Lake Gardens People's Association Kicks Off Its 71st Sharadotsav: Khuti Puja Held on 2nd August
Some bamboo poles are just bamboo poles. And then there's the one that got lifted on the shoulders of a dozen people at Bangur Park on a Sunday morning in Lake Gardens, wrapped in marigold garlands, marked with sindoor, and carried like it was carrying the weight of seventy years of memory along with it — because, in a way, it was.
This is the story of how Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee Lake Gardens, — organised by the Lake Gardens People's Association — opened the doors to its 71st year of Durga Puja with a Khuti Puja that felt less like a ritual and more like a reunion.
What Actually Happened on 2nd August
The photographs from the day tell the real story better than any description could. A green bamboo pole, freshly cut, gets wrapped in strings of orange and yellow marigolds by hands that clearly aren't doing this for the first time. A strip of white cloth is tied around its middle, and someone draws a bold red swastik and a cross of vermillion across it — the same markings you'd find on a Khuti Puja anywhere in Bengal, because some traditions simply don't change, generation after generation. Then, in true Lake Gardens style, it isn't one or two people who lift the pole — it's practically the whole para. Men in kurtas, women in sarees with their pallus tucked in for the work ahead, teenagers, elders — all shoulder to shoulder, hoisting the khuti above their heads and marching it toward its final spot, right by the park gates.
And once it's up? The purohit takes over. Seated on a green cloth surrounded by copper thalis of fruit, coconut, incense sticks, and a small brass bell, he performs the puja with the quiet focus of someone who's done this a hundred times and still means every word of it. A woman sits behind him in a mustard saree, hands folded, watching — the kind of moment that has nothing to do with spectacle and everything to do with faith.
The Committee Behind the Celebration
This year's Khuti Puja marks the 71st Sharadotsab organised under the banner of the Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee Lake Gardens, based in the Lake Gardens–Jadavpur belt of South Kolkata. Seventy-one years is not a small number. It means this puja has survived changing governments, changing generations, and changing Kolkata — and it's still being run with the same community spirit that likely started it back in the day.
According to the official announcement shared by the committee, this year's celebration comes together with contributions from several key people:
- Creative direction: Gourab Sanyukta
- Idol artistry (Maa's rupayan): Utpal Ghosh
- Support and coordination: Shubhojit
Naming these individuals matters more than it might seem. Durga Puja in Kolkata isn't manufactured by faceless committees — it's built by real artists, real organisers, and real families who pour months of planning into a few days of celebration. Utpal Ghosh, credited with shaping the idol this year, joins the long list of Bengal's skilled murtikars whose work often traces its roots back to the potters' lanes of Kumartuli, the birthplace of nearly every Durga idol that will grace a pandal this Durga Puja 2026.
Why Khuti Puja Still Matters in 2026
It would be easy to dismiss Khuti Puja as a small, procedural ritual compared to the grandeur of Shashthi or Ashtami. But talk to anyone who's grown up in a Kolkata para, and they'll tell you Khuti Puja is where the emotional countdown to Durga Puja truly begins. It's the community's official "yes, we're doing it" — months before the dhak starts playing, before the pandal artists arrive, before a single strip of bamboo scaffolding goes up for the actual structure.
If you're curious about how this tradition unfolds across other parts of the city, our Khuti Puja section covers dozens of committees — from South Kolkata clubs to Salt Lake blocks — each with their own small variations on this same beautiful ritual. No two Khuti Pujas look identical, and that's exactly the charm of it.
The Kumartuli Connection
No conversation about Bengal's idols is complete without a nod to Kumartuli, the century-old potters' colony on the banks of the Hooghly where most of Kolkata's Durga idols — including, very likely, the one being shaped for Lake Gardens this year — take their first form out of straw and river clay. The artisans there work almost year-round, moving from one commission to the next, and their craftsmanship quietly underpins nearly every Durgotsab celebration across the city.
If you want to go deeper into how these idols are made, and the artists who've kept this craft alive for generations, our Kumartuli label page has detailed features worth exploring.
A Community That Shows Up
What stood out most in the images from this year's Lake Gardens Khuti Puja wasn't the ritual itself — it was the crowd. Not a designated group of five or six committee members doing the honours while everyone else watched from the side, but an entire cross-section of the neighbourhood physically holding up that bamboo pole together. Kids in floral dresses standing next to elderly women in cotton sarees. Men in checked shirts standing shoulder to shoulder with women in silk. It's a small but telling reminder that Durga Puja, at its heart, has never really been about the idol or the pandal alone — it's about the people who choose, year after year, to show up for each other.
What's Next for Lake Gardens Durgotsab 2026
With the Khuti Puja now complete, the Lake Gardens People's Association will move into the next phase of preparations — pandal construction, thematic design work under the creative team, and finally, the arrival of the idol crafted by Utpal Ghosh. If this year follows the pattern of most South Kolkata pujas, expect bamboo structures to start rising within weeks, followed by lighting tests, and eventually the big reveal closer to Mahalaya.
For real-time updates on this puja and dozens of others across Kolkata, you can follow the committee directly on their official Facebook page, where they typically post construction updates and event announcements first.
And if you're the kind of Puja lover who likes tracking every khuti puja, banner reveal, and pandal update across the city as it happens — which, if you've read this far, you probably are — bookmark our Khuti Puja updates page and check back often. We'll be following Lake Gardens' journey to its 71st Sharadotsav right through to Bijoya Dashami.
