Shillong all set to bask in Durga Puja fervour

SHILLONG: With the countdown beginning for the Durga Puja celebrations, the puja pandals in parts of city are competing with one another to make them more attractive than others. While the costly materials made of Bamboo and jute are mostly used in some Puja pandals in and around the city, there are others which mainly use clothes with varied designs to decorate the Pandals. The four day Durga puja celebrations will begin from Tuesday. This time around, the Rilbong Durga puja pandal is not made of the clothes traditionally used , but the entire pandal has been made out of bamboo. The Secretary of Rilbong Durga Puja committee S. Chaudhury said that the entire puja pandal is being decorated by bamboo and the decorators have come from New Jaipaiguri. This is for the first time that the initiative of decorating the entire pandal from bamboo has been taken up by Rilbong Durga puja committee. The use of bamboo for decoration of puja pandal was encouraged to give a touch of variety and it is one of the costliest puja pandals in Shillong with an expenditure of Rs 5 lakh. The puja pandal will be inaugurated on October 18. However, RR Colony Puja committee has gone a step ahead of Rilbong by making the Puja pandal with jute in addition to bamboo. The decorators are from Alipur, West Bengal. “We are using both bamboo and jute to make the Pandal attractive this time”, said Gopal Das, general secretary of RR Colony Durga Puja celebration committee.According to Das, the cost of the pandal would come around Rs 4.5 lakh. Das said that in 2012, the same model made of bamboo which is being put up at Rilbong was used at RR Colony. Jail road puja pandal is also made of materials like cane and bamboo and the decorators are from Alipurduar, North Bengal. Matri Mandir Puaja at Polo which celebrates its 60 years of existence this year has the permanent RCC structure and decoration is made with clothes. There are other puja pandals which are being decorated exclusively with clothes considering the cost factor involved in using other materials. Innovative decorations and illumination of pandals are in full swing by various Puja pandals.