In today’s time, Durga Puja means which puja committee can outdo the other in putting up the best illuminated pandals and who can pull in crowd by the horde with their eyeball grabbing themes. Against such a backdrop, three children of Pathsala in Lower Assam’s Barpeta district chose to go the unique way by making idols of Goddess Durga with newspapers.
The three children – Saptarkhi Bharat Dar, a Grade VII student, Abhilav Bharat Dar and Sudipta Dutta – both Grade IX student of Sankardev Sishu Niketan, Pathsala, built small idols of Goddess Durga and 80 per cent of the idols were made using newspapers.
“The rest were materials which we use while doing day to day household chores. It took us more than two months to make the idols and complete the decoration work of the pandal,” stated Saptarkhi, the main sculptor of the idol, adding, “My friends helped me.”
Devotees thronged this particular puja pandal in Pathsala as they found the very idea of making idols with newspapers very “unique and simple”. In fact, these three children got the maximum number of pandal hoppers and all and sundry heaped lavish praise on them.