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.

Durga Pujo: Pandal Hopping on Panchomi

Panchomi (literally 'fifth day') is, according to my expert guide, the first day to go check out the big pujos. The crowds haven't really picked up as yet, but the big pandals are fully setup, open and decorated. While there were definitely crowds, I could tell it wasn't as bad as the other days. Due to the atrocious traffic in Kolkata, we could only see three pandals on Panchomi: Shreebumi, Dumdum Park Torun Shango, and Dumdum Park Bharat Charkra. I'll discuss each of them and then give them a "prize" indicating how I thought they related to the others I saw.

Shreebumi Sporting Club

Shreebumi's pandal was clearly modeled after an Italian villa, although it was made from what looked like plaster and plastics. The pandal featured a wide courtyard with statues (plastic). The idol was fairly nice as well, and the chandelier inside the villa was incredible. If you look closely enough at the chandelier, you'll note that the birds are actually hanging from the roof -- I had thought they were painted on.

Prize: Most elegant pandal.



Dumdum Park Torun Shango

Dumdum Park Torun Shango had a pandal situated right next to a lake, which gave me some great photographs. The entire pandal surface was made out of scraps of towel, sewn together to make the general color they were after. All the artwork was likewise made from towels. The idol was nice, but my mother in law's first comment was that Durga was too thin.

Prize: Most innovative building material.



Dumdum Park Bharat Chakra

Dumdum Park Bharat Chakra's pandal featured dozens of animatronic dolls, displaying stories and shifting between various poses. The animatronics were nothing like Disney's, but they were pretty impressive for a temporary structure built by hobbyists. The pandal also featured dozens of dolls bobbing their heads, which was pretty cool, albeit a bit creepy. I liked the idol, particularly the symmetry.

Prize: Most mobile decorations.

About the Durga Pujo

So I've gradually been filling my picasa gallery with photos I took during the 2010 Durga Pujo celebration in Kolkata (Panchomi, Shoshti, Shoptomi, Ashtomi, and Nabomi). The Durga Pujo is the biggest celebration of the bengali year, and I spent it this year with my wife's family in Kolkata. I've attended this celebration for many years in the US, but it's a whole different thing in India. In the US, there's one celebration per city (and not in all cities), and the celebration goes on for just a single weekend. In India, the celebration lasts four days, and is growing to cover six. All four of those days are crammed into a saturday afternoon and evening in the US.

In Kolkata, the Pujo is marked by each neighborhood or area building a pandal. Traditionally, pandals are structures to house the idols and protect them from the elements during the Pujo, but they've evolved into something entirely different. Nowadays, pandals range from small, roadside pujos, to enormous structures built to resemble castles, temples, and more. Each of these large pandals typically has a theme, although the theme can be nebulous. All of them are temporary structures, usually built over the course of a month or so, and then torn down after the pujo.



Inside the big pandals, there are often artworks, lighting, and wide open spaces, all designed to draw people into the pandal and enjoy the pujo. The idol itself (see above for an example idol taken near EDF) represents six gods: Shiva, Ganesha, Karthik, Lakshmi, Swaraswati, and of course, Durga. Most of the idols depict Durga defeating the demon king, Asur. Each of these gods have a traditional depiction, such as Durga wielding ten weapons and riding a lion, killing Asur with a trident. Ganesha is depicted with a pet mouse, and Karthik with a pet peacock. Swaraswati is depicted with a pet swan and Lakshmi with a pet owl. Asur is sometimes depicted as a demon, and at other times with the head of a bull.

A big tradition in Kolkata is what is known as Pandal hopping, where families will visit dozens of the biggest pandals in the city. We visited well over twenty during the five days of the Durga Pujo, and visited a handful of others that we couldn't even get into due to the line. In later writeups, I'll write about the specific pandals we visited, and a little about each of them.

Bi-weekly Background - 2010.10.11

Today's picture is a close-up of a Sea Anemone that I took at the National Zoo. I rather like Sea Anemones (see a previous background), but I rarely get good close-ups. This shot is close enough that the result is almost abstract. Enjoy.

1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 1440x900, 1680x1050

Bi-weekly Background - 2010.10.04 and 2010.10.08

Another two for Saturday post. Things have been entirely too crazy recently... Anyways, common theme here in that both of my backgrounds feature sunlight streaming through things. My first shows the internal details of a Ginkgo leaf near my house, while the second was taken during sunset on the Autumnal Equinox. Enjoy.

1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 1440x900, 1680x1050

1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 1440x900, 1680x1050

Bi-weekly Background - 2010.10.01

Today's shot is of a pine tree in Lassen Volcano National Park. This was taken near Bumpas Hell, and the tree was clearly not doing so well near the hydrothermal vents. This is one of my favorite shots from the area, just because of the uniformity of each of the bunches of needles -- some yellow near the base, some green near the ends -- and the exposure on the branches.

1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 1440x900, 1680x1050

Bi-weekly Background - 2010.09.27

Posting way late. Sorry about that. This shot is of a berry bush that I found while hiking in Lava Beds National Monument in northern California. I love the focus in this shot, as well as the detail on the berries. Enjoy.

1024x768, 1280x960, 1600x1200 1440x900, 1680x1050