There was Mahisasuramardini high up in the sky, music created out of pots and pans and of course a 50-ft high Ravana, waiting to be vanquished. The Dussehra celebrations at BF Park, hosted by Saltlake Sanskritik Sansad, were a gala affair with over 10,000 guests gathered to watch.

The event was attended by the likes of MLAs Sujit Bose and Vaishali Dalmiya, mayor Sabyasachi Dutta as well as the president and secretary of the Sansad Bishvanath Bhuwalka and Kanhaiyalal Kothari. 

Performing the opening Ganesh Vandana was Kalikapur-based group Beat Busters. The dancers brought in a statue of lord Ganesha on stage and the chief guests went up and performed arati before it even as the dancers performed on the sides. 
It was then one great act after another. Sanjay Mandal and Group of India’s Got Talent fame created foot-tapping music by beating buckets, utensils, thermocol, bamboo sticks etc. Skeleton Group of Delhi danced wearing robot-like skeleton suits that glowed in the dark.  

Beat Busters appeared once again, but this time they were way above the stage. They performed an aerial show of Mahishasuramardini. So Durga and the demon king waged a spectacular war in the air. 

“Though we are a professional dance group this was the first time we performed an aerial act. Response was phenomenal,” said the choreographer Soujit Das. More than 30 dancers had taken part in the act which came to an end with the Nava Durga forms descending on stage. 

And finally it was time for the Ravan dahan. Performer Ram Swarup, dressed as lord Rama, appeared on a stage erected in front of the giant Ravan, Meghnad and Kumbhkaran and shot arrows at them, making them burst into flames. The crowd rose to its feet, applauding and chanting: “Jai Shree Ram!”

Aditya Mundhra of CF Block had kept his mobile camera trained on the spectacle. “But it burnt out in seconds. None of us got good pictures,” he rued. Eight-year-old Vaishali was very excited by the show. “I had never seen Ravan dahan before. My mother had told me the story of Rama killing Ravan but I wanted to see it with my own eyes.” 

Another guest, 65-year-old Nirmala Pandey, had seen many a Ravan dahan before but its importance hadn’t diminished in her eyes. “I’m watching the ceremony since my childhood and shall try to watch it every year as long as I can,” she smiled.
The skies then opened up to spectacular fireworks that could be seen even from far-flung blocks of the township. “Since it gets so crowded with spectators, this year we ensured Ravan, Meghnad and Kumbhkaran burst together instead of one after the other,” said Sanjay Poddar, a member of the group’s youth wing. “We had been planning this event for the past three months and are glad that it went off smoothly.”

With inputs from Shubham Paul and Arundhati Biswas