On Saturday, the organisers of Kidderpore Sarbojanin handed over the booking amount for this year’s Durga puja to their idol-maker. This was no departure from their custom of making the payment on the auspicious occasion of Akshay Tritiya. But this time, they chose their Muslim neighbours to do the honours, connecting the occasion to Id-Ul-Fitr as well.

“This is the 97th edition of our puja. Ours is a Muslim-majority area where the number of Hindu families is barely 15. We have all grown up together. So when our Muslim friends said they want this puja to grow bigger we decided to do the initiation jointly on Id,” said joint secretary of the puja committee Avijeet Das.

Das added: “We all grew up together. So when our Muslim friends said they wanted this Puja to grow bigger, we decided to do the initiation jointly on Id.”

About a dozen Muslims from the neighbourhood together contributed over Rs 5,000 that formed part of the Rs 10,001 advance, or “booking amount”, to the idol maker. “They said this was their Eiddi (Id gift) to us,” smiled Das.

Kesto Das, a local man who makes the idol at the pandal site, was touched by the gesture.

“We live side by side and attend each other’s festivals. It’s wonderful that they want to make a more meaningful contribution to our Puja,” the 49-year-old said.

Naseer Ahmed, a former footballer who represented India in the 1986 pre-Olympics and was in the Santosh Trophy-winning Bengal teams of 1978 and 1979, headed the group that handed over the local Muslims’ contribution to the Puja committee.

“The prevailing social condition is such that Durga Puja, Id, Christmas, Guru Parv, etc, should be celebrated together in mixed localities. This is the only way the next generation will learn the importance of peaceful cohabitation,” Ahmed said.

“If the social milieu is vitiated, it will harm the entire neighbourhood, not just one community.”

Ahmed said that only outsiders and a handful of opportunists gained from communal strife.

He underlined that the Manasatala Lane locality was largely a market area with five mosques within a 200-metre radius.

“Everyone attends iftar. And if the invitation is late, they (Hindu colleagues) remind us: ‘Ki re, ebar semui khawali na (Won’t you treat us to shemai this time)?”’ Ahmed said. “They too send Puja prasad to our homes.”

He said the bonhomie was visible also in other local pujas such as those of the Bhukailas Youth Society, Manasatala Sarbojanin and Ekbalpore Sarbojanin.