Bidhannagar Shree Chaitanya Bhagavat Samaj 

The junction between Tank 2 and CA Park is nothing short of a carnival during Rathyatra. The roads are blocked to traffic and devotees throng the stretch. On the CA Block side of the road was the chariot of Bidhannagar Shree Chaitanya Bhagavat Samaj. 

Ice cream vans, bhel puri stalls, bagpiper bands and stilt walkers enlivened the corner even before the chariot rolled out. 

Children couldn’t get enough of the chariot. Two-year-old Misha Kothari was lifted into the chariot by her sister for a photo op but the child loved the floral decoration, open-air seats and steering wheel so much that she refused to get off. She held the chariot with both her hands even as her sister tried to carry the rest of her away and wailed loudly. 

“This is the first time Misha and I saw a chariot all though I’ve seen toy ones before,” said the 10-year-old sister Apeksha, of GD Block.

But one lucky girl was six-year-old Borishtha Banerjee, who had got a seat on top of the chariot and was giving out prasad of candy when it started rolling. “I also decorated the idol this morning and placed a beautiful crown on his head,” said Borishtha, in whose Beleghata house the idols reside the rest of the year. The president of the samity, Justice Bhagabati Prasad Banerjee, is her grandfather. This was the 26th year of the yatra. 

But if “Jai Jagannath” was on the lips of the devotees, “Bag shamle, phone shabdhan!” was the chant for the police on crowd control duty.  And not without reason. “I lost my phone before the chariot even took off,” said a devotee from AE Block. “Earlier in the day a woman had tried to pick my pocket here but I had caught her. But I guess that wasn’t the end of it. The next thing I knew my phone was gone.”

The chariot was drawn to Central Park where it will stay till Ultarath on July 26. A Rath fair is also on at Central Park till August 10 from 2pm to 10pm. Entry is free. 

Sri Jagannath Utsav Samity 

This was the glamourous yatra. 

Separate chariots for the three deities, tableau after tableau with dancers and singers, drinks and ice cream breaks on the go…in its 25th year of festivities, the yatra from CB Block drew many a devotee to come pull the chariot and left commuters who couldn’t get off their vehicles wide-eyed.  
“There are 30 dancers from our troupe today. They’ll perform to bhajans and vandanas,” said Kalyan Bhandari, the choreographer from a Phoolbagan institute whose students enthralled from atop moving trailers. 
The chariots were tough to pull but the devotees gave it their all. So much so that the rope pulling Subhadra’s chariot even ripped a few meters after commencing the journey. Not to be daunted, the organisers quickly tied the two ends together and the juggernaut chugged on. 

The organisers were using whistles and walkie-talkies to communicate with co-ordinate the movement of the convoy and there were trouble shooters to handle any unexpected situation. For instance, CA Block’s Yogesh Agarwal smartly climbed a tree at PNB Island when overhead cables were getting in the way of the chariot. “I tied them to a branch,” he said. Helping hands on the chariots also started using sticks to lift cables on the road henceforth.  

Those who couldn't keep up with the pace simply touched the rope and paid obeisance. Others came out to their first floor balconies and joined hands in prayer as the wheels rolled by. And some managed to click selfies. Four of her friends smiled into the phone as GC Block’s Karishma Agarwal adjusted it to ensure they enter the frame along with the lord. “Our husbands are on the organising committee and we are helping out as well as enjoying ourselves,” she smiled. 

The chariot’s movement obviously blocked the roads but the drivers and commuters who got slowed down were not peeved. “This year we’re much better off as it’s a Saturday and it’s Rath as well as Id. So the office-going crowd is minimal,” said P.K. Boral, an auto driver on the Karunamoyee-Ultadanga route, who was waiting for the crowd to clear near AC Block. And when a devotee ran up and gave him and his passengers prasad of goja, his face broke into a grin. 

Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra

The most sober Rathyatra, this one was quiet enough for one to clearly hear the bell being rung by a devotee from behind of the chariot. 

While the front was led by children, most of the people walking along were senior citizens. “I come to pull the rath here every year,” said an 82-year-old resident of FD Block, Nanigopal Saha. “I only missed last year as I had gone to Puri then. But the rush was such that I didn’t try to go near it. I touched the chariot the next day and sought the lord’s blessings.”

This chariot left the DD Block Kendra and headed left towards City Centre. It then turned left U-turn and walked between Rabindra Okakura Bhavan and Julie House. At Aliah University it again took a left turn and returned to the centre. All the while members distributed prasad of puffed rice and sweets. 
This was the eighth year of the Raythyatra and the puja was performed by Swami Puratananandaji Maharaj of Narendrapur’s Ramakrishna Mission Industrial Training Centre. 

Utkala

Following the Nabakalebara at Puri, the Jagannath temple at Kidderpore too underwent a “new body” ceremony. “We had the idols made of daru brahma (neem tree) on order from Puri,” said R.K. Mohanty, one of the members of Utkala. 

So it was the new-bodied deities that travelled all the way from Kidderpore to reach the FE Block Island of Salt Lake. 

As the pahandi vijay ritual started, with devotees singing and dancing before the chariot, several residents of neighbouring blocks came down for a closer look. “I go to Puri every year to watch the sonar saj that they dress the idols in on the day after Ultarath. I have always been fascinated at how a cult shapes the culture and way of life of an entire state,” said Falguni Chakraborty, a teacher of anthropology from FE Block.

Snigdha Panigrahi of GC Block had come with family members to pull the chariot. “We are coming here for 10 years ever since we shifted to Salt Lake,” she said. The procession set off for Swabhumi at a quarter to four. Cultural programmes will be held daily till Ultarath at the venue, including drawing, quiz and khiripeetha cooking competitions on Saturday.