Durga Puja festival is just around the corner and Delhi-NCR and Puja organisers are gearing up for the celebrations after a devastating global pandemic in the last two years with a “biggest” Durga Puja pandal this year at Matri Peeth in Greater Noida West.

Nowadays, several puja committees in Delhi have started organising “khuti puja”, a special kind of customary ritual held before putting up pandals during the festival to initiate the festivities. On this occasion, a puja is conducted to revere Lord Vishwakarma, after which artisans start constructing the pandal with his blessings. The pandals are temporary pavilions that house the deities. Although “khuti puja” is not specified in the Vedas, it is performed to ensure an auspicious beginning for the forthcoming Durga Puja preparations. It is an invocation to the goddess.

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Earlier, the Puja was not performed in such a ceremonious manner.

In an interaction with The Statesman, Subroto Upadhaya, president, Matri Peeth, Greater Noida West Kali Bari, commented about the rising popularity of the auspicious tradition of “kuthi puja”, saying that earlier it was only known in Kolkata, the main epicenter of the Durga Puja.

“But now, with changing times, this ritual is being followed by every community pandal based in Delhi. And, this is our second endeavor, and is going to be the biggest Durga Puja pandal this year at Matri Peeth in Greater Noida West. In the celebration, Bengali families from 72 various societies of Greno-West will participate,” he said.

“We will be having seven days of mega celebration starting from September 29 to October 5 at J S Garden, Near Hanuman Mandir,” he said.

He said, “On 18th September, we have organised Khuti Puja, marking the beginning of the celebration of Durga Puja”

“One wouldn’t fail to notice the way the pandals are given the foremost priority with the kind of artistic decorations delivered by the creators, thus dedicating their hard work with respect to the prowess and motherly power of the Shakti. There will be a grand entry in the JS Garden, Greater Noida West. The first thing that visitors would see will be the big picture of Goddess Durga, decorated with diyas and flowers,” he further said.

Subroto informed that Matri Peeth Kalibari was founded with the aim of building the largest Kali Bari in Greater Noida West on 17th December 2019 is a Charitable Socio-Cultural Religious Organization that aims to promote Bengali Culture & Diversity.

 “We believe in contributing to society by involving in philanthropic activities like blood donation, education for underprivileged children, etc apart from giving touch culture to all Probasi Bengalis (residing outside Bengal) with their roots,” he said.

Talking about programmes, Subroto said, “We are looking forward, very enthusiastically, to celebrating the AAGOMONI of MAA DURGA.”

“Our events will start two days prior to Navratra. We will start the festivities by Mahalaya which is called Pitra Paksha, where we will pay homage to our ancestors on 25th September. Thereafter the seven day Puja Carnival starts from Maha Chaturthi on 29th September till the bidding of the Goddess on Maha Dashami on 5th October.

”There will be lots of cultural programs, stalls, fancy dress competitions, food, joy rides, quiz shows, fun games, and much more. There will be a large stage for the cultural performances and opposite it there will be a food court, ” he said.

“Various cultural programmes by Greater Noida Residents like Humsafar Musical Group, and Kolkata artists like Subhamoy Sen, Esha Banerjee, Rajarshi Debray, Suman Majumder & Suparna Lahiri, etc will enthrall the audience. Corporate stalls, joy rides and food joints will be arranged for all cross sections of the society,” he added.