BHUBANESWAR: Even as several puja pandals in Cuttack are investing in lights and decorations for Durga Puja, the Choudhury Bazaar puja committee here has decided to focus on helping the poor and ensuring that the rituals of Mother Goddess are held in the right earnest.
The puja committee that started the trend of bedecking the idols of the goddess and subsidiary deities with silver tableau in the millennium city in 1956, has this year planned to feed ‘prasad’ to the poor differently-abled children and youths and provide them with wheelchairs and other equipment during Dashami.
“We do not invest much in lights and decorations because, during the immersion ceremony, we have to remove everything as 20 to 25 idols of Goddess Durga of the major puja committees pass through this route towards Devi Gada. Before that, the local administration asked us to remove all the decorations and light arrangements. Hence, instead of decorating the pandal we focus on the rituals of the goddess and social service,” said president of Choudhary Bazaar puja committee Debashish Ray.
The puja committee this year plans to cook its famous Dashami ‘bhoga’ for 7,000 people and also make special arrangements to feed it to the PwDs, either at the pandal or shelter homes that house them.
The ‘bhoga’ would include the puja committee’s special ‘Chopi Tarkari’ which is made of peels of various vegetables besides Dahi Pakhala, Aloo Bhaja and Jahni Poda. “This bhoga will be served to all, be it politicians, socialites, the general public irrespective of their social status who come to the pandal on the day,” Ray added.
Although none of the puja committee members are aware of the history behind the Chopi Tarkari, Ray said he has been seeing it being made during Dashami since his childhood days. “Even my ancestors who were a part of this puja, had seen it being prepared on Dashami. In fact, the Chopi Tarkari is the highlight of the Dashami bhoga,” he said.