• 05 Oct 2019
• 859 views

It is that time of the year. Durga Pujo is just a week away. It starts as soon as the Devi Paksha starts, mind you, in downtown Kolkata. The moment the state Chief Minister starts visiting the makeshift pujo premises installed in every possible nook and corner of the city, the pujo fervor sets in. … Continue reading “Durga Puja: in the narrow lanes and bylanes of Banamali Sarkar Lane, better known as Kumartuli”

• 04 Oct 2019
• 826 views

A chance discovery often leads to an illumination unforeseen. This water-colour work by William Prinsep executed in the 1830s is a recent example. Preserved in the British Library archives in London, this painting appeared in numerous publications on life in colonial Calcutta. Often in truncated form that cropped, rather prudishly, the shadowy events unfolding in … Continue reading “When the Sahibs and Memsahibs joined the Durga Puja festivities”

• 03 Oct 2019
• 1,120 views

When this black-and-white photograph appeared on the Facebook timeline of a Kolkata resident a few days back, some of her friends from the university days expressed their wonder in varying degrees of exclamation. One found the chalchitra or the painted backdrop to the idol exquisite and went gaga about the Daker saaj that characterized such designs. What is Daker saaj? … Continue reading “When the Goddess arrived in colonial Calcutta”

• 08 Oct 2018
• 2,008 views

It is that time of the year. Durga Pujo is just a week away. It starts as soon as the Devi Paksha starts, mind you, in downtown Kolkata. The moment the state Chief Minister starts visiting the makeshift pujo premises installed in every possible nook and corner of the city, the pujo fervor sets in. … Continue reading “Durga Puja: in the narrow lanes and bylanes of Banamali Sarkar Lane, better known as Kumartuli”

• 27 Sep 2018
• 1,332 views

‘Old Kolkata Pujo’! What’s that anyway? With more and more tour operators pressing into action during the Puja days in Kolkata, peculiar expressions like this have entered the Pujo parlance. A tour like this involves, quite invariably, a quick look at the Pujo premises of the Debs of Sovabazar, the Duttas of Hatkhola, the Sarkars … Continue reading “Durga Puja: separating plebeians from the elites”

• 19 Sep 2018
• 1,112 views

The Baboos believed that the presence of European guests would elevate their social standing.

• 10 Sep 2018
• 2,893 views

Why the Deb family of Sovabazar began worshipping the mother goddess in 1757.