Curating one of the city's costliest Durga Puja pandals: A women-only team in Kolkata

If you are in Kolkata this year during the biggest festival of the state, the Durga Puja, then make sure to put a visit to the Santoshhpur Lake Palli Pujo on your to-do list. Why you might ask? Well, in a first, a two-member woman only team is curating this pandal, which is going to be one of the costliest this year. Aditi Chakraborty and Subhamita Dinda are the two ladies in charge, who claim that they are one-of-a-kind team in this business.

Aditi Chakraborty is not new to pandal decoration, and has acquired a reputation in Kolkata with her creative ideas. Her partner Subhamita Dinda will be attempting setting up a pandal for the first time. Interestingly though, her husband has been around in the business for  a while now. Aditi, who is in charge of decorating the pandal, said to TOI, "We are trying to present tradition in a never-seen-before manner. Our theme is `puja' itself. We will be making use of many traditional items such as tambul dani and stitch-art that used to adorn the walls of homes in our childhood."

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If you need more reason to walk towards the Santoshpur Lake Palli Pujo, Somnath Das, executive member, spoke about it's USP, "For most pujas these days, the theme is planned first and the idol and the pandal are then crafted around the theme. However, we have decided to keep the idol in focus. There will be many rare materials used in the making of the idol which have never been used for this purpose before. The pandal will feature detailed wood-carvings too."

Aditi and Subhamita are on their toes to make this event a success and when being asked about the male dominant profession, Aditi explains, "I am an artist. It does not matter whether I am a male or a female. What matters is that the work is done well. My bonding with Subhamita is strong and I am enjoying working with her."

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Seems like the duo indeed is planning something big and memorable for the visitors. A must-visit, right?

Feature Image Credit: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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