DEVOTED TO ART

As we step into the festival season, AVISHEK MITRA recalls the togetherness, homecoming, and artistic fervour that make Kolkata's Durga Puja unique.

- AVISHEK MITRA

AS MY TAXI FROM KOLKATA airport sped to the heart of the city, a huge structure caught my attention. I rubbed my sleep-deprived eyes to make sure I was in my hometown and not in the Vatican in Italy, because looming in front of me was an exact replica of the St Peter’s Basilica.

From the sound of the hymns, I gathered that devotees were offering flowers to goddess Durga inside. The presence of the goddess inside a basilica may be a surprise to the uninitiated but this is the embodiment of the unique spirit of Kolkata’s Durga Puja— where devotion meets art.

Celebrated during the same time as Navratri, Durga Puja is a unique concept in many ways. Here the goddess is not merely the destroyer of evil and protector of the good. She is the daughter of the household who returns to her parental home every year for a vacation from her marital home in the Himalayas.