Kolkata: The theme for this year's puja of Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Committee, one of the oldest community pujas in Kolkata, is "balcony" - a small concrete structure which is associated with the life of Kolkatans for centuries.
The committee will be celebrating the 81st anniversary of its community puja in 2018.
Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja in North Kolkata is a crowd puller every year and the organisers feel that living up to the tradition, the footfall of people will be high this year as well. The unique concept of the importance of verandah or balcony in the lives of city residents will be implemented by the pandal artist Pradip Das. The idol of Goddess Durga will be made by Sanatan Dinda.
Dinda, a well known visual artist, has graduated from the Government Art College. He is the first Indian artist whose portrait of Mother Teresa has been displayed at the Buckingham Palace.
Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay is the chief patron of Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Committee, while Shashi Panja, Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Social Welfare, is its president. Atin Ghosh, member, mayor-in-council (Health), of Kolkata Municipal Corporation is the chairman, while Mohan Kumar Gupta, councillor of ward 17, is the chairman of its advisory committee.
With demolition of the majority of old buildings in South and parts of North Kolkata from the 1980s, the balcony or verandah has almost become history now. Almost all the old buildings used to have a balcony and they provided relief to the residents of the house.
Modern apartments do not have proper balconies and this has deprived the younger generation from looking at the sky, enjoying the rainbow after a shower or watching the stars at night.
The balconies gave an opportunity to residents to come close to sky and it was an ideal place for kite flying. At night, they played the role of an observatory from where one could see the stars dotted on the clear sky and in many families, there were elders who used to teach the juniors the names of the stars.
Seeing the full moon from the balcony was a real pleasure. For the women of two closely situated buildings, balconies were used as platforms from where they gossiped, particularly in the afternoon, with the men away at work and the children in school. When it rained heavily, children used to go to the balcony to enjoy it.
The pandal of Kashi Bose Lane will give the visitors an opportunity to travel back in time.