The first anniversary of the announcement of the inscription of Durga Puja on the Unesco’s representative list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity was marked by the Puja fraternity saluting its own icons.
At Town Hall on Thursday, the Forum for Durgotsab, an umbrella body of puja organisers, remembered prominent figures, many of whom are no more. On the list of posthumous awardees were sculptor Ramesh Pal, shola artist Ananta Malakar and Ekdalia Evergreen puja organiser Subrata Mukherjee.
Illumination legend from Chandernagore, Sridhar Das, 82, was felicitated in person. Others on the list included Puja researcher Tapati Guha-Thakurta and theme artist Bandan Raha, known for his pandal of clay cups in Bosepukur, Kasba, in 2001.
ABP Pvt Ltd, publisher of The Telegraph, was saluted as well for its contribution to the tradition of Puja literature through its Puja-special annual magazines like Desh, Anandabazar Patrika, Anandamela and Anandalok.
“We wanted to make this a memorable day in our calendar. While the forum holds blood donation and a musical soiree annually, there was no platform to recognise contributions of our own people to their respective fields. We plan to mark this red-letter day annually with such a felicitation,” said forum chairman Partha Ghosh.
