BHUBANESWAR: For Bengalis in Cuttack, the Durga Puja celebration is not just about rituals but it also means revelling in Dhaker Baddi and Dhunuchi Naach to their heart’s content. The puja at Cuttack Durgabari Samiti which was started by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, will this year include a series of competitions for all age groups spanning across all the five days of festivity.
Members of the samiti said this year there will be competitions on Sankha Dhawani, cooking, antakshri, traditional games, Alpona and Dhunuchi Nacha for members of the community. On the Bijaya Dashami day, ‘Sindur Khela’ will be organised before the ‘Bhasani’. They informed us that a special Bengali prasad menu has been prepared for Sasthi, Saptami, Astami and Nabami which will not only be sold to devotees but also distributed free among the underprivileged in the city.
The menu includes Bengali dishes like ‘labda’, ‘beguni’, ‘dhala khechudi’ and ‘dhoka dalna’, among other things. And like last year, the rituals and competitions will be streamed live on the samiti’s YouTube channel.“We try to keep the Bengali tradition alive by focusing on the puja rituals and arranging various cultural activities that are central to our community. We also ensure that our younger generation is acquainted with our traditional practices,” said member Paritosh Mitra.
The puja was started by Netaji in 1916 at his paternal house in Odia Bazaar. Although he participated in the puja only for a year, his friends in Cuttack continued it. It was organised with pomp and grandeur at the Bose house until it was converted into a maternity home in the 1950s.
After that, the samiti members organised the puja for some years in makeshift pandals near the Bose house. In 1960, a Good Samaritan donated a plot of land to the samiti at Alamchand Bazaar where the permanent pandal came up.