Chandrayaan-3 is the flavour of the festive season with two Ganesh pujas in our vicinity working their themes around it and another planning their Durga puja.
At the Yubak Sangha puja near PNB Island, the pandal has a model of the spacecraft on top. “LVM3 M4” is written in Hindi, indicating the Launch Vehicle Mark-3. Smoke releases from its bottom, as if to show the launch. The idol is placed underneath and even here the backdrop has images of the lunar rover Pragyan, the surface of the moon and the earth behind.
In its 14th year, this puja is located next to the Benfish stall in BB Block.
A photograph of the Chandrayaan-3 lander Vikram beside the idol at the Yubak Sangha puja in BB Block
“From the moment I learnt about the Chandrayaan, I wanted to feature it as our puja theme, but we had to play safe,” said puja president Anindya Chatterjee. “We had to wait for it to land successfully first. After the landing on August 23, we had little time to pull this off but I’m glad we could do it. I dedicate this pandal to the scientists of Isro.”
The inauguration on Saturday was attended by MLA and minister Sujit Bose and Debiprosad Duari, former director of MP Birla Planetarium.
“I’m happy to see the kind of excitement Chandrayaan-3 has generated and congratulate the organisers for choosing a theme that ignites young minds,” said Duari, a resident of AE Block. “The youth need to look at this not just as India’s achievement but also as a possible choice of profession. Instead of pushing children only towards the IT sector, parents too must realise that core technology will run the nation in future.”
Motorists were seen turning to check out the pandal and pedestrians clicked selfies. “I had no clue about the theme; I came for the puja,” said Papia Bose, a resident of BA Block, sitting before the pandal to watch the cultural programmes. “I quite like what they’ve done. At the mission’s launch itself, I had thought it would make it to some puja theme.”
Blast-off at Baguiati
An apartment block in Baguiati has ushered in Ganesh on lunar surface. A hemispheric mound has been created with a heap of cotton wool on which the 5ft idol sits. The backdrop to the idol is a cratered close-up of the moon. To its right is an astronaut in a spacesuit with the Indian flag in hand. To the left stands 3.5ft vinyl cut-out of Chandrayaan-3, which is pulled up by nylon wire operated by a motor. When the rocket rises, the flag flutters in the astronaut’s hand.
“This is our third year of puja. The immersion will be on Sunday. The gates of the complex have been kept open and people of the entire locality are coming for darshan,” said Ankit Agarwal, secretary of Executive Palace, on Railpukur Road.
The biggest rocket to be built at any Chandrayaan-themed pandal is likely to come up this October in New Town where DB Block has commissioned a 55ft craft. The block, close to the Biswa Bangla Gate, is doing its Durga puja on the ground next to The Newtown School. The view from a distance will be of the three-dimensional rocket set to take off, standing on a 12ft platform of a launch pad. Intermittently there will be smoke puffing out of a smoke machine to indicate the moment of the launch. The entry and exit to the pandal will be on the sides behind the façade.
The interior will be outer space, in terms of visuals, sound and lighting. The walls will have photographs of the first two Chandrayaan missions while the 30ft high ceiling will have a 15ft by 15ft screen on which video footage of the actual landing of Vikram as well as shots of Isro scientists at work and of space in general will be projected. The trump card will be the projector itself. “The projector will be placed inside a 4ft replica of the lander which will be hung from the ceiling by four wires invisible to the visitor eye. The wooden structure will be coated with brass foil,” said Pritam Acharya, the theme-maker who is executing the pandal.
The idea was conceived two days after the launch when work had started at Kumartuli on a 12ft idol planned for a different theme. “We had to pay extra to make the idol-maker start over,” said puja secretary Pinaki Chatterjee.
The block has also planned an awareness drive for its children. On October 14, on Mahalaya, a sit and draw contest will be held, during which the story of Chandrayaan will be explained to them with the help of a model that will be created for this.
Isro scientist Soumyajit Chatterjee and his parents who stay in New Town’s CE Block will be invited.