72 Years, One Story After Another: Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha's Khuti Puja Opens With "Golpo Aar Golpo"

 

Ask any child what a story needs before they can even explain why, and most will tell you the same thing: a good beginning. A doorway into it. Something that makes you want to stay for the next page. That's precisely the feeling Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha seems to have built into its brand-new theme banner, unveiled on a quiet Sunday evening this August — and the name they've given it makes the intention almost too on-the-nose in the best way: "Golpo Aar Golpo" — Story and Story, or perhaps more truthfully, tale after tale after tale.

South Kolkata's Sahapara neighbourhood in Purba Putiary has hosted this club's celebrations for over seven decades now, and on 2nd August 2026, the pole finally went into the ground for its 72nd year. What arrived with it wasn't just a khuti and a garland — it was a full theme reveal, a night of dhaak, and a banner dense enough with imagery that it rewards a second and third look.

Where This Club Has Always Stood

Pragati Sangha isn't a name that needs an introduction in Sahapara, Purba Putiary. Tucked into South Kolkata's residential belt, this is a locality where Durga Puja committees tend to grow up alongside the same families for generations, and Pragati Sangha's 72-year run places it comfortably among the neighbourhood's senior, dependable institutions — the kind of puja that doesn't need a viral pandal to draw a crowd because the crowd has been showing up since before most of them were born.

Seventy-two years also means this year's khuti puja sits within striking distance of a milestone. In under three decades, Pragati Sangha will be looking at its own centenary — a marker that only a handful of Kolkata's clubs ever get to claim, and one that rewards exactly this kind of steady, year-on-year continuity rather than any single spectacular season.

Decoding "Golpo Aar Golpo": A Banner Built Like a Storybook

Most theme banners lead with a striking photograph or a single emotive image. Pragati Sangha's does something rarer — it leads with an illustration, rendered in the black-and-white line-art style of an old-fashioned storybook page, and it's worth slowing down on.

On the left side of the banner sits a wooden signpost reading "প্রবেশ" — "Entry," or in storytelling terms, the prologue, the doorway into the tale. A small figure appears to be hauling on a rope-and-pulley system, quite literally pulling the story into motion. Beside this, a robed figure stands with one hand raised in what reads as a gesture of blessing or address — the kind of character who might open a folk tale by speaking directly to the listener. And lower on the same illustration, a small gravestone is inscribed with the words "বীর সৈনিক" — "brave soldier" — with a child-like figure seated beside it, head bowed.

Three separate visual beats — an entrance, a storyteller, a soldier's memory — laid out on a single banner panel is not an accident. It reads like the opening page of an anthology, the kind where each chapter promises something different: adventure, wisdom, sacrifice. "Golpo Aar Golpo" isn't announcing one story. It's announcing that the pandal itself will unfold like a collection of them, each corner potentially holding a different tale for visitors to walk through.

On the right half of the banner, the practical details sit in bold Bengali type: পূর্ব পুঁটিয়ারী প্রগতি সংঘ, ৭২ তম বর্ষের শারদ শুভেচ্ছা — Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha's Sharad greetings for its 72nd year — flanked by the club's own logo and a co-associated organisation's emblem in the corner.

The People Building the Story

Every theme eventually needs hands to translate it from banner to bamboo, and Pragati Sangha's 72nd year rests on two names printed clearly on the reveal itself.

The overall creative concept — the srijan, or the authorship of "Golpo Aar Golpo" as an idea — belongs to Somnath Das. Turning an anthology-style theme into a walkable pandal experience is a genuinely difficult brief; it means designing not one narrative arc but several small ones that still need to feel connected once a visitor has walked the full length of the structure.

The idol — the matri rupayan, the form the Goddess herself will take this year — has been entrusted to Gopal Pal. With a theme this literary, there's a reasonable chance the idol's styling leans toward something narrative or folk-inspired rather than a purely traditional finish, though that detail will only become clear as the workshop progresses over the coming weeks.

The Evening the Pole Went Up

Photographs from the khuti puja itself tell a story of their own. The ceremony opened with the banner reveal — committee members lined up in a row, pulling back a red-and-white checkered cloth and a rope of marigold garlands to unveil the "Golpo Aar Golpo" banner for the first time in front of the full para, smoke from the puja's incense still curling into the frame. It's the kind of moment every committee stages carefully, because for most of the neighbourhood, this reveal is the puja's real opening night, months before the pandal is even half-built.

Not far from the banner, the evening had a second centre of gravity — a full dhaak ensemble in matching yellow-and-red sarees and kurtas, drums slung across shoulders on woven straps, gathering in two facing lines under strings of lights near the "প্রগতি সংঘ" stage. The rhythm of a dhaak on khuti puja night carries a specific meaning in Bengal — it's the sound that formally tells a neighbourhood the countdown to Durgotsav has begun, regardless of how many weeks of bamboo work still lie ahead.

And then there's the khuti itself — the ceremonial bamboo pole at the centre of it all, dressed for its role. A ten-armed cut-out figure of the Goddess sits atop the pole, painted in the traditional pat style with a saffron marigold crown, flanked by a striking red-and-white checkered cloth draped like a shawl behind her. Below her, a carved green demon's head with curling horns — Mahishasur, rendered with wide, staring eyes — completes the tableau, wrapped in fresh yellow marigolds at its base. It's a small, self-contained piece of folk art in its own right, planted months before the final idol will ever take shape, and it already tells you exactly which battle this year's Durga Puja is building toward.

What Usually Comes Next for a Puja Like This

With the khuti in the ground and the theme now public, the quieter, less photogenic work begins — bamboo deliveries to the Sahapara site, the early kathamo (structural skeleton) taking shape under the pandal team, and Gopal Pal's workshop moving from armature to clay. Given how literary this year's theme is, it'll be worth watching whether "Golpo Aar Golpo" translates into a pandal split across distinct storytelling zones, or one continuous narrative walk from প্রবেশ to exit.

For readers following how this year's Khuti Puja season is unfolding across Kolkata's clubs more broadly, our continuously updated Khuti Puja tracker logs each committee's ceremony as it happens. And because so many of this season's idols — including, quite possibly, this one — trace back to workshops in the city's potters' quarter, our ongoing Kumartuli coverage follows that artisan community through the same months of preparation.

Quick Facts: Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha, 72nd Year

Where is the puja held? Sahapara, Purba Putiary, South Kolkata.

When was the khuti puja held? Sunday evening, 2nd August 2026.

Which year is this? The 72nd year (৭২ তম বর্ষ) of Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha.

What is this year's theme? "গল্পো আর গল্পো" (Golpo Aar Golpo) — "Story and Story."

Who conceived the theme? Somnath Das is credited with the creative concept (srijan).

Who is sculpting the idol? Gopal Pal is responsible for the idol's form (matri rupayan).

Where can I follow live updates? Through the committee's official Facebook page and our own continuously updated Khuti Puja 2026 tracker.

A Small Note to End On

Not every theme needs a dramatic single image to make its point — sometimes a signpost, a storyteller, and a soldier's memory, laid side by side on one banner, say more than any single photograph could. Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha has spent 72 years being one of Sahapara's steady, dependable presences, and this year, it's asking its neighbourhood to walk through its pandal the way you'd read through an old book of tales — one story, and then another, and then another.

This is a developing story for the season — we'll return with more from Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha as the pandal takes shape between now and Mahalaya.

Image Credit: Purba Putiary Pragati Sangha