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Clubs gear up for Red Road immersion gala on Friday

Kolkata: Puja committees, set to participate in the Red Road Durga Puja Carnival on Friday, spent Thursday making last-minute preparations for their performance at the immersion extravaganza, the theme of which is Ranga Maati Bangla .

Representing Bengal’s heritage and keeping to the theme, the two main pavilions set up for the spectacle have been designed like terra cotta temples of Bishnupur.



As the idols of 79 clubs, which stood out in their themes, popularity and footfalls this festival, will roll down Red Road towards the Hooghly for immersion, the organizers will walk along their respective tableaux and present brief song-and-dance sequences, centring around the theme. The clubs have come up with their own interpretation of the theme and weaved their performances around the idea. For example, Tridhara Sammilani in south Kolkata will depict ‘Ranga Maati Bangla’ as a call to save the motherland from global warming and climate change. “The entourage will have close to 100 members who will all wear green to send out a message on the importance of saving our maati or land from the twin threats of climate change and global warming. The performance will include a slice of our rural dance forms,” said Gargi Mukherjee, a representative of Tridhara Sammilani, which made their premises plastic-free this Puja.

Several Puja committees had turned the focus of their pandals on environment this Puja. While one in Shyambazar made trams its central theme, urging for the revival of the eco-friendly mode of transport, another club in Bhowanipore modelled its pandal on a nursery of plants to stress the impact of global warming.

Organisers of Samaj Sebi Sangha pointed out the Carnival theme was in sync with that of their pandal: celebrating the unnamed. “We dedicated our Puja to those who put in a lot of hard work but hardly get their due. They are responsible for keeping the city up and moving, but they don’t get recognition. They are the unsung heroes we forget to even notice. We will present a short performance around this theme on Red Road,” said Samaj Sebi Sangha general secretary Arijit Maitra.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had penned the lyrics for Suruchi Sangha’s theme song, with a message that religions might be personal but festivals were universal. “It is difficult to identify different layers of maati (earth). Similarly, Durga Puja is a festival, where we acquire one common identity and it becomes difficult to point out who belongs to which region or religion,” said Kingshuk Maitra, working president of Suruchi Sangha.

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