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| DIVINE ENERGY: The Halder Bagan puja. Picture by Rashbehari Das |
With every para worth its towering pandal vying for its share of the limelight, the relatively low-budget Halder Bagan puja hopes to enter the hall of fame by turning its Durga into a giant glowworm. While opulence is the buzzword at the more prosperous committees, this obscure neighbourhood near Deshbandhu Park, in Shyambazar, has gone in for noctilucent paint.
The ?illumination? paint, specially imported from Japan, is doing the job of a thousand light bulbs. Bringing a slice of heaven on earth, the paint coats the image, which emits a bluish glow in the dark, against a backdrop of the pandal interiors, painted to resemble the space. The ceiling, fashioned like a dome, is painted with countless stars and other heavenly bodies that emit a green glow.
?The idea is that the goddess? body is emitting divine energy to light up the universe?,? says Neeraj Saha of the Halder Bagan Sarbojanin Durgatsov Committee.
The noctilucent paint is powerful enough to light up the entire 20-ft diameter of the pandal without any light bulbs. It does require to be charged with an external source of light for the paint to glow for an extended period of time, the mechanism of which remains a ?trade secret?. There are no alternate phases of darkness and light, either. There is a continuous flow of divine light, for the charging mechanism is automatic. The source receives a signal as to when to step up the charge and when to stop.
This glow-worm effect was a last-minute brainwave and committee members worked day and night to put up the light show, that included a mammoth 40-ft Shivalinga. The job was done in 10 days flat.
?We were not supposed to have a Puja this year at all, owing to a funds crunch, when someone hit upon this idea. We are especially proud of our job, given that our members have put up the entire thing all by themselves with very little external support,? says Saha.
And the creative instinct is not a one-off feat, either. Celebrating the 60th year of puja this time, Halder Bagan has in the past replicated the Metro Rail, Amarnath caves, Kedarnath temples and the Niagara Falls to rave reviews.
