Black ruled the night at CK-CL Block’s Halloween party on November 4. It was the first time the festival was celebrated in the block and though it started out with kids’ activities, guests of all ages hit the dance floor, showing off their zombie moves.
All the kids honoured the Halloween dress code, wearing black clothes with capes, witch hats or blood painted on their faces.
Swayam Saha, 9, had come dressed as Satan. “This is our first Halloween party and we didn’t know what to expect. We weren’t even sure if others would dress up,” said his mother Pallavi, who herself wore “stitches” on her face with make-up. “Kids know about this festival from watching videos. Last year Swayam wanted to celebrate Halloween and so we’d dressed him as Dracula but he spent the day at home as there was no party anywhere.”
The soundtrack included Michael Jackson’s Thriller, whose video featured zombies, and Bloody Mary, Lady Gaga’s song that was used in the recent Netflix horror-comedy series Wednesday.
The kids paraded in their costumes and went “trick or treat”-ing to one of the organsiers, Juhi Bhattacharya, who gave them chocolates.
The kids had interesting takes on the festival too. “Halloween is a party where we tell friendly ghosts that they are allowed to come to us,” felt Aniket Guha, who was Count Dracula for the day.
“Halloween is the festival of fear,” said Jyotirindra Saha. And why were people making merry at a festival meant to be scary? “They don’t know how it’s done as it’s a foreign festival,” the eight-year-old clarified. The boy had dressed as the Grim Reaper, but his mask remained in his bag. “The mask looks so real that he himself is scared to wear it!” laughed his mother Somasree.
Never too old to party
The bash was the brainchild of resident Mousumi Dutta and friends. “Every Halloween I used to dress up, click myself and post the pictures on social media. I had nowhere to go for Halloween,” she said. This year she, her neighbour Aanchal Bhattacharya and some others were planning to meet up for the occasion when she thought of broadbasing it.
“I approached Shanti uncle (secretary of Bidhannagar CK-CL Block Residents’ Association Shanti Ranjan Paul) about it and he promised support if a minimum of 60 residents signed up for it,” says Mousumi. For the record, the footfall crossed 100.
The only catch was that the party was planned at a notice of less than a week, leaving guests next to no time to arrange costumes. “The only suitable item that could be delivered in time for this show was masquerade masks,” said Anindita Sarkar, whose spectacles kept getting pushed out of her face when she wore the mask. Many more said they had to place online orders for costumes on the basis of - not what they liked but – what would get delivered in a day or two.
Mousumi, who is a makeup artiste herself, came as “half-face skeleton”, meaning the other half was decked up beautifully stones with colours and stones. Srabani Paul had spiders painted on her face and a web next to her eyes. Her daughter Prerona Paul was a “cute ghost” with one side done up in blue and the other pink.
Some like Sujata Ghosh had come dressed – not as ghosts but - in beautiful saris. “After Durga puja, I’m too exhausted to dress up afresh,” she laughed, enjoying herself nonetheless.
Madhurima Bhattcharjee, a makeup artiste, aced the witch look. “I took out the hat I had worn to Digha and covered it with black chart paper. I brought along a broom too. Her five-year-old daughter Darshini was the witch’s black cat, complete with a tail made of aluminium foil and paper.
“This party is a dream come true,” beamed Madhurima, in between dancing. “Any festival deserves to be celebrated if it adds fun to life. So what if it’s from another culture?”