Six hundred sunflowers were suspended from strings above, a massive lotus served as the centrepiece before the idol, and floral chandeliers adorned the edges of the quadrangle — all uniting to pay homage to women.

Students and teachers of DPS Megacity spent the entire year creating art and craft to be displayed at their Durga puja celebration.

“We’ve been celebrating Puja this way for 11 years now,” said junior school headmaster Jude Baptist, who conceptualised the project. “I had planned it a year ago, but no one knew what was happening. Students were asked to create artificial flowers throughout the year, and we assembled everything in five days, just in time for the festival.”

The idol was sculpted by art teacher Sourav Ganguly, and instead of weapons, she held lotus buds. “When they blossom, they become the giant lotus placed in front of the idol,” said Baptist. Another installation featured flowers arranged around the face of a woman, decorated with aluminium foil. Recycled cutlery from the canteen was used for decorations, and umbrellas painted with sunflowers were later donated to charity.

“We are not commenting on any particular incident but paying tribute to women in general,” said Baptist. The project involved 160 teachers, over 4,000 students from nursery to Class VIII, and more than 4,000 hand-made flowers.

Two theme songs — the peppy Ashchhe pujo nil akashe and the soulful Uthchhe phutchhe phul guli — were written by Bengali teacher Paramita Datta, set to music by music teacher Arnab Chakraborty, and sung by English teacher Poushali Nag. “We’ve had the songs recorded and are also releasing it on the music app Spotify,” said Chakraborty, before a live performance of the same.

Playing the dhak was pint-sized percussionist Agniswar Misra Ganguli. “I’ve been playing the drums since I was two and now I learn djembe online from Taufiq Qureshi, brother of tabla player Zakir Hussain,” said the sixth grader, who has performed at several concerts but admitted to being a tad nervous on the day. “It’s because I was told today itself that I have to play,” he laughed, before delivering a beautiful performance. Agniswar had also made a shiuli flower for the decorations but couldn’t spot it in the plethora of artwork on the day.

Aavishka Dey and Shreeya Sengupta, Class V students, enjoyed dancing to Puja songs. “We love art and craft as well as dancing,” said Aavishka. “I think the ideal woman is Durga, and then my mother (Dipa Dey), as she’s energetic, loves dancing, and is also a teacher at our school.”

Among the dignitaries was actor Rahul Mazumder, who spoke about giving women equal opportunities. “In my TV show Horogouri Pice Hotel, my mother’s character scolds my wife for wearing churidar, but my character stands up for her and asks why not, especially when his sister can do so without raising eyebrows. At malls after that, female security guards would rush to me and express how much they appreciated this, as they faced the same issues at home for wearing trousers as part of their uniform,” he said.

Tilottama Mallik, vice-principal and head of the school, praised the teamwork and camaraderie that went into the Puja project. “The underlying message to the children, of course, is to respect women. Women’s empowerment is a societal goal, and what better occasion than Durga puja to celebrate it?” she concluded.