Wave Upon Wave of Puja

[Guest guest]

WAVE UPON PUJA WAVE

Calcutta, Oct. 23:

It's an end-October Saptami after many years, about a month later

than usual. The twin results: a cooler sun and not a hint of a cloud

in the sky. The net effect: a city that could not wait for the

evening to set in to take over the pandals.

 

The districts, too, joined the pandal invasion. With the floods that

swept away last year's festivities keeping away, more than a hundred

thousand people poured into Calcutta from Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia and

the two 24-Parganas.

 

At any given time on Saptami, the vehicles plying the city numbered

over 9 lakh – a stunning vault from the usual 5 lakh. Officials are

bracing for around 20 lakh people and 11 lakh vehicles on the road in

the next three days. "What we are witnessing this year is, in a

sense, unprecedented," said DC, traffic, M.K. Singh. "It is almost as

though Ma Durga has blessed the timing and the weather, allowing

people to have a whopping time."

 

>From Shyambazar in the north to Dhakuria in the south, from the

Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in the east to Sealdah close to the

city's centre, Calcuttans — and those from the suburbs — stopped the

city in its tracks.

 

The star draws: Ekdalia Evergreen, Babubagan, Jodhpur Park, Santosh

Mitra Square, Sealdah Railway Athletic Club, Simla Byayam Samiti,

Ahiritola Sarbajanin Kashi Bose Lane, Telengabagan, Md Ali Park,

College Square and Bosepukur. They vied with each other to top the

most-visited list and keep the traffic police, often outnumbered and

sometimes assisted by volunteers from puja committees, on their toes.

 

On the northern fringes of the city, airport-bound commuters on VIP

Road were in for a harrowing time as the popular pujas along the

city's only connector with the airport attracted huge crowds.

 

The airport saw a lot of "confusion" as well as "last-minute

activity" and several passengers had to "rush through" security-

checks 10 minutes before departures.

 

Subol Naskar, a mason from Nadia, who arrived yesterday with daughter

Saraswati and wife, confirmed that there were many others like him

from Nadia in the city's pandals. "Last year we were thinking of how

to rebuild our lives," Naskar said. "We can afford to spend the pujas

in Calcutta this year."

 

Sixty-year-old Robita Ghughu, a small farmer from Kamarpukur in the

Mograhat area of South 24-Parganas, has come with granddaughter Seema

Mandal. She, too, said last year's floods were a distant memory.