Durga Puja

Tala Prattoy marks 100 years of Durga Puja in 2025 with the captivating theme Beej Angan. Designed by Bhabatosh Sutar, this eco-friendly and artistic pandal invites visitors to experience a celebration of nature, culture, and faith in the heart of Kolkata.

Idol-making was once a highly male-dominated profession. Mala Pal broke tradition by joining her brother after their father passed away. Now, she runs a school that imparts this centuries-old craft to future generations.

In December 2021, UNESCO included Kolkata’s Durga Puja in its Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The historian behind the feat, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, explains how this took shape.

Meet award-winning artisan Mala Pal from Kolkata’s famed Kumartuli locality, who is training several young people in idol making to keep an old art form from dying.

Pandal director Rintu Das conceptualises the unique Maa Durga sculptures being honoured at Barisha Club pandal in South Kolkata every year that his students painstakingly create.

In an ode to migrant workers who faced immense hardships during the pandemic, Kolkata's Barisha Club Durga Puja committee has decided to erect and worship a statue of a migrant mother this year.

Shockingly, the rights to this legendary music was sold by AIR for just Rs 50,000 in 2006

The Durga Puja pandal by the Indraprastha Matri Mandir Nirman Society at Aradhana Park in IP Extension has gone further and used recycled items sourced from junkyards and scrap dealers. With gas cylinders for heads and steel scrap for bodies, the idols are accompanied with decorations made from used bulbs and soft drink cans.

According to a popular lore, the potters of Kumortuli were unaware of the image of a lion (Durga’s pet) and sculpted a horse-like creature with a stout mouth, large teeth and a ferocious look. That early rendition of a lion is still replicated for one of the oldest Durga pujas in the region!

Khunti district in Jharkhand has been infamous for illegal poppy farming for a long time with dealers luring the villagers to cultivate opium, offering them huge amounts of money.