Durga Puja at Bhubanbari

The Pandey family celebrates Durga Puja every year on the ground floor of the house. For weeks skilled artisans create the idols on the ground floor “Thakur dalan” or “sacred porch.” The entire extended family, neighbors and friends gather for Puja ceremonies and traditional meals. Durga Puja 2019 was the first time our guests joined the family. The evenings are devoted to “pandal hopping” – visiting the awe-inspiring, dazzling “temples” of cloth and wood that have made Kolkata famous and earned it Unesco World Heritage Festival status. Every street is filled with light, color and music, not to mention a crush of people in full festival attire.