Ok.. so watching the ‘mother goddess in the making’ was one thing. But i doubt i’ve ever seen anything like the festivities that hit the streets once the goddesses reached their festive destination – the pandals. Popularly referred to as ‘pandal hopping’, scores of people celebrate nights out on the street hopping from one pandal to the next to marvel at the uncountable spectacular avatars of the mother goddess. Whilst one pandal celebrates Durga as an embodiment of sunlight, another adorns her with sea shells. Amusingly, one pandal replicated the ‘Hogwarts Castle’ to cash in on the notorious Harry Potter fame! Holy Momma!!!

Almost just as religiously as the festival itself, a competition called ‘Mukut’ (Crown) is held annually’to commemorate the most creative pandal in the city of Kolkata. Faith put aside, the scale and sheer number of pandals, hours, labour put into every pandal from its creation to its presentation is unfathomable. I visited a total of 20 pandals and that is perhaps only a good 10% of the pandals spread over both – the urban and suburban texture of this joyous city. Truly Incredible!!

In true bong fashion, i too went out ‘pandal hopping’ with the family and friends on panchami night (the night preceeding the five day festival). Most of the pandals that you see here in this post covers pretty much all of Central, South and North Kolkata and were shot all on one night with the exception of those in Khidirpore.

Singhee Park

Ekdalia Evergreen

Madax Sqr

Badamtala
This was the one that won the ‘Mukut’ crown of glory this year.

66 Pally

this post runs the risk of becoming the longest post i have ever posted .. so please ’click on’ to see more :) 

Mudiali

Shibmandir

Hindusthan Park

Park Circus

College Square

ChaltaBagan Lohapatty

GoaBagan

Nalini Sirkar

Kashibose Lane

Khidirpore

Purna Das Road

Darpan

Meghamallar