It is in the air – the buzz of festivity. The dandiya-garba nights apart, Navratras mean time to get dressed and go pandal hopping.
But before you decide which pandals to go to, here’s what the pandals in Jaipur are going to look like this time. This time, the organizers in Jaipur have decided to give their pandals a theme. Not only that, Peacock Garden, the marriage hall at Vaishali Nagar, had been booked for thirty days and right now, it houses all the artistes, right from sculptors to pandal designers. And the Vaishali Nagar pandal organizers have called special light artistes all the way from Chandannager, West Bengal, to set up theme-based lighting, because they want this, their tenth year of organizing the puja at Vaishali Nagar, to be a special event.
“For the first time there is going to be a theme-based pandal organised in Jaipur. Our theme is ‘Peace and Pleasure.’ The Buddha collage at the pandal entrance denotes peace. While through lights and special sculptures, at the entrance we are depicting the pleasure of Maa Durga post asur nidhan,” says Ashis Mukherjee of Jai Durga Welfare Society. They have even set up a 57 feet tall Qutub Minar made of light to welcome the devotees coming to visit the pandal. Special light decoration themed Shekal Ekaal (‘Then and Now’) has been designed to entertain the guests till visarjan.
The Jaipur Durga Bari Association, one of the oldest organizing bodies in Jaipur, has created the old Zamindari ambience for its puja pandal. “Ours is a simple theme – and our light decoration is a tribute to the soldiers who rescued hundreds of pilgrims stranded at Uttrakhand during the recent natural disaster there,” says Sudipto Sen, secretary of Durga Bari. It has also set up a huge Eiffel Tower made out of light, to give the visitors a bright welcome. There are other organizing clubs as well, like the Agrani Cultural Club, Raja Park and the Probasi Bengali Cultural Society – both have decided to stick to very simple themes, and to go for eco-friendly pandals, that have a touch of rural Bengal.
src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/people/Lights-sculptures-mark-Durga-puja-pandals-in-Jaipur/articleshow/23726420.cms