Come some 7 years from now to the city with no particular address to take refuge, chance is you’ll be heading to EM Bypass to lodge at one of the many hotels that will dot the arterial road. And mind you all of these hotels will be at least 5-star properties, if not better, vying […]

The drummers trooping in at the pandal for the first time this puja announce their arrival by a quick rendering early morning even as I take the pictures again (refer, Themed puja). Protima has been installed though Maa is yet to be ‘armed’. That will happen later in the day after bodhan, that is welcoming […]

Somehow I never to cease to get awed by the massive steel frame of the Howrah Bridge every time I happen to pass through it. I also rue that the magnificence of the bridge, the majesty of the ever-flowing river beneath, and the beauty of the grand façade of the Howrah Station get paled by […]

Puja shopping is nearing the last lap. The frenzy of buyers shuttling from one place to another must be seen to believe. Come to Gariahat now after 11 in the morning. The chance is you’ll be squeezed like a polypack of jelly from all corners. The going is somewhat okay till about 3 in the […]

Those of us cursing the ungodly rush at the city’s Metro in peak hours, take heart. We’re not alone. As the following video from Vimeo tells you, it is perhaps worse in Tokyo’s Tube Rail. But at least there is some order in how people leave and board the trains. That aside, the service there […]

Can a Durga Puja structure built for the sole purpose of the entertainment of pandal hoppers be an infringement of copyright even if it is modeled after the famous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books? Apparently not, according to the Delhi High Court. The gigantic puja pandal that has […]

Closed to where I stay is the Santoshpur Pallimangal Samity’s puja beside Nilpukur, the largest lake in Survey Park area. The preparation here is going on for more than a month, and now it is almost complete except the Durga protima, which is come shortly. The Pallimangal pujs is presumably a depiction of village life […]

As I write this, a new spell of rains has just started in the city. The downpour is moderate – not very heavy going by Met office’s term – but if it continues for a long while, say the entire night, the puja spirit will receive a big jolt. It has been humid and sticky […]