KOLKATA: This year saw a Lakshmi Puja with a difference as many households chose to go ahead without a priest and performed the rituals on their own. Yet others decided not to bring home a new idol as they preferred to worship the old one to avoid visiting the markets. With the Puja tithi (timing) commencing on Tuesday and coming to a close by Wednesday afternoon, most of the people chose Tuesday to worship the goddess of wealth.
Many homes in the city, especially those with senior citizens, chose to continue with last year’s trend of worshipping the goddess without a priest. Some people got their idols delivered at home from Kumartuli this year while they ordered the Puja items for home delivery from local ‘dashakarma bhandar’.
Rita Dey, a resident of Madurdaha, who works in the HR department of DPS Newtown, will be doing the Puja on her own without a priest this year too. “There are many things I am no longer using like the nouka, which had to be bought from the store, to stock Puja items. But I wanted to keep it as safe as possible,” she said.
Aparna Majumdar will be assisting her mother-in-law in the Puja as the Garia family will not call the priest this time, too. They have decided to worship the small brass idol, which they have at home, instead of bringing any clay idol.
Businesswoman Sanchita Chatterjee, who deals in leather exports, felt that by doing the puja on her own, she has personalised it and is enjoying much more.
Ushashi Bhattacharya, radio programme officer of Vidyasagar University, said, “The Puja without a priest makes me feel like attending to a guest with the best I can offer.”
Kumartuli artisans said at least 60%-70% of the idols had been ordered online. “People looked at WhatsApp pictures, mentioned budgets and ordered idols,” said Babu Pal, secretary of the Kumartuli Idol Makers’ Association.
