Friday’s Durga Carnival, a much bandied brain child of Mamata Banerjee to hard-sell Durga Puja as a brand a la Brazilian carnival to the world tourists turned out to be a mega success.
This, even as her Government in conjugation with various Durga Puja committees dished out on Friday evening a ‘virtuoso spectacle’ of immersion procession of Durga idols — interspersed with Theme dance and songs — past the historic Red Road.
Once constructed by the British as a temporary runway for fighter planes during the Second World War the plush Red Road off Eden Gardens and Fort William saw a 25,000-strong audience and a galaxy of celebrities counting the entire State Cabinet, former India captain Sourav Ganguli, singer Usha Uthup etc all crowding the venue to savour the mega shindig.
The spectators included a swarm of foreign tourists most of who were sent free guest cards. “Cards were sent by the Government to the hotels they had been putting up at,” said officials, “to enable them to witness the Disney-land like event.”
A pleasant late autumn evening in the midst of gigantic trees, most centuries old, an endless spread of grassland popularly called Maidan and a flood of colourful lights tended to lend it all a pristine ambience even as the dominating dome of the iconic Victoria Memorial glazed at a distance in the moon-lit night.
True, Bengal’s Didi tended to come up trumps once again, this time giving a glorious send off to the eternal Mother.
The purpose of the Friday carnival is to highlight the immersion procession in a systematic manner and we “managed to do it,” said a senior official of the Tourism department hoping, “the Chief Minister’s dreams to snatch for Durga Puja a Brazilian carnival-type tag will definitely come true. Going by the numbers of pandal-hoppers this is the biggest carnival on earth.”
Though the traditional Bengalis would not like to call the event Durga Carnival as is being suggested by a number of senior Government officials “as worship is definitely different from a carnival
Such a big event has been organized for the first time in the history of the State, said AR Bardhan State Tourism Secretary hoping the visual effects of the march-past will soon rank it alongside the world’s biggest carnivals.
“Things could have been organized and decorated in a better manner but considering the fact that it was a trial event we seem to have done a good job” another official of Kolkata Corporation a partner to the event said, ruing the Durga Puja’s absence from the world’s ten biggest carnival list.
The Red Road was decked up in blue and white, ready for the parade beginning at the southern gate of Fort William and continuing till Eden Gardens before reaching the Babu Ghat on River Hooghly where immersions would take place.
“It is not only among the ten best carnivals but is the biggest of them all if you go by the sheer numbers of people turning out and the numbers of days and hours they hop pandals non-stop.” Out of 4,000 odd pandals 39 were selected for the march past on Friday.
“This is a unique attempt by the Chief Minister it will definitely draw tourist from all over the world,” said Firhad Hakim Minister and one of the organizers of a Durga Puja.