During the pandemic, when a question mark hung over whether or not Durga Puja would be celebrated at all, one man was at the receiving end of at least a hundred distressed phone calls. His name is Rintu Das, the artist who subsequently catapulted to fame with his stunning depiction of Goddess Durga as a migrant labourer, walking back to her home in heaven with her children, Ganesh, Kartik, Lakshmi and Saraswati in tow…and in tatters.

It was September 2020, a month before Durga Puja was scheduled to take place. However, the pandemic that had erupted that year in March was still raging unabated, creating panic in people. The lockdown too posed problems. “Rumours went around that that year there would be no Durga Puja celebrations,” Das explains. “The distressed calls came from my team of workers,” Das says. “They comprised labourers, painters, designers, electricians, textile artists and others who wait all year long for the festival to arrive so that they can earn an extra income by working on the pandals. The lump sum amount that they get while working during the Puja days is beyond their reach at other times. They bank on this income to fulfil a number of different needs, from buying gold jewellery for their daughters’ weddings, say, to making down payments on land investments. So when word went around that there would be no celebration that year because of the pandemic, they panicked. ‘What will happen to us?’ some of them asked. Others openly cried. I knew that I had to do something.”

When Das approached the Puja pandal organisers, including local and neighbourhood clubs, they expressed concern about the lack of funds. The pandemic and the adverse impact it had on the economy had dried up resources. “The only thing I could think of was to drastically reduce the expenditure by different means, including completely waiving my own fees.”

While the creation of a pandal, says Das, usually costs anything between Rs 80,000 and 100,000 depending on the plan, design, materials used, and other factors, he was willing to slash it down to as little as one-fourth of it. “As long as the labourers’ and menial workers’ costs could be met, it was enough.”

A number of Puja organisers were willing to take up this offer and did. Eventually Kolkata’s Barisha Club pandal hosted the Durga Puja idol conceptualised by Das depicting the Goddess as a migrant worker and shot to fame overnight. Sculpted by artist Pallab Bhaumik, the work was inspired by the works of renowned artist Bikash Bhattacharya.

The scenes of hundreds and thousands of migrant labourers trudging back to their villages on foot from their places of work in the cities because of the sudden lockdown imposed by the government had shaken up the country, and for Das, it was the logical conclusion that he would fashion his Durga on them. “The theme that we chose usually centres around an idea that people can identify with, and at that time the migrant labourers’ plight was the point of discussion everywhere.

Four years later, another dark cloud hangs over Durga Puja celebrations. The brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in a city hospital on the night of 9 August has cast a shadow over the festive spirit, with hordes of people declaring that this year they would not like to take part in the celebrations. “We are enshrouded in a pall of gloom,” says a college student. “The festive spirit has been whiffed out of us. I cannot imagine dressing up new clothes and going pandal hopping with my friends while the family of the deceased victim suffers in silence. That would be cruel, and I don’t want that in my conscience.”

A journalist who has used a black display photo on Facebook and WhatsApp to register her protest says, “There is no question of celebrating Durga Puja.”

Hundreds and thousands of people have been out on the streets over the past few weeks demanding justice for the victim. “In one month’s time it is unlikely that this will pass,” says a pedestrian, adding, “And it should not.”

Das is extremely disturbed by the incident and says that he feels ill when anyone mentions it. He says he cannot work or even think when the topic is broached. He does not know whether celebrations will take place this year, but he had begun work on two different ideas for pandals long ago, and that work has not ceased. The two themes are “ekanno borti poribaar” and “rotno gorbha” which, in English, he calls “extended family” and “the blessed womb or the blessed mother” respectively. The former will depict a huge pot of boiling rice in the centre of a family’s activities, symbolising the need to eat together to stay together as in the olden days. “The message is that it is the need of the hour,” says Das. The latter will feature faces of powerful figures like India President Droupadi Murmu and sportsperson P.T. Usha, superimposed on the image of a stylised womb.

Das’ art work is typically set out like installation art in a gallery, and the pandals often see hundreds and thousands of footfalls.

Born in August 1975 in the suburbs of Calcutta, Das started displaying a talent for painting, drawing and sculpting when he was a young boy. “Once when my mother praised a drawing by an illustrator in a book, I was filled with a kind of envy. I wanted to impress her too and copied that. She loved it. This is the beginning of my passion for drawing,” he says. Soon he found himself sketching, drawing and painting everything and anything. Landscapes, portraits, you name it. This was followed by his desire to sculpt idols. “I would create tiny figurines out of mud. I would dive into ponds after immersions of idols and fish out the wigs, the clothes and the fake jewellery and create my own idols. His family and friends were awestruck by his talent.

Das went on to study in art colleges and graduated with distinction. Today he is amongst the most coveted artists, not just during Durga Puja but other festivals.

“The ideas and inspiration come to me at odd hours of the day and night,” he smiles. “I feel it is a blessing from the Goddess.”

The scaffolding for the Puja pandal has been put up near the lawn of one of the clubs, Naktala’s Udayan Samity.