Silver pandal sets shining example

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 23 SEPT.: A big budget Durga Puja organizer is building its pandal based on silver arts and crafts collected from Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The pandal will be located at Prabalpally in English Bazaar town.

A replica of a nearly 50ft high chariot is being decorated with religious items and idols of Hindu gods and goddesses made from silver. Numberless objects of different sizes, made of precious metals, have been being made for the purpose at Jodhpur in Rajasthan since July of this year.

Many interested people, even members of other puja committees, have come to watch the construction of the pandal. Some have already expressed their desire to buy the crafts at the end of the puja in order to decorate their houses.

People are mostly demanding Ganesh, Shiva and Durga idols and other religious symbols made out of silver.

Mr Partha Charkraborty, a member of another puja committee, disclosed: “Extraordinary work. I have never seen a puja pandal like this - not in north and south Bengal or even in Kolkata.”

The senior members of the Malda Shibaji Sangha (MSS) at Prabalpally, popularly known as Budabuditala, a red bastion, in ward no 24, conceived the idea last year but could not present it due to lack of time.

But this year the senior members of MSS, Mr Ram Prasad Ghosh, Mr Hemango Sarkar and others rushed to Jodhpur in Rajasthan in July and gave a work order for required items to a manufacturer camping in Rajasthan.

Without any help from reputed decorators, the MSS have brought skilled pandal labourers from Purbasthali in Burdwan and appointed a local designer, Mr Pradyot Majumdar, to monitor the construction of the pandal and set the silver crafts artistically.

Mohd Farukh, an artisan of Kohinoor Art and Craft at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, said: “We have been manufacturing such replicas of religious items and idols in silver by mixing aluminum and white zinc metal. But this is the first time in our life that we are doing such work for a Durga puja pandal.”

Observing the demands of the local people, members of the MSS have brought more extra idols of Hindu gods and goddesses from Rajasthan to display, just to mark Durga Puja 2009. Revellers can buy these items at a good price according to their wishes.

Furthermore, members of Shibaji Sangha announced that after the end of the puja the silver craft items decorating the pandal will be auctioned to any interested persons. (END)