Midnight of day 2…
Suruchi was the first pandal, where we experienced a large crowd – we had been warned that this was how the festival season would be – it took us about 30 minutes in the queue to reach the pandal; it was almost midnight. The setup was like that of a large single-storied house with clouds recreated on top – this was an outdoor pandal – some parts of the house were built out while many sections had just the scaffolding so you could see the entire structure.
Note: You can click on the images to view the full pic
They used a mix of materials for the building – cement, bricks, metal, bamboo and wood. The goddess was grand in a hue of yellow and red, wielding a spear directed at the demon down below.
As we exited the pandal, there was a massive crowd outside as well around the numerous stalls lined up for quite a distance. We didn’t spend time in the stalls, but let the crowd carry us out!
Our next stop was Behela 14 number bus stand from where Kshitij said we could get a bus; we hopped into one which was partially occupied but didn’t have a conductor! Kshitij messaged that we were in communist land, and perhaps travel today was free since the conductor himself had gone out for Durga puja! But after a couple of stops, the conductor hopped into the bus!
We first landed in Nutan Sangha; a very colourful pathway welcomed us – a tunnel of colours with weird shapes. Kshitij said that there are typically some organizers around in each pandal who can be identified by badges or id cards on them and that they would be able to explain the theme of the pandal. But we only spotted police volunteers who were quite busy managing the crowd.
Next up was Behela Friends; the theme was writing – typewriters, letters, manuscripts, paper, files, and books. There were plenty of typed pages, but unfortunately, we couldn’t read Bengali, so we didn’t know what the content meant.
Behela Debdaru Fatak had a cartoony theme with local Bengali comic strips and plenty of pots painted with Indian cartoony faces. It was past 1 am when we finished the Behela area. I kept sending snaps of the pandals to Kshitij, and he kept messaging us on the next one in the area to check out – he was our live virtual guide for the night! For some reason, my Google Maps wasn’t showing nearby pandals, but during the festival, this is an easy way for you to navigate from one pandal to the next.
With all the walking, we were exhausted and decided to Uber back to the hotel. The first cab we booked sped past us, and when he stopped and called, we couldn’t get him to understand that he had to turn around. The next time we booked a cab, we kept an eye on the map and blocked it as soon as we saw it from a distance – reached the hotel at 2:30 am.
Day 3 – Saturday – 5th October (Saptami)
I briefly woke up at 5:30 am but immediately dozed off, and the next time I saw the mobile, it was 8:30. Aaron slept soundly for another 45 minutes. Our friend Deb joined us at 11 at the hotel; it had been raining since morning – a constant drizzle with sudden bursts of heavy downpours.
We took an Uber to Esplanade (on the metro line, it is the stop following Park Street) and then walked past the Indian Museum and the Grand Oberoi 5-star hotel. Just outside the hotel compound were a row of proper air-conditioned shops. And outside these shops, many street-side vendors had put up makeshift stalls selling imitation goods. It was amusing, considering that they were just outside a 5-star hotel. But even more ironic was seeing a vendor selling fake Nike products in front of a real Nike shop selling genuine products!
