What: Seagram’s Imperial Blue Packaged Drinking Water presents The Telegraph Puja Premier League 2023 powered by Indian Institute of Hotel Management
Where: Tala Barowari
The theme: Tala Barowari embraces the 103rd year of celebrating the festive revelry by evoking the most aesthetic feel of art, literature and music that the entire Bengali community feels proud to identify themselves with. The pandal extends a befitting tribute to the works and ideologies of Abanindranath Tagore that resonates with the word ‘Thakur’ in both senses. The entrance resembles the southern passage of Jorasanko Thakurbari to welcome visitors to an enriching abode of literature, history and art. Besides using regular bamboo, ply and hay, the pandal notably incorporated various colours and alluring art installations in the form of wooden dolls that are directly inspired by the writings, sculptures and paintings of Abanindranath Tagore. The pandal also has significant safety measures in place to avert any sort of unfortunate events. Tala Barowari also features a live Baul performance that exudes the best vibes of Sonajhuri haat, a popular hub in Santiniketan.
Organiser speak: “Every year we end with one concept and again bounce back with another innovative concept for the next year with workers working in the ground for the three months mostly from the districts of Medinipur and Bardhaman. A few months back we had a teaser running named ‘Jora Thakur’. Then another teaser came which was titled ‘Ekta Talar, Arekta Kar’. Finally, we concluded upon our concept ‘Aban o Thakur’ as we felt that perhaps Abanindranath Tagore was overshadowed a bit. Thus, this concept was our way of bringing him into the limelight,” said Tryambak Basu, treasurer, Tala Barowari Durgotsav Committee.
Rooting for the club is: Gaurav Chakrabarty. The actor was proud to be associated with such an old puja organisation. He said, “From a very young age I have been visiting puja pandals all over the city. Basically, hailing from south Calcutta and growing up there I had many friends back in school who belonged to north Calcutta. Every puja we used to book a car and do pandal hopping the entire night and it always used to start from Tala. It feels great to be back here. This puja is an aesthetically enriching one. It’s my pleasure and I am honoured to represent this puja. I think that is the thing which excites me the most.”
Activities: The evening saw a fun adda session with couples having a chit-chat that took a dig into fun moments of their daily lives. This was followed by a mellifluous instrumental presentation to the tunes of Bhalobashar morshum from the film X= Prem.
(Clockwise from left) Gaurav made the festival more special for these kids as he clicked a selfie with them.
Darshana Sarkar,administrative assistant (left) and Manisha Hela, coordinator, Indian Institute of Hotel Management (right), handed over gift hampersto Gaurav Chakrabarty.
Gaurav being felicitated by Sandipan Ghosh, treasurer of the puja committee.
Couples had a blast at the fun-filled adda in the presence of the affable actor.
(Left) Gaurav checks out the exquisite decor at the pandal.
(Right top) Ankan Sinha Roy, a puja committee member, impressed everyone with his mouth organ. He played Bhalobashar morshum from X=Prem
(Right bottom) Tryambak Basu, treasurer, Tala Barowari Durgotsav Committee