Smoke genie of old Calcutta
Charcoal, dung, wood etc., used as fuels before the mid-19th century were responsible for the problem of smoke, or miasma.
Hand-pulled rickshaws, balconies with iron rods, jackarched windows and the feriwalas are all set to woo visitors at Chetla Agrani Club that is seeking to revive the glory of ‘old Calcutta’ in its Durga Puja theme.
Kolkata is not just about glitzy shopping malls, multiplexes, towering buildings, computers and smart phones.
The nostalgia of Kolkata actually comes from the iconic features of the city like trams, century-old buildings, rajbaris, sweets, hilsa and so on.
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Despite several water parks and other places of recreation being set up, a large number of people still enjoy visiting the iconic Victoria Memorial, Kalighat Temple, Nakhuda Mosque and such old monuments.
Considering this, the members of the Chetla Agrani Club wanted to replicate the nostalgia related to the old ‘City of Joy’ in their puja pandal this year.
Like every year, the organisers of the club are leaving no stones unturned to enthuse visitors during the pujas.
With the theme of this year’s Durga Puja, the artisans have tried to include everything that can take the visitors to yesteryears.
“While a letter box in old style with the address ‘Kolkata’ will greet the visitors at the entrance, a passage depicting a journey through time will take them to the old world,” said Suvendhu Samanta, secretary of the club.
However, the highlight of the pandal is the Bengali pied piper who drives away rats from the city. There will be a violinist, who’ll be drawing a large number of digital rats.
These attractions are expected to amuse the visitors. “If digitalisation is taken away from the modern city, what will be left? There is the old Kolkata. Therefore, a ‘time passage’ has been designed at the entrance from where visitors will be taken to old Calcutta after digitalisation is taken away,” pointed out artist Anirban Das.
He added, “The ceiling is adorned with hundreds of pendulums to signify the passage of time. After passing through the time passage, pandalhoppers will be treated to the sight of various monuments of the city that are symbolic,” he added.
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