Hatibagan Sarbojanin

Beadon Street- Hatibagan

In narrow lanes packed with houses standing cheek by jowl, most pujas in the area have struggled to give wings to their themes but there are attempts aplenty to hold aloft the true spirit of Puja.

The idols, barring a couple, are in the traditional ekchala style in this nook of old Calcutta. Among the exceptions is the golden goddess of Hatibagan Sarbojanin, holding earthen pots of water instead of weapons, symbolising peace.

The theme entails ample use of water but to make the puja safer, the organisers have kept fire extinguishers and sand in the open pandal. First-aid and helpdesk stalls are on the road. Senior citizens will face problems in climbing the flight of steps to the idol.

Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja is a show-stealer. Representatives of the organisers promptly demonstrated how to use the fire-fighting equipment. Entrance and exits are clearly marked and there is a dedicated gate for the differently-abled.

Shyambazar Nabin Sangha’s innovative pandal is made of mosquito nets. There are enough fire extinguishers here but the clumsy bundle of electrical wires poses a fire threat.

For Ramesh Dutta Street Sarbajanin Durgotsav, the puja is a reason to bond. Uttar Kalikata Anandamandir, the organiser of the puja, runs a school for children of sex workers and slum dwellers in the area. Many of the students are now graduates employed by different companies.

A nearby house has lent its bathroom for use by women visitors to the puja. A first-aid stall has also been erected near the pandal and dustbins put up.

Space is not a problem for Shyam Square Sarbajanin Durgotsab O Pradarsanee and Bagbazar Palli Puja O Pradarshani.

Bagbazar Palli has an attractive golden idol and a Buddhist theme of peace and non-violence. There is an emergency exit and a dedicated gate for the differently-abled. Drinking water is easily available and the club has built permanent toilets outside the park where the puja is being held.

The sole exit at Shyam Square is small. Both pujas do not have dustbins, so as the festival progresses, they may not look as clean as they did on Sashthi.

Picnic Garden-Ekdalia-Santoshpur

Santoshpur Lake Pally

Rabindranath Tagore, traditional art forms, electricity conservation and a strict security code dominate the 12 big and small pujas in the area.

The bard of Bengal inspired the theme of four of the pujas. While some of the dozen pujas excelled in portraying both the theme and the true spirit of Puja, most fell short.

Topping the achievers’ list is Saradia Sammilani near the Ekdalia Road-Cornfield Road crossing. The organisers explored the issue of pressure on children by focusing on Tagore’s Sahaj Path.

The entrances and exits as well as the interiors of the main pandal, modelled on Udayan Bhavan in Santiniketan, are lined with illustrations from the text.

Concern for the visitors is evident in the well-stocked first-aid centre and the closed circuit television cameras trained on the passage and the inside of the main pandal.

Pally Mangal Samiti near South City Mall has concentrated on bringing Santiniketan to Calcutta. But the organisers have shown scant regard for disposal of waste. Not a single dustbin was visible in and around the pandal.

Santoshpur Sarbajanin Durgotsab is celebrating Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary by putting up illustrations inspired by his poems and prints of his paintings.

Green Avenue Sarbojanin Durgotsab has recreated the upasana griha of Santiniketan as a protest against it being closed to visitors.

Santoshpur Lake Pally and Santoshpur Trikon Park Sarbojanin Durgotsab are two pujas that have remained true to the tradition of True Spirit Puja, from making adequate fire-fighting arrangements to conserving energy by using LEDs and keeping the area free of trash and chaos.

Lake Pally, which has built the pandal with bamboos and tiles in the likeness of a womb where new life is celebrated, protected and nurtured, has printed leaflets to spread awareness on global warming. The leaflet and a list of important local numbers are being given to each visitor.

First-time participant Santoshpur Trikon Park, which has used only bamboos to make the pandal, has focussed on community service — organising blood donation camps, getting spectacles made for the poor and contributing to the heart surgeries of six children.

Falguni Sangha in Ekdalia, a puja with a small budget, has showcased the endangered art of woodcarvings.

It has also worked hard to show the right spirit — from operating a 24x7 ambulance service to taking proper fire-prevention steps. The spic and span bathrooms and availability of drinking water were two more pluses.

Most of the pujas in Picnic Garden fell short on the True Spirit parameters.

Picnic Sunrise Club made extensive use of thermocol and had garbage strewn all around. At Sunil Nagar Sarbojonin, which celebrates the festival of colours, first-aid and drinking water facilities were absent.

Salt Lake

AJ Block, Salt Lake

Pujas in Salt Lake have shown their concern for the senior citizens and the disabled this year.

Most have wheelchairs and separate entrances for the disabled. CJ Block has gone a step further installing a lift to help wheelchair-bound devotees reach the elevated mandap.

“Eight doctors, who are residents of our block, are manning our first-aid counter in shifts,” said Benoyendra Kumar Das, the president of Salt Lake CJ Block Welfare Association.

The puja also has on standby a mobile generator, which is less polluting and noisy than the conventional ones.

Beleghata’s Sharod Swanirbhar Committee has soared up the green charts by using solar panels.

“We also have a system to harvest rainwater to obtain drinking water by using solar energy but we have not been able to use it since it has not been raining. We are demonstrating the system by using tap water,” said Urmy Palchaudhuri, the director of an NGO that is supporting this initiative.

All the pujas have toilets but their insides are horror stories — doors don’t shut and the flushes don’t work. Beliaghata 33 No. Palli Bashi Brinda, in contrast, has a mobile toilet for women that looks hygienic.

Cleanliness is the only factor the Labony Estate Puja Committee lags behind in. The area around the mandap was littered with food packets and bottles on Sashthi afternoon despite the organisers insisting that there were two sweepers on duty at all times. There was no dustbin in sight either.

At AJ Block, there are 12 dustbins, two of which are specifically for plastic waste. “Environment department officials will collect plastic waste from us after Puja and dispose of it in the appropriate way,” said Rana Das of AJ Block Puja Committee.

The puja, with a tribal theme, has a watchtower atop a children’s slide in the vicinity for crowd control.

The electrical connections of most pujas were a let-down. AJ Block and Sharod Swanirbhar has within the reach of children electrical wires that will get wet if it rains.

Beliaghata 33 No. Palli Bashi Brinda has led by example, concealing the wires underground and building a room for the panel board. Inside the room were two fire extinguishers and a poster depicting the first-aid to be administered, should someone get electrocuted.

“There will be no compromise on safety. We will reduce the scale of the puja if we have to but not put the lives of our visitors in danger,” said puja committee secretary Sushanta Saha.

Inputs by Dalia Mukherjee, Chandreyee Chatterjee and Brinda Sarkar

Pictures by Pabitra Das, Amit Datta and Aranya Sen