In its 74th year, Tridhara Sammilani, one of the biggest crowd-pullers in south Calcutta, is dispensing with the services of a theme-maker for its pandal.
It will be a simple structure coming up on Manoharpukur Road, a stone’s throw from Deshapriya Park.
“The pandal will be less than half our usual size. Unlike other years, I do not want too many visitors this year. It will be impossible to maintain distancing norms otherwise,” Debashis Kumar, the puja’s general secretary said.
Kumar is a member of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators.
Other factors, too, reinforced the decision to downsize. The theme that was chosen last November for this year’s puja was cancelled, anticipating the pandemic situation. The first bamboo pole at the pandal site was planted on October 3, days after the state government announced the puja directives. “There is hardly time to try anything elaborate,” he said.
Well-known theme-maker Gauranga Kuilya, a Tamluk resident, had been in charge of the pandal and the idol for the past eight years.
“He brings 100-125 labourers from the districts to work on the pandal. Even if we could find space for them to stay, what would we have done if there was an infection outbreak among them? The local decorator’s men go home at the day’s end; so, there is no overnight gathering,” Kumar said.
Economic compulsions, too, played a hand. Budget is down to one-fourth. Not a single advertisement has been finalised yet. “Talks are on but it is unrealistic to expect much,” he said.
That has impacted the publicity budget as well. “Around this time in any other year, our banners would be all over the city. This time, we have no plans to put up anything beyond the immediate neighbourhood,” Gargi Mukherjee, the puja’s communications coordinator, said. From 400, the order for banners has come down to 20-25.
Kuilya is making only the idol this time. “I have executed mammoth projects for Durga Puja; I will do so again in future. But this year, the general mood is downbeat. Erecting a gigantic pandal amid the pandemic would be like dressing up to see one’s father’s body,” the theme-maker, who has lost close associates to Covid-19, told The Telegraph from Tamluk.
Kumar spoke of sagging public morale. “So many people have lost their livelihoods. Durga Puja will happen as a matter of course but the spirit is missing. That’s why we are going with the slogan Ei akale bodhan thak, utsab noy. (Let there be awakening, not celebration),” Kumar said.
Tridhara, which is holding its puja magazine release, with artist Shuvaprasanna and author Narayan Debnath, over videoconference on Saturday, does not want even people of the area to crowd during sindur khela or anjali.
“Our 65-year-old priest is wary of the possibility,” he said. So, the whole process will be streamed live on the club’s social media sites. “If someone insists on coming to the pandal, he or she will have to watch the proceedings on two giant LED screens that will be put up at the pandal’s entry and exit gates. They will have to bring their own floral offerings and deposit them in containers placed near the screens. We will not let anyone in except the priest’s helpers.”
Kumar sounds a word of caution. “The Covid situation will worsen as we get closer to the Pujas, given how people are out shopping. If, as a political leader and civic body administrator, I go all out in organising puja this year I will lose the moral right to dissuade other pujas nearby from taking the extravagant route. For us to have no more than moderate footfall at Tridhara, we need neighbouring pujas to scale down plans, too.”
