Durga Puja Celebrations in Full Swing as Revelers Hop From One Pandal to the Other

Kolkata: The last day of Durga Puja is here, and for revelers, it has all come and gone too soon. Till the last moment, they can be seen hopping from one pandal(temporary structure for worship) to another, bowing before the most extraordinary idols of the goddess. The pandals too defy the imagination.

At Tridhara Sammelani in south Kolkata, the goddess Durga has seven heads and 70 hands, like idols, apparently, in distant Tibet. The Tibetan theme is carried over to the pandal as well. The music at the venue is Tibetan and traditional dancers from Sikkim perform every day.

"Anyone coming here and looking at the pandal and the idol will be mesmerized and I know he or she will be taken to Tibet for a little moment," says organiser Gargi Bhattacharya.

Not far away, at Ballygunge Cultural, the goddess is dressed in traditional 'daker shaaj' (made from silver foil) but the pandal is futuristic, with steel structures in place of the usual bamboo and cloth.

"We are calling it vision 2024," says organizer Anjan Ukil. "Basically it is installation art, created by architects. But our Goddess Durga is very traditional...So a fusion of modernity and the futuristic."

Meanwhile, some prefer a complete trip down memory lane. At Salt Lake's famed FD block puja, the pandal is like a sprawling bungalow from the British Raj with the traditional goddess housed in its verandah.

An awestruck class 12 student said, "This puja is about the old traditions and they are showcasing it as an old rajbari...that's what I have inferred. With the dhakis and everything...the atmosphere is very charged. I feel like dancing to the beat of the drums."

There are theme pujas and traditional ones, 3D goddesses and soaring pandals, bursts of otherwise seldom seen creativity. No wonder, Kolkata's Durga Puja is often called the world's biggest open air exhibition of art.