Amid the lockdown, London based organisations Bengal Heritage Foundation and London Sharad Utsav have come together to utilise the digital platform and launched their latest innovation “Think Tank”. The idea is to bring thinkers and audience, from all around the globe on a single platform to talk about topics that are relevant to the time and society.
The first webinar ‘Coronasurmardini’ was hosted on Saturday 11 July, covering the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Durga Pujo globally in 2020. Viewers from India and Europe joined in. They gave valuable inputs about how Durga Pujo 2020 can be organised maintaining various government guidelines.
Participants included Bidisha Datta from London Sharad Utsav, Dr Sandeep Raha from Wales Pujo Committee, Prithwish Majumdar from Sujan Bengali Cultural Society - Dublin, Dr Saptarshi Basu from Ballygunge Cultural Association, Subir Das from Bhowanipur 75 Palli, Avishek Bhattacharya from Forum for Durgotsab and was hosted by Swagata Ghosh from Bath Spa University and Arnab Basu, Partner at PwC. The series was designed and directed by Suranjan Som from BHF, who also sent us a picture of the backstage set up for running the webinar.
Sourav Niyogi President of Bengal Heritage Foundation and Trustee of London Sharad Utsav spoke about how the two organisations worked jointly to support charitable causes pertaining to Covid19 and Amphan and support various organisations in UK and India during these unprecedented times with a total collection of £20,047, contributed by the community in the UK.
Swagata Ghosh, one of the moderators of the Pujo webinar said, “The Pujo webinar was a wonderful transnational opportunity for people across various parts of the world organising Pujos to come together and share experiences on some of the challenges we are facing in preparing for one of the world’s largest public festivals. Despite uncertainties, the best part was the opportunity to break boundaries between Pujo near and far, small and big, old and new.”
On how Covid-19 impacted the economic livelihoods of few key sectors was discussed by Mintu Pal, Secretary of Kumartuli association, Kaushik Ghosh, idol maker who also exports idols outside India, street food vendors and lighting technicians from Kolkata. Through their messages they emphasised how critical Durga puja festivities are to sustain the livelihoods of people.
Speaking about the importance of Durga Puja in London, Bidisha Datta from London Sharad Utsav (LSU) said how the organisation this year would like to honour the legendary Satyajit Ray on his birth centenary. She added, “Hopefully with the innovative thinking we will be able to create the Pujo spirit in a safe way for people in London.”
Dr Saptarshi Basu from Ballygunge Cultural Association said, “We are passing through difficult times, a big challenge in front of us yet we have the wish to organise Durga Puja this year. It will scale down naturally given the new norms, but we will try our best to make it happen and ensure livelihoods are maintained as much as possible.”
