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| SAY IT WITH A SMILE: Residents of Jal Vayu Vihar, crowned Model Apartment, welcome judges Locket Chatterjee and Paoli Dam; Paoli and Locket dance to the dhak at 5-Star winner Ruchira Residency |
On Saptami evening, little Lokenath Basu fell down on the concrete compound while playing cops and robbers with his friends. A resident of Ruchira Residency on the EM Bypass, he didn’t have to go all the way up to her 11th-floor flat to tend to his skinned knees. The first-aid box placed near the mandap came to his help and a few dabs of Mercurochrome later, the smile was back on his face.
Little stories like these were at the heart of The Telegraph Festival of Joy, presented by Nerolac in association with CESC. This first-time initiative involving “complex puja at its best” brought elements of the True Spirit Puja to residential apartments.
With safe and sensitive being the theme for the Festival of Joy dream, housing complexes were judged on parameters like civic consciousness, community participation and social commitment. The idea, remarked the principal of a city school who was part of a panel of judges marking the building pujas, “is to look for a puja with the right intentions”.
A hundred apartment pujas were asked three questions in many different ways — how safe are you; how inclusive are you; what are you doing for society at large?
A panel of judges comprising CESC officials and school principals helped narrow the list down from 100 to eight.
Ashtami morning saw Tollywood stars Paoli Dam and Locket Chatterjee, with Nerolac’s project sales manager Subrata Das, travel from Lake Gardens to Salt Lake to crown one address the Model Apartment puja, pick two for 5-Star status and the rest as 4-Star Apartment pujas.
For the judges, all eight were winners. But finally, Jal Vayu Vihar in Salt Lake was adjudged the Model Apartment puja with Patuli’s Ashabari Housing Complex and Ruchira Residency, on the EM Bypass, winning Five stars. The rest — Manjulika B, Green Wood Nook, Abhyudyoy, Avishikta I and Golf Tower — won Four stars.
But let’s get back to the little big stories that made it a Festival of Joy.
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| Paoli Dam and Locket Chatterjee at Ashabari Housing Complex, which won 5 stars |
Jal Vayu Vihar (Salt Lake)
Model Apartment puja (Rs 50,000)
Walking through the gates of the eighth and final stop on Ashtami, familiar sights of festive merry-making met the eye. Even as kids ran around the thakur dalan and everyone enjoyed the bhog, it was a cute group of hundred little girls that drew the attention of the judges at Jal Vayu Vihar.
In keeping with the true spirit of the Festival of Joy, the organisers had invited these orphans to share the puja festivities with them. They were treated to Ashtami bhog and gifted a mosquito net each.
It was also visually challenged Deepshubhro Barik’s joyous 10-year-old face after having performed with his friends to Chol Mini Assam jabo (a song-and-dance item to make him feel a part of the festivities), that won hearts.
The spirit was one of inclusion, of joy mingled with a sense of responsibility towards the many who are not so privileged. There was also a sense of warmth and excitement, of community and familiarity that had people rushing in to greet the judges with a healthy dose of “atithi appayan”.
“Puro Ma Lakshmir moto,” gushed one elderly lady, gazing at Locket while click-happy kids went into a frenzy and autograph books were shoved into Paoli’s hands. But even amidst all that activity, there was a sense of order.
No one rushed or pushed, signs pointing to dustbins, slogans championing eco-friendliness and “no smoking” had everyone queuing up to do their bit to make the puja a more meaningful and responsible one.
“This is the one,” pronounced Paoli. “Out of all the pujas, what I liked best about this one is they are not just promising things, they are actually doing it all during the Puja. They have also maintained all the safety precautions. They are celebrating this Puja conscientiously.”
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| Paoli and Locket at Abyudyoy on Ashtami |
Ashabari Housing Complex (Patuli)
Five-Star Apartment puja (Rs 15, 000)
Ashabari Housing Complex impressed right from hello — a security gate with a neat sign pointing to a first-aid box, children ready with pink rosebuds to greet the Festival of Joy team.
But the clincher lay in the way the 300-plus flats had put in place a three-tier fire-fighting mechanism — fire alarm in each tower, fire extinguishers on every floor and the hydrants and pumps, with monthly fire drills for the residents and building staff.
“What do you do as social work,” asked Paoli. “We distribute clothes every Puja among the poor. Last year we sent aid to the Aila victims. This year we’re trying to figure out a way to treat the local water for its iron and arsenic content,” said Team Ashabari.
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| Avishikta I welcomes Paoli and Locket |
Ruchira Residency (EM Bypass)
Five-Star Apartment puja (Rs 15,000)
If you think a handful of individuals cannot make a difference in the global fight to save the environment, pay a visit to Ruchira Residency.
“We started an energy-saving drive and three months ago converted to CFL. Now, our electricity bill is Rs 77,000 less compared with previous months, which means we’ve consumed that much less power,” smiled committee member Avantika Sinha.
The residents of this apartment block between Ruby and Spencer’s are an eco-conscious lot with documentaries on the environment to start rainwater harvesting being screened. They haven’t yet figured out which NGO the savings from their power bill would go to, but the building’s Group IV staff have been given new Puja clothes.
“What do you do for senior citizens?” asked Nerolac’s Subrata Das. Make them feel safe and wanted, was the reply.
“It’s true we don’t have an institutionalised system in place. But none of them, especially the ones living here on their own, feel alone. We are always there for them. You should just see them chatting and laughing and watching the children at play till late into a Puja evening to know that they are happy here,” said a member of the puja committee.
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| Residents of Golf Tower say it with flowers for Locket |
Golf Tower (Lake Gardens)
Four-Star Apartment puja (Rs 10,000)
Women and children form the lifeblood of this residential complex. Everything from decoration to cooking is in their hands.
Neat posters with messages like Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and No Smoking were hung on the glass door of the first-floor puja mandap area. “We didn’t want to hang posters on the wall as that looks more like defacement,” said puja committee member Chandra Banerjee.
Again, it was a heart-warming little story that made the Festival of Joy visit memorable. Sukrity Ghosh, in her 70s, was sitting in a wheelchair with a smile on her face. “I have just come back from the US. My daughters there were not letting me return, but I insisted. Where would I have got this feel in the US?” said the feisty old lady now under the guardianship of one of her neighbours. “There are a lot of helping hands here. I love my country, I love Puja!”
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Avishikta I (EM Bypass)
Four-Star Apartment puja (Rs 10,000)
This complex not far from the Ruby roundabout scored with its feel-good factor. All residents come together for the community meals. The women paint motifs that decorate the pandals. Senior citizens enjoy pride of place. Everyone seemed at home and home. “We have doctors on call for any medical emergency,” said puja committee president Ranabir Dasgupta.
Abhyudyoy (EM Bypass)
Four-Star Apartment puja (Rs 10,000)
Abhyudyoy, off Ruby hospital, scored with all things in-house. “Even the idol was made inside the building compound,” said puja committee treasurer Suman Ghosh.
What it didn’t score with was fire safety. “What’s your assembly point in case of a fire?” asked Nerolac’s Subrata Das. The answer was too vague to convince.
Printouts saying No Smoking and Save The Environment were on the pandal walls, the brainchild of resident Somnath Bhattacharyya, a senior scientist with the state department of environment. How would he rate Abhyudyoy’s endeavours? “How do you judge your own daughter? She’s always the most beautiful,” he smiled.
Manjulika B (Kasba)
Four-Star Apartment puja (Rs 10,000)
“The answer is A.R. Rahman,” insisted a bespectacled eight-year-old, trying to out-shout his friends-turned-foes (as long as the TT Quiz lasted), while the parents looked on indulgently with Ma Durga in the backdrop.
For the residents of Manjulika B, off the Ruby roundabout, the puja is all about community participation with a sense of responsibility. “We don’t do it just to prove a point, we do it all-year-round to make a difference,” said a senior citizen at the pandal.
Proper garbage collection and disposal, distributing clothes and blankets to every household help in the complex and conducting a blood-donation camp, in aid of a 30-year-old thalassaemic resident, made Manjulika’s puja special.
“There’s a sense of lively participation here that reminds me of my old para puja in Dakshineswar. We never felt the need to go pandal-hopping, as there was so much to do at home,” smiled Locket Chatterjee, surrounded by autograph-photograph seekers.
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| (Top) Paoli and Locket enter the Manjulika B mandap and (below) light the lamp at Green Wood Nook |
Green Wood Nook (EM Bypass)
Four-Star Apartment puja (Rs 10,000)
An apartment puja with a theme, but with scope for improvement to be a Festival of Joy winner.
The mandap at the address alongside Ruchira and Avishikta was modelled on a temple in Bishnupur, where Mrinmayee, an avatar of Durga, is worshipped. The terracotta look created with plywood, sunmica and paint would be dismantled post-Puja, but where would it all go, wondered Subrata Das. No clear answer came through.
But Green Wood scored with its medical help desk and emergency numbers manned by Dr Shankar Sengupta, the puja’s general-secretary.