Durga Puja 2025 themes: Newspapers, birdsong & the ‘simpler times we miss’
KOLKATA: Growing up, many of us were drilled by our English teachers to read the newspaper regularly. Even today, for a lot of people, mornings aren’t complete without a cup of tea and the familiar rustle of newspaper pages. But in an age dominated by AI, apps and social media, newspapers are slowly losing their charm. News is now just a swipe away on our phones, and yet, the morning ritual of flipping through a newspaper remains dear to many.
This Durga Puja, the Sreepalli Welfare Association in Lake Town aims to bring back that nostalgia with their theme, ‘Nabikaran’. Their pandal will explore how the humble newspaper is passing through a major transition and keeping up with the competitions from digital media.
Step inside the pandal, and you’ll be taken through a day in the life of a newspaper delivery boy, from collecting papers at the station to distributing them across the city. You will also encounter recreations of tea shops and salons, those favourite Bengali joints where people once leisurely turned the pages of their favourite newspapers.
The theme is also a gentle reminder of a slower, simpler rhythm of life that’s slowly slipping away.
Meanwhile, in another part of North Kolkata, the Baguiati Rail Pukur United Club is set to awe visitors with its 72nd Durga Puja theme, ‘Shabdo’.
This year, the club turns its attention to the fading sounds of nature and daily life, those little rhythms that urban chaos has almost silenced. Birdsong, once a constant backdrop to dawn and dusk, is
now a rare treat. Through ‘Shabdo,’ the pandal will highlight how rapid urbanisation, deforestation and towering concrete structures have wiped out natural habitats.
To bring the theme alive, the club has created striking installations, including a 20-feet-tall artistic depiction of birds, symbolising nature’s grandeur and its fading presence.
Immersive soundscapes will fill the space, accompanied by powerful mime performances from Shubhendu Mukhopadhyay and Kaushik Biswas, portraying the silent cries of birds and their plea for survival.
