“I am feeling scared, ma. Why have they put such ugly faces in a pandal?”
“Some people threw acid on their faces. That’s why they look like that.”
“Why did they throw acid, ma?”
“Because they are evil people. The world has both good people and evil people!”
The conversation between a mother and a child, overheard around 12.30am on Panchami, was taking place at Santoshpur Avenue South Club.
Amid the merriment and festivity, it was a sobering moment that each visitor was experiencing as they stepped into the pandal which mirrored the plight of acid attack victims.
It is perhaps in the fitness of things that such a stark slice of reality would be saluted as Model Puja 2022 by a movement that for two decades has been nudging festival organisers to think beyond bright lights, pretty idols and beautiful pandals, and consider visitor care as also social and environmental responsibility as priorities.
The final round of judgment of CESC The Telegraph True Spirit Puja, powered by the Indian Institute of Hotel Management and in association with Chemtex, took place on Friday night.
The judges — consuls general Melinda Pavek (US), Rowan Ainsworth (Australia), Zha Liyou (China) and Didier Talpain (France); actors Rituparna Sengupta, Parno Mittrah, Nusrat Jahan, Yash Dasgupta and Richa Sharma; filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, and rockstar Rupam Islam — set out to experience the visitor facilities at the eight pandals that had made it to the final list after two days of preliminary screening involving close to 300 participants.
And when the news of the result reached the Santoshpur puja, theme-maker Papai Santra had a one-year-old baby on his mind.
“The girlfriend of a friend’s brother had suffered such an attack. Despite his parents’ opposition, the guy married her. Last Ashtami, a daughter was born to them. I owe the idea and the inspiration to them,” he said, as visitors took in the scarred faces and charred bodies and sought solace in the deity, who, in a simple sari, is more of a mother and less of a goddess in the way she protectively holds her two daughters by the hand as a fire burns on a screen underneath behind the asura, signifying acid burns.
TV sets in the pandal break news of such attacks from across the country. “Stop acid sale,” petitions a section of the pandal.
Five Star Puja: Behala Nutan Dal. Picture by B. Halder
Personal experience has informed the pandal at Behala Nutan Dal too, which was named a Five Star Puja.
Theme-maker Ayan Saha drew from the loss of shelter resulting from the war in Ukraine as also the recent death of his father, using stripped umbrellas as a symbol. Finally, though, one finds shelter in one intact umbrella and the protective fold of the mother’s sari wrapped all across the pandal walls.
Nutan Dal scored high in social responsibility, having organised a day for special children, starting with sit-and-draw and ending with a cultural programme in the evening.
On Sashthi, 85 domestic help of the area were gifted saris. A felicitation was organised not just for local students who did well in board exams, but also their mothers.
Five Star Puja: Tala Prattoy. Picture by Koushik Saha
Tala Prattoy, another Five Star Puja, has created a walk of fame along the approach to Susanta Pal’s pandal with pictures of all 251 labourers who worked on the structure, right from ground-diggers on the khuti puja day to the welders and fitters.
Five Star Puja: Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha. Picture by Rashbehari Das
Dum Dum Park Tarun Sangha, the third Five Star Puja, has given out a message of social harmony and equality that a street stands for. The theme of Manas Das’s pandal is a journey, which unites all fellow travellers for that length of time, irrespective of caste, creed, social status or the destination they are headed for. They have also tried raising awareness of the looming threat of dengue by putting up posters.
At Badamtala Ashar Sangha, a Four Star Puja, theme-maker Debatosh Kar was down with dengue, as were all his teammates. The poignant theme of footsteps, ending physically in the crematorium at the ground level, but leading spiritually to the Goddess and the Moon above, is a stark reminder of the lives lost in the area to the virus.
The club organised a chest check-up camp for police personnel and conservancy workers as they were the hardest hit by Covid. Keeping lung health in mind, they have installed a real-time air quality monitor to check PM 2.5 levels outside the pandal.
Ajeya Sanghati in Haridevpur, Beleghata Sandhani and Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Samity were the other finalists who were named Four Star pujas.
Behala Club, which uses sabai grass woven by artisans from Jhargram as the sole material for pandal decor, is the Chemtex Truly Green Puja. Kalighat Sree Sangha, paying a tribute to 76-year-old chalchitra painter Reba Pal, is the Indian Institute of Hotel Management Puja that Cares. Gariahat Hindusthan Club is the Voiceworx Truly Managed Puja. Salkia Alapani and Dum Dum Park Bharat Chakra have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.