With continuous showers, Kumartuli's idol makers & pandal artists face stiff challenge

Defeating all odds and continuous rain, people in every locality in Bengal are now practically leaving no stone unturned to become the best Puja organiser with only 50 days to go for the state's biggest festival.

The countdown had started almost a month ago on Ratha Yatra and in some places much before that. Khunti Puja usually marks the beginning of setting up of the Puja pandals. In the past few years, competition among the organisers has become stiffer. No one wants to disclose their innovative themes based on which their respective Puja mandaps are made.

Besides eminent artists from Kolkata and other parts of the state, many from different states are also engaged to give shape to the pandals in the city which attract lakhs of people during those five days. Hundreds of people from other states and abroad visit Kolkata during Durga Puja.

It takes months to set up a Puja pandal and similarly artists in Kumartuli, too, take at least four to five months to complete the Durga idols. But heavy to moderate rainfall on an average for the past few weeks have created new challenges for the artists — both giving shape to the Puja pandals and even those making the idols.

Artists in Kumartuli are now working day and night to complete the idols with only 50 days to go for the Puja. It is taking a lot of time to dry the clay idols and now, it has come up as a challenge with continuous showers. "A lot of work is left. We have to put colours and then the remaining work has to be completed," said idol-maker Manish Pal.

The task of the artists who are making the Puja pandals are even tougher as they need to work under the open sky to complete the exterior of a pandal. "We have to work with such dedication that each and every visitor appreciates our work. It is our work on which reputation of a Puja organiser depends. So whatever happens, we have to give our best. But the task mainly at the exterior part of a mandap becomes difficult when it rains as we need to use paint, thermocol and different articles to decorate it," said Santosh Ghosal, an artist.

It may be mentioned that the Puja is mainly for four days starting from Saptami to Dashami but in the past few years it has been found that pandal hoppers start visiting their favourite pandals at least three days in advance.

So the artists need to complete setting up and decorating the mandaps at least a week in advance.

With continuous rainfall in the past few weeks, tarpaulin covered Puja mandaps is a common sight these days almost in every locality. Artists are carrying out work in such a way that rainwater does not leak in and damage their artwork which is going to be revealed only a few days before the Puja.