HYDERABAD: The city is soaking in all the fervour celebrating life and the myriad reasons it offers for festivities. With the air turning cool and the nights turning cooler the pandals in the city are glittering with decorations, food stalls, and more. Thousands come for goddess Durga standing majestically in her beautiful avatar.
With the population of four lakh Bengalis in the city, different communities and groups come forward to put in their efforts to bring the best idols created at Kumartuli, West Bengal which are then given final touch by the local artisans after they are brought in to Hyderabad. That’s how Hyderabad Bengalee Samity (HBS) in its 78th year of Durga Puja is continuing its legacy of being the oldest puja in the city bringing magnificent deities to the pandal erected at Domalguda in the premises of Ramakrishna Math. Says the general secretary Sumit Sen, “We have been getting the best artisans to get the idol done. This year we haven’t kept any special theme for the decor. But there’s an array of interesting cultural programmes in the evening by women and children.”
Bangiya Sanskritik Sangha (BSS) which hosts the grand Durga Puja at Keyes High School, Secunderabad is in its 54th year. “The decor of the goddess is created from shola, a milk-white cork spongy wood, which grows in the marshy areas of west Bengal,” informs Atin Chaudhuri of BSS. The spacious grounds of the school has food stalls selling delights not just from Bengal from kulfi from Ajmer as well which goes really well after a plate of fish cutlets with mustard sauce or the famous Calcutta Kathi Kebab rolls with crunchy rings of onion, green chillies, grilled chicken chunks with a dash of lime and pepper wrapped in paratha which opens layer by layer. At Attapur Bengali Association (ABA) the devi wears a large shola crown with intricate paisley work and around her the trimmings of the alcove is almost lace-like in the same white shola.
At the same time Bengalis In Hyderabad (BIH) are all set today for Pujo Parikrama in the city ready with three buses. The group selects best puja and other awards from the pandals they visit. They are visiting 10 of them which are: Utsab Cultural Association, Madhapur, Cyberabad Bengali Association, Miyapur, Nabarun Sangha, Balanagar, Bangiya Shiksha Niketan, Balanagar, Vedanga Sanmilani, Dairy Farm Road, Sec’bad, Hyderabad Kalibari, Sainikpuri, Bangiya Sanskritik Sangha, Sec’bad, Krishti Goshthi, DRDO, Kanchenbag, Attapur Bengali Association, Attapur, Oikotan Hyderabad, and Manikonda-Khajaguda. Says Partha Pratim Mallik of BIH, “We plan to make it bigger the next year.”