Siliguri, Oct. 12: Charan Kobi Mukunda Das established Anandamoyee Kalibari in 1926. Many people claim it is the oldest Kali temple in the town.

Six years later, in 1932, Laxminarayan Majumdar, Surendranath Bhattacharjee, Birendranath Roy and a few other residents of Siliguri started a Durga Puja at the temple. The platinum jubilee of the puja was celebrated last year.

“After Mitra Sammilani Siliguri, ours is the oldest Durga Puja in the town,” said Barindra Jana, the secretary of Kalibari.

The late Surendranath Bhattacharjee had a hand in the oldest puja as well, having taken the initiative to establish Mitra Sammilani Siliguri, a cultural organisation, in 1909 on a plot of land on Hill Cart Road. Bhattacharjee donated the land too.

“The Durga Puja at Mitra Sammilani started in 1927,” said Udai Dubey, the secretary of the cultural organisation.

A rich tradition is common to the two oldest pujas and it is reflected in their preparations every year.

At both places, the Durga idol continues to be ekchala, which means the goddess and her children are built in the same frame. The idols are made in the mandap, or place of worship, itself. An artisan has been working on the idol at Mitra Sammilani since Rathyatra, celebrated more than three-and-a-half months ago.

Daker saj, or decoration using foils, was introduced on the idol in the 1950s and since then the arrangement remains the same.

At Mitra Sammilani, the puja programmes start with Mahalaya. “As in previous years, we organised a sit-and-draw competition on the auspicious day,” said Dubey.

“After the puja, all the members will attend a Bijaya Sammilani on our club premises on October 27,” Dubey added.

The rich-in-tradition pujas continue to overshadow the pomp and show of the other community pandals in the town.

“Thousands of pandal hoppers flock to our puja every year, making it difficult for us to control the crowd. Besides, a large number of people gather here to offer puspanjali on Ashtami and Navami, said Subin Bhowmik, one of the organisers of the puja at Anandamoyee Kalibari.

The members and their families, of course, cannot afford to miss the four days of puja at Mitra Sammilani.

“Most of the members have chalked out their programmes well in advance, so that they don’t miss out on the four-day celebrations at the puja pandal,” said Sujit Raha, the convener of the board of trustees of Mitra Sammilani.