From depicting rural Bengal and a French opera house to a Rabindranath Tagore musical and the jute industry, Durga Puja organisers across Delhi-NCR are thinking out of the box to make their theme-based puja pandals as unique as possible.
The Aram Bagh Durga Puja Samiti, one of the most popular in central Delhi, is known for its unique and creative theme-based pandals that usually carry a social message.
After dabbling in themes like “Buddha and world peace”, “annihilation of demonic power” and “empowering women” over the last few years, this year the organisers are trying to create awareness about the dying jute industry in the country.
The Durga idol has been made using only jute by Gouranga Kuila, the national award winner for jute art in 2004, a spokesman of the Puja committee said, adding that the idol will be preserved in the museum after the puja. “A smaller Duga idol made of clay will be used for immersion,” he said.
The pandal is being decorated with a 45-foot high statue of a woman with a diya, also made of jute, which signifies hope. The eco-friendly pandal will be decorated with pollution-free art made of jute along with Madhubani paintings, apart from different murals made from the skin of the betel nut.
“The condition of the jute industry in India is very critical today and we are trying to create awareness about the dying industry,” said Abhijit Bose, the executive chairman of the committee.
At south Delhi’s popular Matri Mandir Durga Puja, the theme this year is world peace. The pandal resembles Palais Garnier, an opera house in Paris, because the terror attacks the city has witnessed over the past year.
“Europe is the most peaceful continent, but France has seen so many terror killings. As our theme this year is world peace. We thought of making the pandal look like the Paris opera house,” said Debashish Saha, the general secretary of the puja committee.
“We discussed the idea with our decorator, who then brought artisans from Kolkata to build it. From the artisans and materials to the Durga idol, made completely out of clay including the sari, everything has been brought from Kolkata,” he added.
The Miloni Puja Samiti of Mayur Vihar has chosen Rabindranath Tagore’s famous work Tasher Desh (The Land of Playing Cards) as the overall theme for their pandal.
“Apart from art depicting playing cards and other folk art forms, we will also display the other works of Tagore,” said Tapan Roy, the chairman of the samiti.
The Prantic Cultural Society of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad is showcasing rural Bengal at its puja pandal. “The idea is to provide a platform to the artisans of rural Bengal and promote them at the national level. A group of artistes were camping for a month at Indirapuram to make potchitra of the pandal interior and giving the pandal a rural look,” said Malay Majumder, the chairman of the society, adding that the society members brought a team of artisans from villages in Howrah and Midnapur. “We have used eco-friendly vegetable colours for painting,” he said.
However, some popular societies, including the Durga Puja Samiti of Chittaranjan Park, are not going for theme-based pandals this time.
“Our puja pandal has been done in completely traditional style this year, with no particular theme,” said Shekhar Guha, the general secretary of the samiti.
