Apostles Club's Kali Puja in Malugram to showcase puppetry and 70 feet tall eco-friendly pandal

The cool zephyr that is being witnessed over the town indicates the arrival of winter. This time of the year evokes a special cheerfulness as the festival of lights is just around the corner. For Bengalis, Diwali means Shayma Sangeet and devoted worship of Maa Kali. For Kali Puja committees, this is the time to show all their quirks in their pandals. Be it the lighting or the colossal idols. After two years of the pandemic and a couple of waves of a flood, this year’s Kali Puja is returning back to its charm. In the list of pujas this year, the Apostles Club of Malugram has already turned some eyes towards them.

This year, after a hiatus of almost two years for the COVID pandemic, will mark the 39th year of the journey of Apostles Club. The main theme of this big-budget puja is “puppetry” or “putul naach”. The 70-foot tall pandal will be decorated with thousands of dolls or puppets both inside and out and lit with tons of neon lights. A team of 30 people from Nadia, West Bengal has been hammering on this for the past twenty days. The idol is being built by Dr. Swapan Paul, the very renowned sculptor from Karimganj. The lighting part is handled by experts from Nabadeep.

Like every other year, the social message they want to convey here is to remind people of the golden old days, the pre-internet era to be precise, where dolls and puppets used to be a child’s best mate. “Putul khela or putul naach, which used to be such an amazing experience for everyone, is now almost extinct and the children today may never have witnessed such a thing. Through this particular theme, we intend to make this kali puja a remarkable one for the children and nostalgic for the adults”, said the treasurer of the Apostles Club, Joydeep Chakraborty. “We have kept in mind the crowd management and we are expecting a huge footfall but we won’t charge any entry fees”, he further said mocking the emerging trend of “coupon system”.

The opening ceremony of the pandal, as decided by the puja committee, will be done by the children of Ujwala Shelter Home, which evidently supports their goal of making this year’s puja special for the children. The pandal will be welcoming visitors and devotees from October 24, Monday onwards.

The Kali Puja Committee of the club has put all its heart into making this year’s puja a success as well as “eco-friendly”. The members of the club include Sanjay Deb and Kisan Das as Puja Committee secretaries, Saptajit De and Arabindo Sikdar as President, Vice Presidents Piyal Deb and Amrit Mandal, treasurers Joydeep Chakraborty and Jashajit Ghosh.