Durga Puja, Kolkata

Durga Puja (“Festival of Durga”) is an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Maha Ashtami, Maha Navami and Vijayadashami. Durga Puja festival marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura. Thus, Durga Puja festival epitomises the victory of Good over Evil.

There are literally thousands of Pandals around Kolkata during the Puja to celeberate this victory. I happened to be in Kolkata passing through to Nagaland and I visited a few of these Pandals with my good friend Tuhin Mukerji, now an Irish citizen visiting home. My focus was to look at the human element of the Puja (and not the Godly angle) — the backend operations that enable this massive annual exercise.

All images with a Sony A7R and a Leica Summicron 35mm F2 lens.