With the festival season just around the corner, the whole city is in a festive frenzy. SAIL township is all set to celebrate Durga Puja and Kali Puja Mahotsav with a lot of grandeur as well as traditional gaiety.
In its 28th year, the puja pandal at the residential township is being recreated like the Badrinath Dham in Uttarakhand. Being decorated in typical Garhwali form, the pandal will be 30 feet high and 60 feet broad. On both sides of the entrance, the doors will have huge ceilings with elephant tapestry in the form of ladders, which is very typical of North Indian architecture. The idol of Goddess Durga is being created by the famous sculptor Ajay Kumar Pal.
Not just the decorations, but a lot of cultural programmes are also being organised to attract pandal hoppers. A dance and painting competition for children and rangoli making for women are being organised. Dhaki competition and night jagaran are also planned.
The famous Dhunuchi Dance associated with Durga Puja in West Bengal is also being organised. Performed along the rhythmic beats of the dhak, the Dhunuchi Nritya is usually performed on Shashithi (8th day) during the evening aarti. Dhunuchi is an Indian incense burner with a flared shape and is held by a stem. Traditionally made from earthenware, the Dhunuchi is lit by placing burning coal at the bottom, which ignites a layer of slow-burning coconut husk, on which incense usually camphor is sprinkled.
For the foodies out there, food stalls by Kaveri, Pizza Hut, Zenista- in, Walk along with some other famous restaurants will be there. Under the Swatchha Bharat Abhiyaan, a special garbage collecting brigade will also be there. A Mahabhog for 8000 devotees on Ashtami and Navami will also be held. The cost for all the events will approximately be 15 to 16 lacs rupees.
The Durga Puja Committee is headed by Dr. Swapan Kumar Pan. Anand Trivedi and Mithilesh Kumar Singh and the general secretaries with Suman Kant Thakur being the treasurer. Sanjay Parida, Nilesh Sinha, Manas Rath, KJ Chauhan, Bijoy Kumar Das, Bishnu Kumar Das are the vice presidents. The organizing committee also includes Anoop Prasad, Sushant Rath, Shailesh Bharti, Shravan Pradhan, Sanjeev Kumar, Vikash Kumar, Sachin Kumar, Ram Ranjan Chowdhary, RR Kumar, BK Sahoo, Bablu Ghosh, Abhardesh Prasad, Manoj Kumar Singh, SK Mazumdar, Suresh Prasad, Aniketanand, NK Jain, Shaktiveer Singh, Shibashish Mukherjee, Alok Mishra, Ashok Jha, Ajay Prasad, BN Pathak, Ravindra Prasad Dubey, Sanjay Prasad, Subhash Kumar.