Mary Kom, Sindhu: Pujas to celebrate women power
DURGA PUJA A Mayur Vihar pandal will show 100 faces of the goddess with hundred hands
NEWDELHI: Two Durga Puja organisers, one in south Delhi and another in east, are celebrating women power and the mother goddess’ 100 avatars as central theme of this year’s Durga Puja celebrations.
While Matri Mandir Sarbojanin Durga Puja Samiti in Safdarjung Enclave will be showcasing the success stories of legendary Indian women in various fields at their pandal this year, Mayur Vihar Kali Bari is making 100 faces of Goddess Durga with 100 pair of hands holding diyas to show how the Mother comes for a few days and removes darkness from our lives on their mandap.
Located in Block B2 of Safdurjung Enclave, the 51-year-old Puja is organised on the Matri Mandir premises. Organisers say this year the pandal is being built and decorated with the theme of women power.
“Maa Durga is the epitome of ‘Nari Shakti’ and her journey to earth with her family is celebrated every year as Durga Puja. We will showcase this spirit of this pure love and courage and philosophy of women empowerment,” said Debashish Saha, general secretary of the Matri Mandir Sarbojanin Durga Puja Samiti.
Inside the main pandal, thermocol cutouts of Mother Teresa, Kalpana Chawla, PT Usha, Mary Kom, the Indian women’s cricket team, Indian women’s hockey team, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar, Lata Mangeshkar, Suchitra Sen, Deepika Kumari, Deepa Malik and Anjali Bhagwat, among others will be displayed.
From August 15, Sunil Das, a native of Medinipur in West Bengal, has been working on the finer details of the mandap along with 80 others. “We usually do this kind of work all year long. The organisers told us that the theme this year is women-centric. With plywood, thermocol and cloth we are creating this pandal. They have given us pictures and we are creating replicas on thermocol based on those. All of these are The health department will put up a kiosk at each Puja venue with a doctor and a paramedic
Six CATS ambulances will also be deployed
There will be four-seater mobile toilets at every venue
handcrafted,” Das says.
Over 80 people are working on the mandap and the budget this year is around ₹70 lakh.
“However, last year it had surpassed ₹1 crore since it was our golden jubilee,” one of the organiser said.
In Mayur Vihar Kali Bari, the artisans are replaced by enthusiastic locals, who are working slowly and steadily to bring alive a ‘theme’ they zeroed in on. These residents, who otherwise work as software professionals, bankers and designers, turn into artists before the Pujas every year.
“We do it ourselves. Every single year. We decide on a theme, plan it according to our budget and then work day and night to
make it a reality. Durga Puja is few days of pure fun. This involvement of creating a mandap takes it to a different level altogether,” Abhijit Ghosal, 32, said.
When Hindustan Times visited the pandal, Ghoshal, a software consultant, along with pattern designer Ashok Das, homemaker Divya Chakraborty, 28, and an American Express employee Robin Singh, 27, were busy painting more than 100 faces and pair of hands. After some time, the other group will take over, giving this batch a break.
But what do these many Durga faces and hands mean?
“We are showcasing Soto rupe soto Durga which means Durga in 100 avatars. We will have one main idol. However, the whole mandap will have these 100 different faces of the goddess along with a pair of hands holding a diya. The mother comes and visits us for few days and she brings the light of knowledge, the power to fight evil and remove all darkness. That is what we will show,” Soumyajit Banerjee, one of the organisers and a member of the young team of 15-odd locals, said.
Some of the avatars are Shailaputri, Bhramacharini, Skandamata, Maha Gauri and Kaali, among others.
Durga Puja, a festival dating to the 1500s, has evolved over the years not only in places in Bengal but also in the Capital.