Durga Pujo

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.

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.

“Our artists have come up with these ideas after spending time with students of blind schools. Just as people who can see getting excited about Durga Puja when they see pandals coming up, the sound of sawing and nails being hammered into wooden planks makes the visually impaired realise that Puja is approaching.”

In fact, a month before the festivities of Ganesh Chaturthi and Dussehra, the bylanes of Parel, Lalbaug, Girgaon and Prabhadevi, all suburbs of Mumbai, are worth a visit.