Bagerhat’s Shikder Bari, identified as the mandap that organised one amongst the largest Durga Puja birthday celebration in the subcontinent in 2019, may presumably well additionally no longer be keeping a huge birthday celebration this time around attributable to the illness of the fundamental idol-maker and deaths in the July uprising.
Visiting Shikder Bari the day outdated to this (3 October) afternoon, this correspondent came across pin-descend silence there. The gate of the puja mandap used to be locked.
“Many had died for the length of primarily the most unique uprising. I may presumably well not create myself organise a huge birthday celebration while the nation unruffled mourns the lifeless. That is why I didn’t blueprint up puja on a huge scale this 365 days,” talked about Liton Shikder, the key organiser of this puja, when contacted over the phone.
“Alternatively, our household will withhold a small ceremony marking the event,” he added.
Gaurab Shikder, a shut companion of Liton Shikder, talked about, “There obtained’t be a gargantuan Durga puja birthday celebration at Shikder Bari this 365 days attributable to the illness of the fundamental idol-maker and the work of constructing idols remaining incomplete.”
He added that Durga Puja birthday celebration at Shikder Bari is a much-talked-about topic that extends effectively beyond the nation’s border.
“Around 15-20 artisans create the idols over a length of six months. But as the fundamental idol-maker fell ill and used to be taken to India for therapy, the work remained incomplete. That is why there obtained’t be any big puja birthday celebration this 365 days,” Gaurab talked about.
In 2011, Shikder Bari organised Durga Puja for the fundamental time with 251 idols. In 2019, the number increased to 801.
The gathering of idols began to diminish for the reason that Covid-19 pandemic.
