There is room for all types of Durga Puja 'pandals'

Ever since Durga Puja was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021, the 'pandals' have felt a need to have their messaging on point

- SANDIP ROY

It's being called Kolkata's phuchka Durga Puja.

Phuchka, or pani puri, is a staple of Kolkata's street food and since Durga Puja is the time when crowds hit the streets in the millions, it's anyone's guess how many kilograms of phuchka are consumed during the festival.

A Durga Puja organised by the Behala. Nutan Dal club in Kolkata this year has phuchkas in sal leaf bowls installed along the walls like hundreds of little diyas. The entire pandal, which houses the goddess, is made up of materials associated with a pani puri seller's trade. The goddess and family are housed in a huge replica of a phuchka shell, as if enacting Durga and the Amazing Giant Phuchka.

Ayan Saha, the artist, explains to a group of visitors that he was inspired by a story in the Mahabharat where Draupadi made pani puri, a story which was new to me and turns out to have been an internet joke that was taken as gospel truth. To him, the phuchka represents "a woman's character, with a hard shell and tenderness inside". And it occurred to me that what could have been a whimsical, playful Durga Puja riffing off of one of our favourite snacks now had to bear the burden of wearing its profundity on its sleeve, or at least in the artist statement.

Another Puja nearby had one which squeezed in "colonial edges", "dystopia", "asymmetry" and "synergy" into one paragraph. Someone reading it wondered bemusedly if it had been generated by ChatGPT.

Ever since Durga Puja was declared part of Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2021, the pandals must not just look stunning, they need to have their messaging on point. The Unesco tag helps market the festival to international visitors and some Puja organisers seem to think they need to be impressed not just by the art but also the artist statements.