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When Durga is spice, bread, grain of life
By Sujoy Dhar, Indo-Asian News Service

Kolkata, Oct 8 (IANS) Goddess Durga wields a camera and a press card. At her feet are three demons - a politician, a policeman and a hoodlum. The backdrop is a king-size newspaper. 

Believe it or not, this is the decoration at a pandal (marquee) for the five-day Durga Puja festival that begins Sunday. 

From themes like press freedom and tsunami to materials like shaving blades, bread, paddy and spices, Durga Puja marquees in this West Bengal capital are vying to outdo one another in uniqueness.

One of the most appetizing pandals is that by Parijat Club in Kasba that is serving a bread spread! It is structured like a sprawling old-time house with a courtyard in the middle. The walls are being done up with panels of bread inspired by painter Rathin Mitra's drawings of Town Hall, Victoria Memorial, Kalighat temple and other city landmarks. 

"The breads have been toasted to various degrees of brown and black and used for the pandal," said Santanu Raychowdhury of the club. 

The idol will be in the traditional 'ekchala', or single backdrop, style. This structure accommodates all the idols of Durga and her children - Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartik and Ganesha - under one platform.

According to artisans of Kumartuli - the neighbourhood of idol-makers in north Kolkata - the single platform structure is a rage this year instead of the separate frames of Durga and her children.

One puja committee that is using food items to innovate is the Ramkrishna Sebak Samity. Ganesha, the great gourmand among gods, is the theme there and the figures of the elephant god in various sizes and lotuses made of paddy will decorate the walls coated with husk.

"The idea came from a family of peasants and they are working on the pandal. We had to buy a Matador van full of husk!" said organiser Madan Banerjee. 

The organisers have turned back to a 14th century idol in south Karnataka for its 14-armed goddess - instead of the traditional 10-armed Durga. 

Durga Puja each year showcases the best of craftsmanship as organisers hire the top artisans and splurge hundreds of thousands of rupees to create dream marquees and pull in the crowds.

Puja cannot be spicier than the one promised by Kishorebahini Athletic Club on Motilal Nehru Road. Mustard, cardamom, turmeric, lentil, moong daal - all these ingredients used to rustle up culinary delights have found their way into the idol there. 

Durga's flying locks are made of coriander seed, skin of moong dal and clothes of lentil. The lotus in her hand is made of mustard seeds while her lips are blackish red, made with dry chilli!

The pillars of the pandal are made of bay leaves, chilli, bori and papad. Last year the organisers had made their pandal with lozenges.

The puja of 22 Pally in Hazra boasts of an idol decorated with 150,000 shaving blades. 

"We are breaking each blade into eight parts and using the pieces for a collage on a plaster of Paris base," said theme-maker Michael Bose. 

Durga herself wields a camera and a press card. Instead of demon king Mahishasura at her feet, there are three demons - a politician, a policeman and a hoodlum. The panels on the walls of this pandal portray attacks on scribes. 

Recent news events are also casting a spell on the festival. The devastating Dec 26 tsunami in Asia for example will revisit Kolkatans this Durga Puja, but this time round the goddess will team up with Mahishasura to fight nature's fury. 

"We have chosen this theme because the sea demon is more formidable an adversary than the Mahishasura demon whom the goddess kills," said Nilu Roy, an organiser at the Tangra Government Quarters.

Traditional art forms are also a big draw every year, but nothing can stop people from innovating their way into the minds and hearts of revellers.