In early September, when idol-makers in Kumartuli were busy finishing their creations, an artist in Mexico was trying to create an idol with only a photograph for reference. And a Mexican percussionist was picking up dhak beats from a YouTube link.
A one-day Puja, organised by a group of Bengalis in Guadalajara in Mexico, was held on a grander scale this year, harnessing local talent.
“We started Mexico's first Durga puja in 2016 with a poster of the goddess. In 2017, a Mexican artist created a small idol. We wanted a new idol this year," said Ipsita Saha, a Durgapur girl who last attended Puja at home in 2015 before she left India.
Importing from Calcutta was ruled out as the customs duty would equal the idol and the shipping costs combined. Saha, a software engineer, approached her Mexican colleague Julio Rojas’s mother who runs an event management company that creates figures for theme weddings.
“She was reluctant as these figures are cast from a mould. Where would she get a mould for Durga? But when we implored her, she commissioned Contantino Bernado, an artist with her company Reves Eventos.”
All Bernado had for reference was a picture of an undraped ekchala idol. But when the 92cm-tall idol, with each figure separately carved out of thermocol, arrived, the organisers realised their blunder. The picture they had given him did not have the mounts of the gods, except the Devi's lion and Kartik’s peacock.
Saha’s colleague Utsav Das created each little figure in plasticine. The idols’ features also needed some work. "Bhaswati Sinha, an artiste, is spending her cooling-off period here before applying for US visa renewal. She fixed the eyes, nose and lips.”
The job of draping clothes was taken up by Utsav along with Bidisha Mishra and Rohini Sinha, two local homemakers. The silk sari gifted to the deity in 2022 was cut. The anchal became Durga’s sari, the border Saraswati's and the area for the pleats Lakshmi's. White cloth was bought for dhotis of the male gods.
With a new idol ready for worship, the organisers booked a hall in the city centre. “Earlier, we would hold the puja on the outskirts. But people would leave early. This time, we got more footfall with everyone, including Mexican guests, staying back for the cultural programmes,” she said.
This year, the Indian embassy also collaborated with them, sponsoring a quarter of the expenses, the organisers said.
Saha had spotted a potential dhaki in a Mexican percussionist, Saúl Christian Padilla Alfaro, when she heard him play the dhol at an embassy programme in 2022. "He said he had bought the dhol on a trip to Punjab.”
Saúl Christian Padilla Alfaro plays the dhol at the puja
Saha sent him a video link with dhak beats. “He played for us last year and has now picked up his cues. He started drumming as soon as he heard us blow the conch shell and play the kanshor, which we borrowed from the local Iskcon temple," said Bidisha, who also undertook the priest’s duty with Debjyoti Banerjee.
"I hope I did not fare too badly but I want to own a dhak and learn it better,” Alfaro told The Telegraph.
It was Bidisha's first Puja in Mexico. “It is a tradition here to have a male and a female priest," said the Kalyani girl, who grew up watching her uncle do puja. "It was a big challenge to finish five days of rituals in one day. It helped that our earlier priest, Indranil Chakraborty, had documented everything. We started at noon and completed at 6pm.”
Mexican guests joined the devotees in offering anjali. “We held a separate round for them as they were full of questions,” said Bidisha, who had cooked the bhog, too, the day before and ended the night by taking part in dhunuchi dance.
