‘Aabol Tabol’ is an iconic piece of literature in Bengali culture. To mark the century year of its publication in 2023, Hatibagan Nabin Pally has chosen this as the theme. This year also happens to be the 100th year of the demise of Sukumar Ray, the author of the book. He never got to see the published book, and the Puja’s desire was to pay tribute to both Sukumar Ray and ‘Aabol Tabol’
All photographs by Arnab Dutta
Just like the pages of the book are in black-and-white, all the houses in the para have been painted white, and 3D painting of the illustrations and poems from the book have been done as well on the buildings. Walking into the para is like stepping into the book itself. Apart from this, there will be live performers around the pandal and puja, performing various poems, verses, and songs from ‘Aabol Tabol’
The mandap is a recreation of the printing press of ‘U. Ray and Sons’, the publishers who first published ‘Aabol Tabol’. That old-style Bengali press has been recreated, sourcing old Bengali printing types. The mandap also features prominently a block of wood, like the ones used in old printing presses. Having researched for a year-and-a-half on this theme, plenty of efforts were made to properly celebrate the two 100-year-anniversaries that fell this year. The old printing machine that is featured in the mandap has been sourced from Medinipur
The ‘protima’ itself will be different, but the ‘mandap’ prominently features the block of wood from the printing press. The main artist working on the idol was Anirban Das. The planning process for the idol, took about a month, with drawings and approvals getting finalized. Totan Sutradhar, working under the guidance of Anirban Das, was responsible for making the idol
Lead-free black-and-white paints were used to paint the ‘para’. Bamboo structures, coupled with plywood, were used to recreate the printing press and the foundations for it. In general, the whole ‘para’ can be considered to be the ‘mandap’. This tribute was very important, as such an opportunity would not appear in our lifetime again. People usually construct theme pandals for Puja, but there is only one Sukumar Ray, and to pay tribute to his greatness, a theme ‘para’ was created. When the owners of the houses that were painted learnt about the theme and the reasons behind it, there was no hesitation among them — everyone wanted to be involved in this tribute to the great Sukumar Ray
