Exotica will vie for attention with novelty this Puja, with organisers in the Barak Valley out to outdo each other in décor.
So if one Durga Puja committee has decided to replicate an entire Santhal village at the pandal, another will use something as mundane as betelnuts to build the idol.
Silchar’s Kali Mohan Road Puja, whose chief patron is Union minister for heavy industries Sontosh Mohan Dev, has decided to adorn its idols with buttons.
The craftsman, Ramkrishna Acharya from neighbouring Tripura, received kudos last year for carving out an exotic idol using tinted glass at Subhashnagar.
This year, Acharya will use 300,000 nickel buttons for Ganesh and over one crore buttons for Durga.
But no one can beat Tarapur Motor Stand Puja (picture below), which has transformed the little clearing where the pandal stands into a Santhal village of Jharkhand, complete with tribal art.
“The décor of the pandal has been elaborately planned by an artist from Calcutta, Ram Roy. Santhal madals (drums) will be used to adorn the pandal. Tribal art motifs and ethnic paintings will find place on the walls of a 55-foot bamboo temple,” Manas Purakayastha, publicity secretary of the puja committee, said.
Sukhdev Paul, a reputed artisan from Bengal’s Krishnagar, a town known for its unique pottery, is giving finishing touches to a Santhal Durga.
The idol has been decorated in traditional Santhal style, with a Chhau mask.
The puja at Traffic Colony in the railway town of Badarpur in Karimganj also promises to be a top draw this year.
Artist Barun Nath is carefully crafting Durga out of betelnuts.
The other two potential traffic-stoppers would be the ones at Yuba Samiti at Vivekananda Road in Hailakandi and Subhashnagar Puja Committee in Silchar.
A 50-foot idol of Hanuman and a 55-foot idol of Shiva, carved out in traditional Barak Valley style, will undoubtedly be the toast of the town.
As many as 500,000 oysters, specially flown in from Calcutta and South India, will be used in the 65-foot pandal at Yuba Samiti, whose patron is state minister and resident of the town Goutam Roy.
At the Subhashnagar pandal, dry leaves and bamboo mats will be the main ingredients for art.
source: telegraph india
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