On autumn evenings these days, taking a stroll in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park walkway, lined with huge rain trees, is quite refreshing. There is a nip in the air and the streets are decked up with lights, colourful kandils (handmade lanterns with a wooden framework covered with glossy paper or lightweight mesh) and astonishing light gates, giving a vibe of a mini West Bengal right in the heart of the city. As I walk closer to the Bengal Club, the sounds of ulu-dhwani (ululation, which is believed to be auspicious)and dhaak (a kind of drum) get louder. This is a remarkable year for the 101-year-old club, which has been observing Durga Puja in the city for 88 years. Moreover, this year, the club has received the recognition of ‘heritage Durga Puja’ in the city from the Department of Maharashtra Tourism. Their Durga Puja souvenir was unveiled by the Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais, on October 20.
Bengal Club’s Durga Puja souvenir was unveiled by the Governor of Maharashtra, Ramesh Bais. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengal Club’s puja pandal, set up on 10,000 square feet in the Shivaji Park ground, welcomes visitors to a glowing #ILoveBengalClub installation that has become a photo spot. The entrance to the puja pandal are flanked by two sculptures of elephants, decorated with zari work, stones, beads and glitter. The puja venue covers 20,000 square feet.
From the pandal to the Durga idol, red is the colour this year, as it symbolises energy, power and divinity. With a Sheesh Mahal theme incorporating Divya Jyoti temple decoration, the design of diyas can be seen all over the pandal cloth. Inside the pandal, diya lights and mirror glass work create an immersive feeling. Nilesh Choudhury, who visioned and created this pandal, is a Hindi film art director. He says, “We have worked on this pandal with 90 workers for over a month inside various warehouses, to craft things like figures of elephants, pillars, detailing of the pandal, embedding zari, mirror work, moulding, carving, and so on. We have used plywood, velvet and cotton, cut glass pieces, fibre, zari and small decorative items.”
First glimpse of Durga idol at Bengal Club. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
The 20-foot tall Durga idol is sculpted with clay from the Ganges by sculptors from West Bengal. This year, the puja committee is also running an organ donation camp where people can get educated about organ donation and register themselves as donors.
Joy Chakraborty, spokesperson of the Bengal Club, says, “It is a matter of pride that we are able to sustain the puja celebrations that our forefathers started. We are proud that the Bengal Club’s Durga Puja has been recognised by the Government of Maharashtra. Last year was our centenary year and we presented a letter to the Maharashtra Tourism Department along with the history of our puja. They went through it and selected three puja pandals in the city — Mahalaxmi Temple, Mumba Devi Mandir and Bengal Club’s Durga Puja. Our puja has been identified as one of the must-visit destination for tourists.”
Devotees at Bengal Club capture the first glimpse of Durga idol. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Since the puja has become bigger with people from every community looking forward to Durga Puja, this year, the puja committee has made the celebrations more cosmopolitan by including dhol -tasha. Tasha means drumming the dhol, a kind of drum, a tradition of Maharashtra that can be heard mostly during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. The dhol -tasha players will be playing along with the dhakis from West Bengal.
“From 2019 onwards, we had roped in national award-winning art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai for the pandal design and decoration. Since he passed away, his protégé Nilesh Choudhury has worked on the pandal,” adds Joy.
History of Bengal Club
Bengal Club’s history begins in the pre-independence era when many Bengalis had to move to Bombay (present-day Mumbai) for work. Over a period of time, the commercial capital of India became their home. Eventually, the community felt there should be a space for Bengalis and in 1922, Bengal Club was formed. It began in the living room of the late Sati Ranjan Ghose, one of the founders of the club. Initially, the club concentrated on charitable, social, cultural and sports activities. In 1935, the first Durga Puja was observed in a small ground-floor studio room in a residential building in Parel. In the mid-forties when Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation leased some land in Shivaji Park, Bengal Club moved from Parel to a three-acre leased land. In 1980, a Kali temple was built on the premises.
Plywood, velvet and cotton, cut glass pieces, fibre, zari and small decorative items are used to make the pandal at Bengal Club. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Reminiscing old days
Swathi Mukherjee, who works with Vatsalya Foundation, a city-based NGO, recalls her connection with the Bengal Club. Her forefathers were one of the founding members of the Club. Her mother used to be an active member who would cook bhog prasad to serve to the devotees who thronged the pandal during Durga puja. “I was born in Dadar and studied in the Bengali Education Society School, as it was a family tradition to study Bengali as one subject. We grew up learning Rabindra Sangeet and classical dance to stay close to out roots even when we were miles away from West Bengal.”
Prasoon Rakshit, media coordinator of the Bengal Club, says, “ Around 520 members and over 2,000 non-Bengalis have been supporting the puja for years. Earlier, there used to be Bengali folk-theatre jatra, folk dance, classical music and artistes such as Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and Raj Kapoor, to name a few, used to grace the puja without fail. Till 2010, we used to have Bappi Lahiri, Shreya Ghoshal, Shaan, Sonu Nigam, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, and many artistes performing late into the night but in 2011 when this area was declared a silent zone, we started focusing more on thematic pandals.”
The entrance of the puja pandal are flanked by two sculptures of elephants, decorated with zari work, stones, beads and glitter. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Seventy-six-year-old Nupur Ghosh settled down with her husband in Mumbai. “I don’t remeber the exact year when I moved here but I was very young. Then one of my aunts suggested that I join the Bengal Club. I found a home here, meeting so many people from West Bengal who had made their home here. Since then, I have never been to West Bengal during Durga Puja.”
Dhaaki Pachu Roy is 70 now. He began coming to Mumbai to play the dhaak during Puja some 40 years ago from his hometown, Dankuni in Hoogly, West Bengal. Now he is training his sons who join him every year during the puja celebrations. “One of the club secretary’s friend’s house is in Dankuni and he brought me here. We were six dhaakis who used to come to Mumbai every year. Back then, I used to grow paddy when I was not playing the dhaaki in Dankuni to earn extra money. Over the years, coming here has become like visiting our family members who send us back with loads of love along with clothes, fruits, sweets, grains and pulses for our family back home.”
Bengal Club, Veer Savarkar Marg, Shivaji Park, Dadar West, Mumbai
