You heard “three sides open,” “two sides open,” “throw in south facing” before the pujas last year and you thought you’re buying a flat. With the deadly coronavirus still around, that is what the buzz around Durga Puja sounds like because of the restrictions imposed on erection of pandals this year as well.

The issue had gone beyond the “will it happen, won’t it happen” stage during the pujas in 2021 and it is the same this year though about 62 per cent of the country’s population have received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine and the weekly infections are currently almost 75 percent lower than what it was during the pujas last year.

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Not just low-budget pujas in north Bengal, even organizers of the top draws had to curtail their budget this year by 40 to 50 per cent, mostly on the decoration of marquees.

The budgets of big-ticket pujas in Siliguri, which is the business hub of the region, have also taken a hard knock due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak as sponsorships by corporate advertisers, donations subscriptions from the general public as well as from owners of shops, stores and other business establishments in the town have dried up, leading to a scaling down of the grandeur.

Mr Sona Chakraborty, the secretary of Rathkhola Sporting Club, whose Durga Puja shot into prominence with the replica of the Titanic in 1996, told this correspondent that their puja this year would be a somber affair.

“From thematic pandals with grand décor and magnificent idols to cultural programmes and scrumptious bhog – these are the main reasons why people await the onset of the Durga Puja celebrations in autumn every year.

But last year, the people of Siliguri missed the grandeur of puja as puja committees like us had to organize small pujas due to financial constraints owing to the coronavirus pandemic. We had to reduce our budget from 20 lakh to a mere 4 lakh last year. It is almost the same this year,” he said.

‘Expect the unexpected has always been the theme for  Durga Puja celebrations in Siliguri as in other cities of Bengal. But this year, as in 2020, in most pandals, the theme is too predictable: the coronavirus pandemic and the misery it has unleashed on humanity. While the subject for the Rathkhola puja is “Kemon Accho Prithibi?” (How Are You My World?”), the topic of the Dadabhai Sporting Club puja is “Asomoye Puja” (The Untimely Pujas).

Mr Babul Paul, the secretary of the Dadabhai Sporting Club Durgotsav, which is known for its varied themes, said their puja would depict the plight of casual labourers in Bengal during lockdown.

“Durga Puja is not just a time of revelry. It is also a huge economic high point and is one of the largest employment generators in Bengal, providing jobs to a large number of dhakis, artisans, idol-makers, decoration workers and other casual workers, for nearly six months every year. But due to lack of work during the lockdown, many of these workers have changed their professions.

They now sell fish and vegetables or work as laborers at construction sites. As a result, the puja organizers are facing a lot of problems. Our pandal, where the members of the Shiva clan will be depicted as erecting and decorating the idol of Goddess Durga, would highlight these problems as well as the plight of casual workers due to the pandemic,” he said.

For these and many other reasons such as the covid restrictions and financial challenges, many big pujas in the town will have no theme this year. Budhha Roy, the secretary of the Saktigarh Ujjwal Sangha Puja, which figures prominently in the must-see list of the revelers in and around Siliguri every year, said that that they had decided last year that they would have no themes for their pujas unless the pandemic was over.

“Our pandals almost every year highlight problems and issues facing our society and we had erected a huge pandal in 2019 on the theme of dengue to generate awareness among the masses about the need to prevent the spread of the dreaded disease. But this year, as in 2021, the concept of our pandal is the traditional ‘ek chala’ or single roof. The idol is being made in the traditional ek chala format, and is being decorated in daaker saaj (shola – a kind of seaweed),” he said