Mumbai: With the city celebrating Navratri that began on Wednesday, devotees are preparing for Durga Puja which will start on the evening of October 8, on Maha Panchami or the fifth day of the Hindu month of Ashwin. Navratri, the festival which celebrates the nine-night-long battle between Goddess Durga and the demon Mahishasura, an embodiment of evil, started on October 3, the first day of the Shukla or bright period of Ashwin month. Traditionally, the first day of Durga Puja is Maha Shasthi or the sixth day of Ashwin, corresponding to October 9.
The Goddess killed Mahishasura on the ninth day, who had taken the form of a buffalo. The festival will end on Dashami or Dussehra, the 10th day, on October 12. Mumbai’s Durga Puja pandals have their unique themes every year.
Apart from the spiritual significance, the festival is also time for cultural events, enjoyment of traditional food, and philanthropy. Here are some of city’s oldest and popular pandals. Thakur Village Bengali Association Evershine Club Ground, Thakur Village, Kandivali East The Bengali association here has over 500 families, but members of other communities also take part in the festivities.
This is the association’s 17th annual Durga Puja. This year, the pandal will showcase Bengal’s rich arts. The pandal is themed around the Jorashanko Thakur Bari, the ancestral home of the Tagore family in Kolkata and the birthplace of poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Performing arts from Bengal, like th.
