Puja

KOLKATA: Bengal’s Durga Puja economy could well have touched the Rs 50,000-crore mark this year with puja organisers, advertisers, retailers and restaurants registering a 20% hike in businesses over 2022. Kolkata is expected to account for around 20% of the pie at Rs 10,000 crore. Last year, total transactions were estimated to be around Rs 40,000 crore, up from Rs 32,377 crore in 2019.The 2019 figure...

KOLKATA: During the festive period from Mahapanchami to Bijoyadashami, Kolkata Metro Railway transported 4,165,000 passengers, marking a significant passenger turnout. Notably, the North-South Metro Line transported 3,946,945 passengers, while the East-West Metro Line served 216,581 passengers over the six days of the Durga Puja celebrations. Additionally, the Purple Line transported 1,807 passengers on...

Puja pandals across NCR are celebrating the festival with full gusto and dhoom with extravagant and thought-out themed-settingsMatri Mandir in Safdarjung Enclave has turned into Disneyland for Durga Puja. “To celebrate 100 years of Disney, we have tried to create a replica of Disneyland,” says Amita Chakraborty, additional general secretary of the committeeDisneyland-themed Maitri Mandir pandal in...

KOLKATA: During this year's Durga Puja in Kolkata, some prominent pandals will feature displays and stalls that educate festival-goers about how to prevent avoidable deaths. The Avoidable Deaths Network (ADN), an organization working on issues such as snakebites and drowning cases, has partnered with three puja organizers – Maddox Square, Jodhpur Park, and Suruchi Sangha.These stalls will showcase...

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Metro has once more re-emerged as the preferred mode of transportation during the festive Puja days, with a surge in daily passenger counts as Sharadotsav approaches. Commuters, shoppers, travelers, and pandal hoppers alike have turned to the city's metro system for its comfort and convenience.Over the past month, the daily passenger count on the Kolkata Metro has seen a steady...

MUMBAI: The onset of Sharadiya Navratra holds special significance for the Bengali community as it prepares to celebrate Durga Puja from October 20-24.The monks of Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) in Khar will host traditional festivities complete with Kumari Puja, where a little girl is dressed up and worshipped as the goddess. One of the oldest Pujas, organised by Durga Bari Samiti at Tejpal Hall, is in its...

MUMBAI: This could be good news for Mumbai's Navratri and Durga puja pandals which require a huge supply of power during the festival period. BEST undertakings in island city, Tata Power across Mumbai and Adani Electricity in suburbs announced "subsidized residential" power tariff to all puja pandals who apply for connection. This will save the power supply costs for the pandals to a greater extent....

Kolkata: About 150 families of Bonkapasi, a remote village in Katwa, are burning the midnight oil to complete orders of “sholar saaj” (wood sponge ornamentation) for Durga Puja organisers across the country. With a turnover of more than Rs 50 crore during the puja months, all men will leave the village a couple of days before Mahalaya with these ornaments to dress up the Goddess in pandals....

KOLKATA: Police in Kolkata, Barrackpore and Barasat have come across multiple cases where women — some of them teachers, lawyers or with respectable jobs — are receiving extortion calls from cyber crooks after they are being informed of receiving puja gifts in parcels sent through courier.Even as a victim tries to guess who sent them the parcel, she receives a second call, with the person claiming...

NEW DELHI: The Korean Embassy in India recently held a puja ceremony to mark the arrival of official vehicle for the ambassador. A brand new car, Hyundai Genesis GV80, has been chosen as the official vehicle for the ambassador and a ceremonial puja was performed for good luck.Sharing a video from the puja ceremony on X, formerly Twitter, the embassy wrote, "We are delighted to have a new Hyundai Genesis...