Durga Puja celebrations are on in full swing, and Noida can give any CR Park a run for its money. City Spidey takes you on a tour of the four best pandals in the city.
1. Kali Bari, Sector 26
If we are talking about Durga Puja, Kali Bari has to top the list. In its 35th year, the puja was inaugurated by BN Singh, district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar. All arrangements have been done by the Noida Bengali Culture Association (NBCA).
The pandal may be traditional but you can’t miss the Durga idol, or protima, which is 28 ft tall - the biggest in Noida! According to Rajat Banerji, committee secretary, the footfall has been about 20,000 today.
In the evening, a host of Bengali singers from Kolkata will be performing on stage.
2. Opposite the Sector 50 community centre
If pujo is synonymous with the earthen lamp, then this pujo definitely wanted to make a big impression. The entire pandal is in the shape of one!
Debasmita Sarkar, a pandal committee member, said, "Durga pujo can never be complete without earthen lamps, so this year we decided to create a pandal that embodied this theme."
The puja, in its 13th year, has been organised by the Saptarshi Sangha Trust, which has more than 200 Bengali families as members. What’s more, all the decorations have been done by the women of the sector.
3. H Block park, Jalvayu Vihar, Sector 25
Gram bangla, or rural Bengal, is the theme of this pujo, which is now in its 25th year and is organised by the Sanskriti Kalyan Samiti, with about 215 members. The protima is daker shaaj ekchala, which means that all the five deities are part of one unified structure.
Sandeep Ghosh, a committee member, said, "The alpona, or the traditional motifs, inside the pandal has been done by the women and children. The drapes used for decoration are hand-printed too."
4. C Block, Sector 34
This puja, being celebrated for the past 10 years now, is being organised wholly by Bengali residents of the sector.