A Durga puja pandal in north Kolkata, which had caught the fancy of many art aficionados, is being kept open for visitors till October 31.
Tala Prattoy, flooded with visitors since the gates were opened on October 16, initially shut the pandal to visitors early on Thursday.
But as people kept pouring in, the organisers were forced to rethink.
“Chief minister Mamata Banerjee came to know about this. She asked police and the civic authorities to give us special permission to keep the pandal open to visitors from 2pm to 11pm every day till October 31. The light and sound effects will also remain,” said Dhrubajyoti Bose Suvo, one of the organisers.
Many people have visited the pandal since it was reopened on Friday. Some of them said they could not drop in during the Puja because of the enormous crowd. Some others were out of town on the Puja days.
What the visitors see is an elaborate installation.
What cannot be seen is the effort that went behind the installation — more than 50 tonnes of iron and three-and-a-half months of labour by a team of some 180 workers.
All of it was helmed by Susanta Paul, a veteran artist in his 25th year of designing Durga pujas.
This year’s installation was titled Kahan (narration).
A sprawling courtyard with giant pillars made up the foreground. Inside, it looked like a home, with a four-poster bed with a paashbaalish, a cupboard, a desk and other furniture. Durga and her children were placed on the racks of the cupboard.
“I do not seek divinity in a temple or in some ritual. For me, the goddess is manifested in people, in all of us. The installation is a projection of my co-existence with Durga. We share the same home. Divinity is embedded in the everyday life that we share,” said Paul, who stayed inside the installation for a fortnight, which included the Puja days.
The installation turned heads in the real and virtual world.
“A confluence of artistry, engineering, teamwork and patience, such as this, is unthinkable,” said one Facebook post on October 23.
“It symbolises the enduring and profound connection between us and the Goddess, a living testament to our journey together. A must watch for art lovers,” said another user.
The visitors since Friday are missing out on one thing — the idols in their full glory.
To make the festival environment friendly, the organisers do not immerse the idols in the river. Instead, they use a hosepipe to spray water with a force that melts the idols, leaving the basic frame behind.
The idols were dissolved on Thursday evening. Since reopening the pandal, the frames that were left behind have been kept where the idols had stood during the Puja.
Pradip Das, who lives off Tallah Park, was looking at the installation with great interest when The Telegraph visited the pandal on Saturday afternoon.
“I live nearby but could not make it to the pandal because of the huge crowd,” said Das.
Apurba Roy, who lives in Sinthee, came to know from social media about the reopening of the pandal. He did not think before a second visit.
“I came here on Saptami with my wife. The crowd was massive. Today, I brought a couple of friends along. They had not seen Tala Prattoy,” said Roy.
Suvo, the organiser, said: “Durga Puja is the biggest public art festival in the world. We are happy to have played a role in keeping that spirit going for a few more days.”