Navapalli Puja Samiti (NPS) at CR Park here will celebrate its silver jubilee Durga Puja using bio-degradable materials from east Midnapur in West Bengal and has a special chandelier made by artistes from Kolkata.

NPS is one of the most popular Durga Puja pandals in the South Delhi area, witnessing a meteoric rise with a footfall of more than five lakh people visiting pandal every year. The huge pandals witnesses pulsating music, courtesy to the cultural and entertainment programmes, tasty bhog (Prasad), glittery lights, smell of ‘dhuno’ coupled with the sound of Dhaak (drums), and the collosal idol of goddess Durga.

The Samiti has always endeavoured to enrich all aspects of the celebration including the Puja rituals in a decorated pandal, an artistic idol of goddess Durga and the cultural activities. There has always been an added aura in the evenings when top artistes from India and overseas perform and enthrall the audience, said one of the members of puja samiti.

Residents participate in a variety of events like cultural shows, sports, quiz programmes, antakshari, food festival, musical chair, ulu dhwani, conch blowing, etc. being organised during the puja days. On this occasion, a 45 feet Pandal made by the artisans have drawn inspiration from the temples of India to recreate a sacred shrine for prayers and devotion.

Over the last 25 years, NPS has bagged numerous top awards across many aspects of celebrations including innovative pandals and artistic idols of goddess Durga. This year (2017), the puja samiti is organising a procession led by Shehnai artistes to invite all the CR Park puja samitis to join in their silver jubilee celebrations.

Formulated in 1993, NPS has witnessed some noted performers in the past years including renowned playback singers such as Alka Yagink, Kumar Sanu, Bappi Lahiri, Abhijeet, Babul Supriyo, Udit Narayan and Usha Utthup. The Samiti has also enjoyed many youthful performances by numerous bands such as Euphoria, The Indian Ocean, Chandrabindu, etc.

This year, the artistes who are performing at the pandal includes Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty ~ an Indian Hindustani classical vocalist and recipient of Padma Shri, Indian film director, actor and singer-songwriter Anjan Datta, Srikanto Acharya ~ a Kolkatabased modern Bengali singersongwriter and music director, Srabani Sen ~ a Bengali Indian exponent of Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali songs, Shama Sarwat Rahman ~ a British singer-songwriter, sitarist, storyteller, performance artist, filmmaker and actress and Sayom Pal and Shubhoshree Debnath.

In another Puja pandal in west Delhi, organised by Paschim Vihar Bengali Association (PVBA), the devotees coming to the pandal believe that the festival bring all the members of their families together.

PVBA is one of the best organised community Puja celebrations in Delhi. This would be the 35th edition of PVBA’s Durga Puja celebrations where the organisers would be felicitated for best celebration in various categories. “PVBA established in 1983, which serves the residence of the area through its multiple religious cultural, charitable and educational activities. Here, the puja rehearsals witnessed with plays, dances and songs by residents of Paschim Vihar,” said one of the committee members of the puja samiti.

This year’s attractions will be stage play jatra ‘Chanakya’ by Kolkata artist Ahsim Kumar on Saptami day (27 September) and singer Anwesha Dutta who will entertained the crowd on Ashtami day (28 September).