Now this was a puja whose theme was pending till the night before inauguration. The structure was up and it was decided that the puja would be a tribute to sportspersons, but which players it remained to be seen.
“Our inauguration was on November 20, the day after the World Cup final. Had we won it, we would have put up cutouts of cricketers outside the pandal. Since we lost, we went for the Asian Games instead,” said Susanta Saha, an executive committee member of Bidhan Nagar (Salt Lake) Kishore Sangha, who had thought of the theme.
The pandal next to BB-BC Park had pictures of javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, captain of the women’s cricket team Harmanpreet Kaur, captain of men’s hockey team Harmanpreet Singh and the logo atop was that of the Games too.
Replicas of the 107 medals that India won at the tournament hung from a chandelier in the pandal. “Since the tournament took place in China we had invited the Chinese consul general Zha Liyou for the opening,” said joint secretary Soumya Sen. “Actress Payel Mukherjee joined us too.”
This was the 35th edition of the puja and among cultural programmes was a show starring Madhabi Mukherjee. She recounted anecdotes from her experience of working with the matinee idol Uttam Kumar, and others filled in with music.
(Clockwise from left) KB Block, BC Block, KB Block, AC Block and KC Block