This Puja, school secrets to bloom

For Abhiraj Shee of Class V, pandal-hopping for Durga Puja will start from his school gates. He is not the only one. For the past three months, excitement has taken over Delhi Public School, Megacity, as it gets ready to host a two-day Durga Puja festival on the school grounds, complete with an eco-friendly idol and a pandal that the students are collaborating and creating.

The school will be hosting the festival on the 11th year this time.

The best part about the Puja is its surprise element.

“For seven months our art teacher, Sourav Ganguly, has been making the Durga idol at a ‘secret venue’ right on the school grounds. Nobody will have any clue how the idol is shaping, until the inauguration. Similarly, children from Classes II to VIII have been making decorations for the pandal as part of their SUPW project for three months now, without even knowing what the theme is and how they have been contributing towards pandal-making,” said the junior section headmaster Jude Baptist, who spearheads thewhole process.

All the secrets will be revealed to the students on the day of the inauguration on October 4. October 7 the school organises a kichudi feast where they are planning to feed 1,000 people.

The themes this year are empowerment and flowers. Students from Classes V to VIII have been helping out the teachers with the arrangements in between their classes and in the zero hour.

“I am part of a dance performance. We have been practising for a month now. Fifty of us are dancing to a song written and composed by our teachers. It is a very proud moment for us. We also practised during our tiffin breaks, happily giving up on playtime,” said Aarchisa Das of Class V.

Language and music teachers Pramita Datta, Poushali Nag and Arnab Chakraborty have composed two Bengali songs for the occasion that have been already recorded in a studio.

Around 250 students are involved in the decorations, which include making flowers of all shapes and sizes as part of the pandal. The students and teachers have been working hand in hand, whenever free, and sometimes even staying back after school to help out. They are also making creative posters on women’s empowerment.

“I have made endless flowers and chandeliers during SUPW classes. We used recycled paper and throwaway objects to create art and that was fun,” said Somwrita Datta of Class V.

The school plans to close for the Puja vacation with the grand celebration held at the Pre-primary quadrangle. “Around 3,000 students and their parents will attend the event that will also see our students performing and celebrating with their friends. We taught the students important life lessons through the preparations. We are also propagating secular values through this event,” said vice-principal Tilottama Mallik.

The Durga Puja celebration is part of a larger in-house project called Nostalgia.