A child’s random sketches on the walls of rooms are the inspirations behind a top pandal and an idol in Thakurpukur that have won several awards this Puja.

Now, the idol has been selected for preservation by Chander Haat, an art collective that deals in community-based projects.

Purnendu Dey’s idol will travel from the Red Road carnival to the Behala address on Tuesday night, instead of proceeding to the Hooghly.

The pandal on Diamond Harbour Road bears sketches of plants and animals as interpreted by a child. The signages are in a child’s hand. The puja has been such a rage, especially among children, that there were over half a dozen kids even on Sunday evening when Metro visited the pandal for the second time after an initial visit during the making. It was adjudged the Best Puja in the eyes of 40 student-judges of TTIS Choto Chokhe Boro Pujo as well.

“The space outside the pandal has black and white sketches to depict a world where children are shackled. Inside, the colours are in full flow as it is the world of children’s imagination,” explained Ajoy Majumdar, the secretary of State Bank Park Sarbojanin Durgotsab, Thakurpukur.

The puja had been inaugurated by Samriddha Das, a nine-year-old girl. It is her sketches on the walls in her Baranagar house that inspired Dey, the theme-maker. “Samriddha sketched on the walls of her bedroom and drawing room when she was around three to four years old. Most parents would treat such art as defacement and whitewash all traces. But Samriddha’s parents have preserved all her handiwork,” Dey told Metro.

Dey photographed the walls and scoured her drawing book, from where he got a face of Durga. “That was used in our publicity material as well as our idol,” said Dey. The idols are placed in three chariots and the demon king climbs one of its corner poles, like a child would.

Samriddha was invited to open the pandal. “She was so overwhelmed at the attention that she broke into tears,” laughed her mother Riya. The family was delighted to spot her drawings replicated on such a wide canvas. “The background of the goddess was based on her sketches as were the spider and the bat on the ceiling. A tub with a flower outside was her drawing too,” said Das.

For the rest of the drawings, Dey had asked underprivileged children of a charitable school run by Shibmandir in south Calcutta to draw whatever they pleased. “Such original sketches cannot be done by well-to-do students of posh schools who are likely to paint cartoons and might also have got formal art lessons,” he said.

Bhabatosh Sutar, himself one of the foremost Puja theme-makers, is one of the senior members of Chander Haat. “Pandals are rarely geared towards children. This puja has an ambience of fun and the expressions here have such child-like simplicity! We run a children’s school at Chander Haat. We thought such a work of art deserved to be preserved and the school would be a nice fit. We are not a museum but we will take as much care as possible to make the clay image last,” Sutar said.

Dey expressed satisfaction that the idol was being collected by artists. “I am confident that it will be well looked after,” he said on Monday.