Jaynarayan Prasad/Kolkata

Noor Mohammad of Haldia near Kolkata is a very busy man. His handmade idols of Maa Durga are in huge demand. With setting up of Pandals for Durga Puja - the biggest and the most vivid festival of West Bengal - being just three days away (9 October), he is hard-pressed to supply the idols.

Noor Mohammad Chaudhary, 58 is popular in Haldia, a sub-division in the East Medinipur district of Bengal. Most of the Puja committees in this Kolkata suburb order their idols of Maa Durga, and other deities for the Pandal from him. Chaudhary. This time too, elderly Noor Mohammad has a lot of orders. He says 'All this is a gift from God. What my Guru has taught is coming in handy today.'

Noor Moihammad making idols

This year, the Police have permitted 2,808 Puja Pandal committees to set up the pandals for Durga Puja.

The workers are engaged in embellishing the Puja pandals and giving finishing touches. Each pandal is seeking attention by adding embellishments and colourful lighting. Locals are readying their food and other stalls to be set up at the Durga Puja Pandals which turn into a mini-mela. A large number of Muslim do business at these fairs where people are in a mood to splurge.

Javed, a young man from a Kolkata neighbourhood says, 'We have been waiting for Durga Puja for so long.' Qurban, standing with him nods in approval and says, 'This time we pray to Allah that it does not rain, otherwise we will make losses.'

Both of them have set up small shops during the Durga Puja festival. One sells toys and the other balloons.

Durga Puja is a good time for workers from neighbouring States to come to the City of Joy as they are in demand and get higher wages. This time, many Muslim workers from Jharkhand and Bihar are in Kolkata for the Durga Puja. They are mostly from Ranchi, Deoghar. Gumla district and Patna Sahib in Bihar. They have been coming to Kolkata for work during the Durga Pujaa for many years.

A Durga Puja Pandal in Kolkata

They reach Kolkata 15 days before the festival. They go to South Kolkata and towards Howrah Station in search of work as labourers and setting up their tiny stalls.

They set up stalls of toys outside the Durga Puja pandals. They pay a nominal fee to the Puja committees The workers always return home after the Puja in a happy mood.

There is a place called Andulia under the Haldia sub-division, where 58-year-old Noor Mohammad Chowdhury has been making different kinds of idols since his youth. Sometimes Durga, sometimes Saraswati, sometimes Ganesh! Noor Mohammad's fingers are always moving. He calls them a 'gift from Allah'.

Districts like Murshidabad, Malda, North and South Dinajpur, North and South 24 Parganas, Howrah, and Nadia with large populations of Muslims. Muslims in the Murshidabad district constitute about 69.5 percent of the population, 53.3 percent in the Malda, and 42.8 percent in the north and south of Dinjapur. They are 30 percent In Haldia and in 26 percent in the Nadia district.

The population of Muslims in the North and South 24 Parganas districts adjoining the capital Kolkata is 36.1 percent. During Durga Puja, these districts start glowing with lights. This time too, Durga Puja is being celebrated in large numbers in these districts.

Kolkata's Durga Puja was recognized on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2021.

Maa Durga in a Kolkata Pandal

This status has added to the fervour of Bengalis in celebrating the festival. Each year representatives of UNESCO visit Kolkata to see Durga Puja.

During Durga Puja, the hairstyling work on the forehead of the idol is given its final touches by the artisans of Howrah district, a majority of them Muslims. They get a decent wage in return for the 'hairstyling work'.

The consumption of biriyani increases during Durga Puja each year. Most members of Bengali families make a point to eat biriyani at the Puja Pandal. Usually, Biryani stalls attract most people and one can see a long queue in front of any stalls - both branded and local - outside the pandals.

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The Kolkata metro also runs its services during the night on the last two days of the festival -Mahashashti and Mahanavami. The traders mostly Muslims, make use of it.