BAREILLY: A walk down the narrow winding lanes past Prabha cinema building in the Civil Lines area will take one to the residence of
Mintoo Pal. With
Durga Puja early next month, Pal is running against time to meet the deadline to make sure that goddess Durga idols reach thepandals on time.
Pal, who has been in the business for decades, is the only artisan in the city catering to the demands of Durga idols by the Bengali community.
He is carrying on his father’s legacy who used to come to Bareilly ahead of the Durga Puja to make idols of the deities.
Speaking with TOI, Pal said, "During late 1950s my father,
Paresh Pal, would come to the city during the festive season to cater to the demands of Bengali community here. We later settled here and took up idol-making as a family business. Since then, we have been making idols of deities for Bengali community here as well those living in adjoining districts."
The idol-maker is aided by two of his college-going son Manish and Shivam, who is in school, lend a helping hand to their father during peak season. "My elder son Manish is doing BSc from a private institute here while the younger one is in school. Like my father, I want to pass the family legacy of craftsmanship to my sons as well."
This time, Pal has already received orders for making 15 sets of the idol of goddess Durga. Each set consists of one idol of goddess Durgaand four other deities — Laxmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya. The cost of each set ranges somewhere between Rs 25,000 and 30,000.
"It takes almost two weeks to prepare each set. While we procure most of the raw material from Bareilly itself, decoration material is ordered from
Kumartoli in Kolkata. Going by the environmental concerns, we use natural colours to paint the sculptures so that they dissolve when the idols are immersed in water."
Over years, the celebrations and fanfare have increased manifold and Pal claims that idols made by him are put up in more than a dozenpandals across the city. "Durga Puja celebrations at Bengali club here is 102 years old. Since then, the community has spread to many pockets of the city — BI Bazar, Durgabadi, Kali Mandir and Krishnanagar — and hence several pandal have come up."