The Bengali community in the city is all set to celebrate Durga puja with a host of feast and festivities. The Sarbojanin and East Coast Railway Durga puja was the first to begin the festivities on the day of Panchami, the fifth day of Navratri, at Waltair Kali Bari on Monday. Amidst the reverberating drum beats of the Dhakis (drummers), the festivities were inaugurated by DRM Mukul Saran Mathur marking the beginning the puja rituals that will go on till Dasami.
The beautifully sculpted goddess Durga along with her four children was welcomed with festive fervour. The evening was enlivened with two cultural programmes with folk-based themes. A special dance programme presented by Mitul Bhattacharjee, Trisha Sen, Kaberi Dhara, Ira Das, Surabhi Goswami, Kipsy Chakraborty and S.K. Banik along with a team of children was the highlight of the evening’s programme. This was followed by another cultural programme presented by the team of Shapna Burman, Rakhi Dey, Mousumi Dhar, Madhavi Banik, Putul Shah, Ayantica Dhar, Ankana Bhowmik, Trisha Dey and choreographed by Chumki Mukherjee.
As part of the festivities, cultural programmes by local artistes will be held in the evenings on September 26 and 27. Singers Arijit and singer Dulal Sharma from Kolkata will perform on Ashtami and Navami (September 28 and 29) evenings. The bhog prasad distribution will be done on the days of Saptami, Astami and Navami (Sept. 27 to 29).
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The goddess will be bid adieu after Maha Dasami puja and ‘Sindur Utsav’ on September 30 and idol immersion will be done on October 1.