The neighbourhood of Salt Lake City — officially Bidhannagar — in Kolkata is hosting a fully-digital Ganesh Puja this year in order to contain the spread of COVID-19 , with organisers claiming this is the first time ever that a festival is being organised in the virtual format anywhere in the world.
“Even the location of the deity has been kept a secret, because the moment people find out the venue, they will start crowding — something we want to avoid at any cost,” said Anindya Chatterjee, president of the organising committee of the Bidhannagar Ganesh Chaturthi Mahotsav, told The Hindu .
Ganesh or Vinayaka Chaturthi falls on Saturday but festivities began on Wednesday — during pre-COVID-19 times, they were held at the BA Block of Salt Lake City — with cultural programmes being streamed live. They will end on Sunday, when the immersion of the idol in the Hooghly river will also be shown live.
“We have been organising this puja for 11 years now and that makes it the oldest puja in not just Salt Lake City but the whole of east Kolkata. This year we had no choice but to go digital because we simply cannot afford a crowd of 500 people. We have also installed an LED screen on the main road for the benefit of passersby,” said Mr. Chatterjee.
“The advantage of going digital is that we have a worldwide audience. Some of the people participating in the cultural events are also from abroad — from the U.S., U.K., and Australia,” he said.
Those offering worship — which includes a token donation, to be made online — can hear their names being mentioned to the Lord by the priest. Those offering worship from in and around Salt Lake City will also have the standard khichuri meal home-delivered along with a set of masks and a bottle of hand sanitiser.
On that day, the organisers will also constitute a COVID-19 survivors’ club and felicitate COVID-19 warriors, who will receive their mementos at home.
Ganesh Chaturthi is not a highly popular festival in West Bengal but it has been catching on over the past few years. This digital-only format of celebration has set a trend and can well reflect on this year’s Durga Puja, which is barely two months many. Durga Puja, Bengal’s biggest festival, entails large crowds and this year, organisers — almost every neighbourhood hosts a Durga Puja — are still clueless how to celebrate it in the midst of a pandemic.
