For those who celebrate Durga Puja and visit puja pandals, it is going to be a double treat this year.
Majority of the puja pandals in Lucknow this year, are replicating famous temples of India, particularly south India.
For instance the Durga Puja Pandal at Latouche Road — also one of the oldest in the city — is creating a replica of the Lakshmiramana Swamy Temple of Mysore. The replica, being made of thermocol and plywood, is now in the final stages of finishing.
Similarly, the Sri Sri Durga Puja Committee at Aashiana colony is making a replica of a temple in Uttarakhand. The gate of the pandal will be heavily decorated. “The theme and the name of the temple will be disclosed later but it will be a replica of a famous temple in the hill state,” said Mr B.P. Saha, general secretary of the committee that has won several awards for the best pandal.
In Daliganj, efforts are on to create a replica of the Birla temple of Delhi and plaster of Paris has been extensively used in the making of the replica.
Mr Yogesh Bharadwaj, a senior member of the puja committee, said that when the first meeting of various puja committees was held this year, we decided to bring various famous temples to Lucknow and several organisers started working on it. Some however disagreed and have gone their way, he added.
At the Model House Park, the main attraction will be its five-storey pandal that stands over 55-ft high and has been crafted out of thermocol. The pandal will resemble a south Indian temple and craftsmen from Midnapur in West Bengal are working to create magic.
Puja committees, this year, are also working on “add-ons” to attract crowds. While one puja pandal will host puppet shows every evening for children, another is preparing for classical dance performances in the pandal. Food festivals are also being organised as part of puja celebrations to ensure that devotees do not go elsewhere.