Of Bongs, demons and Aussies

The Kumartuli artists are busy now. In fact, they are very, very busy. Durga Puja less than a month away and the famed idol artists are the ones who are working overtime these days.

Every year, I keep an eye on who will turn out to be the demon god Mahisasura for the year. Mahisasura took forms of notorious executed and ‘encountered’ criminals like Dhananjoy Chatterjee and Veerappan. The form is usually reserved for the villain-in-focus of the year.

No wonder, this year, the undisputed villain of the year is the Aussie saboteur Greg Chappell for getting one of Bengal’s brightest sons Saurav Ganguly out of the team. The Deshabandhu Road Sarbojanin Durgotsab ordered that the idol of Mahisasura be modeled on India’s Aussie coach.

However, the Kolkata police stepped in to put a dampener. They have issued orders to the artisans that they just can’t do it. The artisans meanwhile are crying foul. They believe it is like interfering with their artistic freedom.

Why would the police interfere? What a shame, isn’t it? The Bongs don’t deserve to be robbed of such fun especially during their biggest festival.

A special thanks to dhoomketu, because it was in his post I got the news and the picture.