Bidhan Abasan has been celebrating puja for 35 years but this will be the first time their pandal will have a theme, that too for children. “Children are one of the worst-hit sections in the pandemic. They can’t go to school, can’t go out to play… Our theme will be a glance back at the good old days of childhood,” says general secretary Alock Sardar.
Bidhan Abasan is diagonally opposite Labony Estate, bordering Duttabad, and its residents are government employees. The budget this year has been pegged at Rs 4.5 lakh and artiste Debesh Mondal and sculptor Pradip Rudrapal have been entrusted with the work. The highlight of the puja will be a 3ft model of a child sitting in frustration on a giant mobile phone. “This model will be placed in the middle of the pandal,” says Sardar.
Besides an artistic Durga inside, cut-outs of the gods will be placed on the upper walls of the pandal, visible from outside. Children of the complex have been asked to send in their drawings on topics like lost childhood and the effect of online classes. These, along with paintings by the theme maker, will be put up around the colourful pandal. Sardar, an engineer by profession, is an amateur artiste and has asked kids to submit their hand prints on different pieces of paper. “I shall create an image of Durga with it,” he promises.
Most blocks are downsizing their puja in the pandemic, “but we felt we owe something to the children and so are trying our best to offer them something worthwhile,” says Sardar, who became secretary this year.
Kids are also happily rehearsing for solo stage programmes that they shall present on stage.
The committee wants to emphasis the importance of oxygen in a year that saw so many Covid patients gasping for breath. So three months ago they planted saplings next to the pandal that have grown tall now and will add to the ambience.
The puja will open on Chaturthi.