Durga Puja in color

This is the online appendix for 25¢ a Cup,- a book about the year I spent finding Paris in India, finding that lost city of art in Calcutta.

Potter carries water back to his Kurmatoli studio
With those magnificent columns of a ruined palace in the background, readers can bet that the only reason this image isn't in the book is that I could not make it work in black and white.
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One of the most accomplished sculptors in Kurmatoli
One of the most accomplished sculptors in Kurmatoli
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Most of the work is mass produced by hand.
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Mixing colors in one of the old bamboo studios.
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Coolis from families that have been doing this work for generations move finished idols out of the studios to a truck waiting on Chitpur Road.
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It is a great honor to take an idol back to your neighborhood pandal.
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Coolies resting after their labors.
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An artist putting the finishing touches on his neighborhood pandal.
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A priest performs an elaborate ritual to invite the goddess into a idol. With 2,000 pandals, Durga Puja is like a temporary full employment act for Calcutta's artists and priests.
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In the book I talk a lot about the outside of this pandal from the jewelers district. The inside was an idol coated in gold borrowed from the jewelers that didn't interest me.
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The park right next to Coffee House always features an architectural pandal that can reflect in its pool. Lanes of the Neighborhood of Books wrap right around the park.
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Inside the architectural pandal of the previous photo.
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This pandal is in the heart of the potter's village of Kurmatoli.
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Although very beautiful, I have no idea what this pandal is trying to communicate. I wish the pandal's included artist's statements.
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"It beamed hot sun colors on the outside, but inside meditative trance music soothed and the engaging shapes were a cool darkened blue."
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This pandal seemed "to come from an alternative wicker-based civilization."
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I went looking for this pandal because the description online said that it was about how we define ourselves by our work—one of the themes of my book. It had a fantastic Avantgarde artist vibe, but it didn't communicate its theme clearly to me.
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This "empowering women" pandal was featured in the book because it didn't need any artist's statement. It is my pick for the best pandal messaging,
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The "empowering women" pandal. "This Durga is a strong modern woman—six hands grasp a trident. She’s got four hands free, need something else done? Durga’s arms typically fan outwards like a peacock’s feathers. Her take charge body language here is the point of the pandal."
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The interplanetary travel pandal is in a Kurmatoli park. The next picture shows what you see when you enter the globe behind the rocket.
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The pandal for the Hijara or transgendered.
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The altar for the Hijara temple. "The goddess has attributes of both Durga and Krishna to show fluidity of gender. She’s playing Krishna’s flute not wielding the weapon with which Durga slays the demon. …. Durga’s foot isn’t crushing the emerald green demon. Her foot’s caress is flirtatious, not damning and the demon is not slain, but smitten."
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"After the puja the idols are ceremoniously dumped into the river. Since the Hooghly River that runs the length of Calcutta is a tributary of the Ganges, the goddess Durga can then travel leisurely upstream via that most sacred river to her home in the Himalayas."
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"In this new millennium Calcutta has responded to environmental concerns. Just after getting dunked in the river the now vacant idols are, as you can see above, quickly removed from the river so they can be buried in a landfill."

This concludes the online appendix for 25¢ a Cup - finding Paris in India, my story of a year in Calcutta. If the reader is interested in a free online photo story about my hometown, Portland, Oregon, click the link below the next picture.
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Pedalpalooza and the Politics of Fun
https://www.pileofprints.com/PhotoEssays/Pedalpalooza/

For readers that enjoyed my introduction to India's City of Art, here is my guide to America's City of Bikes, my hometown, Portland, Oregon
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