter.