For everyone from Kolkata, Maddox square Durga Puja occupies a special space in their heart. Vast area, big pandal (shamiana), innumerable stalls, performance by celebrities make it the ideal destination for Bengalis to sit and enjoy with all.
This year it will not be missed in London as Adda Slough, organising its first ever Durga puja from 4 to 7thOctober, and will recreate the much-yearned 'Maddox square' Puja ambience for Bengalis. A big 110 ft x 70 ft x 25 ft pandal will house the deity at Slough Cricket Club.
Durga Puja also means adda, good cultural, finger-licking food for Bengalis. So Central London’s famous and aristocratic Indian restaurant ‘Little Kolkata’ will set up an exclusive Kolkata Food Court in the venue.
Adda is a Bengali community organisation based in Slough, UK. It was set up in 2012 and well known for its various community activities. Adda, Slough as it is better known, is well reputed for its Kali Puja which it is organising since 2013. Over the years Adda’s popularity has grown stronger. It is also famous for its grand Saraswati Puja and children’s programme.
Apart from Pujas, Adda organises several sporting events in cricket, football and badminton. Last year the tournament was blessed by Sourav Ganguly and this year Adda organised a tournament and coaching day in association with MS Dhoni cricket academy. It also strongly promotes connections between groups and individuals and helps in outreach of Bengali film industry abroad.
Talking of Adda’s first Durga Puja this year, Adda President Nilotpal Mandal said, “Our Kali Puja met with tremendous response and our visitors wanted more from us. We were flooded with requests to organise annual Durga Puja and that’s how we landed in our journey on this. We are getting a lot of support from local community, council, several Indian organisations for the event. We are expecting a huge crowd like our other events.”
When asked on what the prime attraction for this puja would be, executive member Prasenjit Bhattacharjee said, “We are going to build a Pandal which is quite unprecedented here in UK Pujas because most of the Pujas happen in community halls or hotels as opposed to open ground with a pandal. Several local Indian communities like Assamese, Rajasthanis, Odia, Gujaratis etc are going to help to design the Pandal to decorate and give it a Pan-Indian look. Folk artist Shinjini Thakur will take part in the cultural. Celebrated fashion designer Garima Saikia Garg will be presenting her creations in a fashion show.”
Cultural organisers Pradyumna Dutta, Indrani Dasgupta and dancer Esha Chakravarty emphasised on Adda’s long term commitment to promote Bengali culture and children’s performance.
Apart from Puja activities Adda has also planned for big Bijoya festivities. Organiser Aniruddha Dey said, “Famous Bollywood singer and star Zubeen Garg is going to perform at our grand Bijoya concert in Slough on 12th October 2019. There is already a huge demand for tickets for this.
“On 27th October Adda is going to organise UK Premiere of Bengali movie 'Password' to be attended by actors: Dev (Dipak Adhikari), Rukmini Maitra and director Kamaleshwar Mukhopadhyay.”
