Khuti puja in city clubs 90 days ahead of Bengal’s biggest festival

Kolkata: Khuti puja was performed on the occasion of Rath Yatra on Sunday across clubs and neighbourhoods that organize Durga Puja in Kolkata. According to the ‘panjika’ (Bengali almanac), exactly 90 days are left for the Bengal’s biggest festival.
Big budget pujas in the south like SB Park Thakurpukur, Alipore 78 Pally, Chetla Agrani, Haridevpur 41 Pally, Shibmandir, Badamtala Ashar Sangha, Rajdanga Nabauday Sangha, Bakul Bagan Sarbojonin to Hatibagan Sarbojonin, Jagat Mukherjee Park, Kumartuli Sarbojonin, Dumdum Park Bharat Chakra and Sreebhumi in the north, worshipped the ‘kathamo’ (frame/structure) or ‘khuti’ to mark the beginning of their Durga Puja preparations.
Shibmandir on Lake Temple Road arranged a combined celebration of their 88th year of khuti puja in the morning with their traditional Rath Yatra celebrations in the evening. “This year, we organised a fair on our puja arena and released hot-air balloons,” said Patha Ghosh, secretary.
In its 90th year, Bakul Bagan Sarbojonin organised their khuti puja on Sunday evening. “For the second time, our theme-artist will be a woman, Aditi Chakraborty,” said Gaurav Dutta, assistant secretary. Vidyasagar Central Sarbojonin Durgotsav in Baghajatin declared renowned artist Sanatan Dinda as their idol artist. A mid-budget puja committee in Central Kolkata on its 78th year disclosed their theme ‘Blue City’. “We want to send a message that our environment is getting degraded day-by-day and we have chosen the colour blue, that radiates the feeling of clean and pollution free sky and water,” said Soumyajit Das, an organiser of Entally Kanthal Bagan Sarbojonin. Jagat Mukherjee Park, on its 88th year of Durga Puja, disclosed its theme banne besides performing Khunti Puja with women and child development minister, Sashi Panja, as the chief guest. “The theme is Down Bongaon Local-Part 2. We will not disclose anything further,” said Dwaipayan Roy, secretary.
Sujit Bose, president of Sreebhumi Sporting Club, also unveiled the replica of this year’s puja—which will resemble the Tirupati Balaji Temple.“Often, we declare the theme details as late as 10 days before Mahalaya,” said Sayantan Bhattacharyya, secretary of Behala Club Durga Puja. “All the big budget puja committees now have to plan everything quickly due to the delayed start for this year’s parliamentary elections,” said Saswata Basu, general secretary, Forum for Durgotsab and Hatibagan Sarbojanin.
(Inputs from Kamalendu Bhadra)