You can take Durga Puja out of Kolkata, but you cannot take Kolkata out of Durga Puja. Even if that Puja happens to be all the way in New Jersey, where Kallol, one of the oldest Bengali clubs in the US, celebrated the biggest Puja in its 48-year history in 2023, with My Kolkata as digital partner. Observed over three days with all the trappings of the Puja as witnessed in Kolkata, Kallol’s 500-plus members marked the greatest festival of Bengalis with as much, if not more, gusto than their friends and families back home. Despite there being more than a score of Pujas in New Jersey over the weekend, both big and small, it was Kallol that most Bengalis opted as the place to be, with more than 5,000 visitors gracing the Ukrainian Cultural Center, the customary venue for Kallol’s Puja in Somerset, New Jersey.
Preparations for the Puja, whose first celebration at Kallol took place in 1977, involved setting up the mandap and the idol by Thursday, October 19, which also saw the final stage rehearsals from the local groups set to perform during the Puja days. The informal, welcoming and homely ambience of Thursday, which was Panchami in Bengal, provided the ideal prelude to three days of non-stop celebration between October 20 and 22. More than 400 people came together to soak in the pre-Puja vibes, clicking photos, laughing, playing dhaak and feasting on a free dinner. “From next year, let’s do a four to five-day Puja,” demanded Alok Dey, a long-time and active member of the club.
The Ukrainian Cultural Center, the home of Kallol’s Puja for more than 25 years, is a spacious hall with a stage designed for performance. The mandap is located to one side, with an integrated kitchen filled with the aroma of bhog. Outside the main hall, there is a tent for the distribution of food alongside a huge parking lot and large patches of greenery, suitable for a stroll as well as for puting up vendor stalls. As in the last few years, this year's Puja also had a paanwaala selling Mishti Paan sat right in front of the entrance of the venue, transforming the whole location into a miniature version of Mohammad Ali Park or Deshapriya Park. “We loved the fact that the Puja is organised in a way that feels very different to overseas Pujas. The vibe is much closer to how Puja feels in Kolkata,” said an attendee from Toronto.
The quintessential ‘barwari pujo’ experience
Bhawani Mukherjee (left), the head priest of Kallol’s Puja, alongside his deputy, Arijit Chatterjee, the president of Kallol
At the heart of Kallol’s annual celebration is the promise of a quintessential barwari pujo experience. Multiple anjali slots were arranged on each of the three days to suit the convenience of the thousands of attendees. A group of volunteers started each day by cutting and preparing the fruits to be used for Puja, fasting till they offered anjali. As the Puja happens in the same hall that hosts the cultural programme, all sound checks and other logistics are kept on hold till the Puja for the day is complete, conducted by Bhawani Mukherjee, an octogenarian priest who has been the head purohit at Kallol for 36 years. Arijit Chatterjee, Kallol’s president, is Mukherjee’s deputy for the rituals and is next in line to take over in the years to come. While the Puja is on, a number of veterans of Kallol’s Puja, such as one “Dolly di”, 86, keep a vigil over “the young and sneaky ones”, making sure everything is performed to the book. The idol, changed every five years from Kumartuli, is decked up over weeks by Kallol members in a garage, with Pratap Aditya Mullick, dubbed “the artist”, helming the efforts.
Every Puja, the members of Kallol themselves cook the food that gets served to the guests for dinner. “It’s our Puja, we must treat our guests well,” opined a passionate Anupom Saha, who led the charge over three days to feed anyone and everyone who came for Kallol’s Puja. Be it the khichuri and labra dominating the palate on Friday, the mutton and pulao on Saturday, or the traditional egg and fish curry on Sunday, Kallol ensured that attendees could keep their home ovens switched off over the weekend. “When we entered the premises in the morning, the sheer smell set our mouths watering in anticipation,” noted a first-time attendee. “I’m here from Bengaluru, visiting my daughter who’s studying in a local university. Being at Kallol, I’m definitely not missing my Puja back home,” giggled another.
Preparing close to 900 pounds of goat meat on Saturday was a project in itself. “People look forward to the food at your Puja and we must deliver. One year, when our meat supplier had an unforeseen emergency, our volunteers were on the streets the whole night, knocking on the doors of meatpackers and goat farms. We were very worried, but somehow still managed to deliver the delicacies on time the next evening,” recollected Pinaki Datta, vice president of Kallol. For 2023, the organisers went one better, adding Michelin star recipient Hemant Mathur and his kitchen for a “food for sale” offering. “It was an instant hit. Our attendees loved the pricing, the options, the taste and the versatility of the food. It looks like we have to repeat it every year now!” commented Rajiv Mukherjee, the general secretary of the club.
‘Kobir lorai’, comedies, Shaan and more
‘Kobir lorai’, featuring the poetic talents of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan fans, proved to be a big hit in its debut year at Kallol
Sashthi celebrations on October 20 got underway with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony, with the dhaak resonating in the background. The much-anticipated kobir lorai followed, a poetry face-off stylised along the lines of East Bengal versus Mohun Bagan. Football fanatics showed up in their respective teams’ jerseys, with one female supporter wearing her beloved kit on top of her sari! A couple of comedies, performed by the theatre enthusiasts of Kallol, got the audience roaring with laughter. Sashthi culminated with Prithibi enthralling one and all with their music for more than two-and-a-half hours, taking the first day’s event well past midnight. “This is our first US tour, and to have our first show in Kallol is very special,” noted Kaushik Chakraborty, lead singer of the band.
The lineup for Saptami and Ashtami, jointly observed on October 21, was just as colourful. The best of Kallol’s young artistes performed in front of more than 1,500 people, as a broad smile of pride spread across the face of Ranjana Sanyal, an executive committee member working alongside others in getting the next generation of Kallol members to appreciate their cultural legacy. Lopamudra Mitra and Joy Sarkar, touring the US together after many years, captivated the crowd for the next two hours . A melodious dance drama, called Bhanu Singha, inspired by Rabindranath Tagore, followed, making Susmita Das nostalgic. Das, a senior member of Kallol and former choreographer, used to direct the annual Tagore dance-drama at Kallol’s summer event along with her husband, Ashok Das, then cultural secretary of the club and an accomplished vocalist himself. Just when the audience thought they had had their share of entertainment for the night, Kallol welcomed Nirmalya Roy from Kolkata. For the next hour or so, Roy breezed his way through semi-classical, fusion and popular hits, ably supported by a local band comprising two college students.“Who would think of starting a performance with a presentation of the Kirwani raga and then progressing to Mone Pore Ruby Roy!” marvelled an attendee.
Shaan electrified the audience as part of the closing performance on October 22
The Sunday slot for classical music, on October 22, was taken up by Sandeep Bhattacharya from Kolkata, who mesmerised the audience with his thumri, bhajan and ghazal. Then came the most sought-after segment of the festival, with Shaan making the audience groove to iconic numbers as part of the closing performance.“We couldn’t accommodate the demand for Sunday tickets, it was massive. On the day itself, we had to turn down so many requests,” described Datta, who also heads the management of programmes and related activities for Puja. Sixteen people from Shaan’s team arrived at Kallol, with another dozen coming in from Boston just to take care of the audio-visual arrangement. Having worked for more than two months to get everything in order, Kallol left no stone unturned. Shaan rewarded them for their meticulous planning with a stupendous performance that electrified the audience.
‘Sindur khela’, ‘bisharjan’ and the road ahead for Kallol
Kallol members during ‘sindur khela’ on Vijaya Dashami
“Making sure that all our attendees feel engaged and have a sense of belonging here is the focus for us,” reflected Poushali Mukherjea, a senior pharma executive and long-time Kallol member. With that in mind, Kallol started an attendee welcome and hospitality group last year, aiming to provide warmth, care and a personal touch to the thousands of attendees. For this year, the unit consisted of a group of nearly 30 women, more than 50 per cent of them being teenagers, donning a “How may I help” badge and going above and beyond to attend to visitors. A series of friendly competitions also formed an integral element of the Kallol Puja, with everything from art and bridge to photography and dhunuchi naach keeping both members and guests occupied.
On Sunday, a symbolic bisharjan — the idol is packed inside a closet instead of being immersed in water — was preceded by the inevitable sindur khela, where hundreds, mostly clad in red and white, danced their hearts out. Even as the peculiar mixture of joy and sorrow that is typical of Vijaya Dashami marked the end of Kallol’s Puja for 2023, members looked ahead to the upcoming events at the club. On October 27, Kallol's women forum, Medha, working for the education of underprivileged kids in India, will celebrate its Vijaya Dashami, followed by Lakshmi Puja on October 28, with Kallol's annual cricket tournament final taking place a day later. Kallol’s popular virtual quiz, with Datta as quizmaster, will involve teams across the US, the UK and Australia, with the prelims scheduled for November 18. On December 2, the same day as the quiz finals, Kallol will host its annual fundraiser. Then, once 2024 is here, this club packed with passionate Bengalis will do it all over again, including celebrating a Durga Puja that keeps getting bigger and grander every year.
