Durga Pujo: Shoshti Pandal-Hopping

Shoshti (literally 'sixth day') is the first official day of the pujo. The larger pandals are all open long before Shoshti, but Shoshti is the day when the smaller, local pandals will open their idols and inaugurate them. On Shoshti, we went pandal hopping in North Kolkata again. Since I was staying in south Kolkata, this involved another long drive through mostly stationary traffic. As such, we only made it to three pandals on Shoshti: Shealdah Athletic Club, Santosh Mitra Square, and East Park Circus.

Shealdah Athletic Club

Shealdah Athletic Club's pandal was modeled after a south indian temple, complete with NSFW art inside. The details on the pandal were incredible, and it was at least a three or four story building. I'm not sure if it was modeled after a specific temple, or just tried to get that general look. I don't think temples generally have this many chandeliers, though... The crowd was intense here, which made it hard to get good pictures, but I did my best. The idol was nice, but nothing special.

Prize: Most explicit pandal.



Santosh Mitra Square

Santosh Mitra Square's pandal was located pretty close to Shealdah Athletic Club, but the direct path was completely blocked off to foot traffic. We ended up having to walk two or three miles out of our way to get there, and then we couldn't even get back to our car. Anyways, the pandal itself was a good reproduction of the Kolkata Writer's Building, which is a Kolkata landmark that originally housed the Bengali bureaucrats who worked for the British Raj government. Given Bengal's role in the resistance to the Raj government, this is a very important symbol to many Bengalis. The pandal also had a statue depicting the overthrow of British rule. The pandal was huge, almost as big as Shealdah Athletic Club's.

Although the outside was an excellent depiction of the Writer's building, the inside was anything but. The inside was decorated with frescoes depicting people dancing, and wouldn't exactly make a good working environment for a bureaucracy. I liked the idol in this pandal, although the only special thing going on here was an interesting purple theme.

Prize: Most politically charged.



East Park Circus

This pandal was something between a normal pandal and one of the big ones like Santosh Mitra and Shealdah Athletic Club. The pandal was quite large and shaped to resemble the Victoria Memorial (also a Kolkata Landmark), but it didn't have the same feeling of completeness that the other two did. Also, by the time we made it here, I was completely exhausted from our adventure getting back to our car after Santosh Mitra Square. The idol here was very nice, however, and I particularly like the pictures I got out of it. The lighting and colors on the pandal were a great touch, particularly with the excellent detail on the carvings.

Prize: Best interior lighting.