by Samir Banerjee (9811323679)
Durga Puja 2022
Post the last two Covid19 years, this year was different. Though we went back to our original venue of the Puja at Uday Shankar Park, E Block, after a much scaled down celebration at the Sanatan Dharm Mandir, which we did the last two years, it took some time to resurrect from the rusty slumber of the lockdown years in terms of energy, funding, and logistics. However, once the ball went rolling, everything fell into order, as if nothing had changed. Like every year, we were thinking of ways to contribute to the community within the larger plan of Durga Puja and nothing seemed more fitting than dedicating our theme for the year to mother earth – Maati (earth). Maati, or earth/soil/clay, has a deep integrated relationship with Durga Puja. Maa’s idol is made of clay and hence it is called ‘Mrinmoyi Swaroop’ and she is the goddess of nature, fertility and abundance – ‘prakriti swaroopa’. It is from this soil that we are made and receive our nourishment, and in this soil that we merge into. As a group, which is predominantly between the age group of 30 – 50 years, basking in the blessings of our senior members, the collective consciousness to dedicate this year’s Puja to this cause and awareness was almost effortless and seamless.
Our Pandal
This year our pandal was designed keeping in mind the traditional ‘Bengal Aatchala’ style. Which looks like a Thatched Cottage, but made out of terracotta. The Pandal design incorporated the main Temple which was perched over an elevated ‘mandap’ sporting fifteen feet clear arches and a forty feet curved roof from three sides to celebrate the beauty of traditional Bengal architecture. The venue had a ‘Naat Mandir’ in front of the main temple where devotees could sit under the shade during the day and dance in ecstasy to the beats of the Dhaak in the evening. The main temple and the surrounding courtyard was enclosed with a low wall to give an intimate and cosy feel for devotees and visitors and demark it from the ‘mela’ sights and sound around.
Bengal cannot be celebrated without looking at the collective cultural heritage of undivided Bengal – our ‘Sonar Bangla’, hence we brought in East Bengal through the most famous design iconography of Bangladesh – Jamdani Handloom weave patterns. We included the design patterns in our Pandal through MDF board cutouts as highlights to enhance the clear straight line work of the artisans who came all the way from Diamond Harbour, West Bengal to work on the pandal.
The initial plan was to finish the entire pandal with actual clay being applied on jute, which we would leave at the park to replenish the topsoil erosion of the venue, supervised by a chosen organisation that deals with urban topsoil erosion in commercial spaces. However, we were extremely disappointed as the heavy rains, two weeks prior to the Puja Dates didn’t allow us to go with this plan and we had to stick to completing the pandal with a cloth. This was bothering us, hence we connected with an NGO, who happily has taken all the material used for the pandal to make handbags to support underprivileged ladies of the community. Every re-useable cloth handbag made from our pandal material would at least reduce 10 plastic bags being put into our earth, and there is enough material to make approximately 2000 bags.
Similarly, our other initiatives towards Mati included giving all the flowers used for Puja (approximately, 600 kilograms) to an organisation called FLAAR, which collected all the flowers to recycle them into incense sticks. To make our venue plastic and thermocol-free as much as possible, we used only sugarcane pith and recycled paper service gear (plates, bowls, glasses, etc.) instead of wooden spoons we bought three thousand metal spoons, which we washed after use and reused. We supported only Local artists from the neighbourhood community for our evening cultural programs to not only support local talents but as a conscious decision to reduce our carbon footprint.
Our Murti
Our Murti / Idol is the centre of our philosophy and unchangeable traditional saga. We have an extremely traditional – ‘ek chala pratima’ which is, Maa as Mashishasur Mardhini stands on the lion, slaying Mahishasura, along with Laxmi, Saraswati, Ganesh and Kartik, all in one frame, a symbol of a united family. Potters from Krishnanagar come every year to manifest Maa in this form from husk, bamboo, and clay. She is finished with natural paint and polished with arrowroot. Finally, she is adorned with silver tinsel jewellery, handcrafted by master artisans from Shantipur, West Bengal that is painstakingly assembled to dress up the idol by the youngsters of our group.
Though times have changed, we like to stick to traditions as much as possible. Instead of the Asiatic Lion, which was introduced in idols across Bengal to be more agreeable to the East India Company Officer’s aesthetics, we stick to the ‘Srigala Singha’ which is a Vedic manifestation of the mythical lion, which almost looks like a cross breed between a horse and a lion. Similarly, the faces of all the idols are ‘khaash Bangla’ with sharp puppet-like eyes and the idol set is complete with Jaya and Vijaya, Maa’s attendants on either side. It is always a challenge to maintain traditions in this era, but just a bit of effort and the right group of people can collectively create something beautiful and sustainable. We are fortunate to have such a group that has been working hard to preserve a slice of Traditional Bengal in Delhi to amalgamate this very culture into the mainstream urban cosmopolitan ecosystem of Delhi.
Our efforts were rewarded when we received “The Heritage Award” Delhi NCR from Narayani Namostute Durga Puja Excellence Awards 2022.
