A Birla Planetarium replica in Howrah, complete with the space show. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

If Calcutta scored with a flurry of theme-based aces during Durga puja, Howrah is returning serve three weeks later.

In its golden jubilee year, Nabin Jatri Sangha is lighting a torch to the International Year of Physics at its Kali puja pandal. The biggest structure, on the PK Roychowdhury Lane ground, off Andul Road, is a dome. Inside, the club boys are busy painting constellations in the night sky, armed with brushes dipped in radium paint. Their guide is an October sky map downloaded from a skywatchers? association site, with a Haley?s Comet thrown in as a bonus.

?We are trying to put up a curtailed version of the Birla Planetarium show,? puja committee secretary Sumit Mukherjee explained, watching Ursa Minor come aglow to the north of the unlit pandal?s ceiling. Club members had paid 12-15 visits to watch the galactic tale unfold in the planetarium. ?Of course, we cannot hope to match their scale.?

So, in place of the ceiling itself, it will be chairs placed on a circular platform that will rotate. ?We will seat 20 visitors for every five-minute show.?

There will also be a scope to see the planets up close in reality. ?We have installed a telescope outside,? said club member Ali Reza, a network engineer. Next to that, a workshop acquaints visitors with the intricacies of signal transmission. Also on view is a gallery of photographs sent by numerous space research institutes.

Another huge draw is the giant screen on which a simulation CD from the Kalpana Chawla Centre for Space & Nano Science is taking viewers on a star trek.

The journey up the Milky Way has cost the club Rs 1.5 lakh. ?The fact that we are doing everything ourselves is helping us save up. Otherwise, in a neighbourhood of salaried people, with the biggest local employer Guest Keen Williams shut, we could not have afforded such a theme,? said vice-president Keshab Das.

The club has earned a reputation for theme-based Kali pujas in recent years. ?There are enough big Durga pujas in Howrah. It is easier to make a name with a Kali puja.?

That they have, with people quizzing them on the year?s attraction for months. ?But the enthusiasm is not reflected on the subscription bill,? Mukherjee rued.

The Howrah address turns both pandal-hoppers and sponsors off. ?We are a 500-year-old town, older than Calcutta across the river. Why do we have to suffer such a step-motherly treatment?? But as the Kali puja queue lengthens, they are happy with what they have ? pandal-hoppers from their own backyard.