Durga Puja 2025: Kolkatas pandals brim with creativity, religion, and love tales

Kolkata’s streets and the pursuit of affection throughout Durga Puja are minimize from the identical material, a material of likelihood and inevitability. Every flawed flip would possibly open like a trapdoor — into an ornate, never-seen-before pandal, or into the orbit of a stranger whose look lingers a heartbeat too lengthy within the bhog (providing) queue. The newness of the season feels conspiratorial: the fun of a primary encounter or a wonderfully timed meet cute. Or on Navami, when the smoke of Sandhi Puja coils across the fading festivities, there’s a lingering ache, a reminder of a love that by no means fairly blossomed. By Dashami, because the goddess herself departs for her sojourn, one would possibly even be ghosted by the Hinge date who promised a lot.

For generations, Durga Puja has been greater than a competition. It has been Kolkata’s most democratic stage for social life, an area the place younger women and men exchanged glances at Maddox Square, or struck up conversations beneath the neon lights of Ballygunge Cultural. It was, in some ways, Bengal’s authentic social community, its first relationship app even.  

The metropolis has modified, and the pandals with it — easy constructions now reborn as spectacles match for a biennale however the pulse stays. Parents who as soon as discovered love in puja golf equipment have youngsters who swipe proper earlier than stepping out to hop pandals. Courtship has shifted from adda to algorithm, but pujo stays Kolkata’s canvas for encounters each outdated and new.

“I bear in mind seeing him for the primary time at a pujo pandal,” recollects 57-year-old Anisha Shaw (title modified), who met her husband, Ashish Basu (title modified), at Shib Mandir’s puja pandal in 1996. “Pujo was easier then. We buddies circled across the pandal for hours of adda (dialog), helped with the bhog, ferried buckets of water, and fried beguni (aubergine fritters) in big kadhais (utensils). Someone’s cousin could be despatched working to Gariahat to fetch extra mustard oil or kasundi (mustard). It was that sort of Pujo. Ashish and I stored working into one another. A yr later, we have been married.”

In distinction, Anisha’s daughter, 27-year-old sous chef Mishka Basu (title modified), met her fiancé on Bumble in 2024. Their romance started with a proper swipe and a primary date at AM PM on Park Street. Where their dad and mom’ love story unfolded between alpanas and serving tables, theirs started in an app’s chat window.

Algorithms earlier than anjali (prayers)

“So in your world, multiplication is similar as division?” That was the primary line 29-year-old engineer Arpan Majumdar despatched to 26-year-old IT-healthcare skilled Sailanki Nandy on Tinder — a witty reference to her microbiology background. “In cell biology, ‘division’ is when a father or mother cell splits into two daughter cells, which truly multiplies their quantity,” she explains. “I melted proper then,” Sailanki laughs. “I’d chatted with so many boys, however nobody bothered to put in writing one thing intelligent like that. Now individuals use AI-generated traces.”

Sailanki had dabbled in relationship apps like Bumble and OkCupid throughout school, logging in “for a little bit of validation” and deleting them after a couple of days. But within the lengthy, lonely months of COVID-19 in 2020, she determined to provide Tinder a critical strive.

“Arpan was staying at his sister’s home in Jadavpur, and I used to be in Behala. He’s from Barrackpore, however our radii overlapped, and we matched,” she recollects.

Durga Puja, she says, has all the time held deep which means. “I grew up in a joint household. Puja meant cousins coming again to the town adopted by loud, festive days.” Their first pujo collectively was in 2021. “We deliberate to satisfy on Ashtami — me in a sari, him in a panjabi (kurta). But he acquired meals poisoning on Saptami. I advised him to relaxation, however that night time he insisted, ‘Chol, North Kolkata te thakur dekhte jai’ – let’s go see the pandals in North Kolkata. I believed he was loopy. He travelled from Barrackpore regardless of being unwell, simply so we might meet. We queued for one massive pandal, however I mentioned, ‘If you want a toilet break, we’ll be caught in a sea of individuals!’ So we ducked right into a café close by, sitting near the restroom, laughing about it.”

On Dashami morning they lastly went pandal-hopping in South Kolkata, and afterward Arpan got here house to satisfy her household. “That was our first Pujo collectively,” she says.

“He is the kindest particular person I’ve ever met — so real. His Tinder opening line nonetheless makes me smile foolish. Next yr we’re getting married. This Pujo we shall be again in Kolkata to speak about our marriage ceremony,” Sailanki provides.

User behaviour 

Speaking about relationship patterns throughout the festive season, Chandni Gaglani, Indian relationship app Aisle’s head of enterprise observes clear “pre- and put up competition” waves. “We see intense intent setting,” she explains. “People replace bios, refine filters, even tweak distance or language preferences to quick listing matches earlier than celebrations start. Usage frequency spikes, then dips as soon as Durga Puja is in full swing, when everyone seems to be absorbed in household and group. After the competition, there’s a lovely reflection interval.”

Chandni notes that social, community-driven festivals exert a really completely different pull than international events akin to Valentine’s Day. “These moments are deeply cultural and rooted in belonging,” she says. “They faucet into one thing elementary about identification and group.”

Kolkata, she provides, sees the best feminine participation on the relationship app. “The metropolis has all the time had a romantic, mental tradition the place relationships are handled as critical endeavours. We see that in how thoughtfully customers craft profiles and conversations,” remarks Chandni.

Aisle’s customers vary from ages 18 to 50, however the largest group is the 26 to 35 demographic most inclined towards long run dedication. “This cohort has usually moved away from their hometowns, established careers, and now seeks significant partnerships on their very own phrases,” Chandni explains.

On the expertise facet, she emphasises that Aisle’s algorithm “takes indicators from consumer exercise and adapts accordingly, however the selection and management all the time stay with our customers.” The app’s For You part is curated not simply by age or location, she says, however by “shared values and pursuits. Such indicators increase the percentages of actual compatibility fairly than merely exhibiting everybody who suits broad standards.”

Across Age Groups

Thirty-eight-year-old Purnendu Guha (title modified), a reporter in Kolkata, has been utilizing relationship apps since 2020, a yr after his divorce.

“Being a reporter, I don’t have sufficient time to exit on dates, and I can’t actually date individuals from my office,” he says. “But assembly somebody throughout pujo is completely different. Across these 5 days, I get to work together with the particular person totally, see how they reply to artwork, how they work together with individuals, deal with cash whereas shopping for from distributors, and in the event that they’re checking different individuals out,” he laughs.

“For me, pujo makes relationship safer too because it’s all in public areas. I’ve been doing this yearly since 2020. No encounter has culminated right into a relationship but, however I’ve made good buddies who share my values and my curiosity in artwork. When you meet somebody in a café, the time is brief, and the dialog stays on the floor. But throughout pujo, with longer hours and fixed brushes with tradition and artwork, I discover each of us open up extra.”

This yr, he already has a plan. “I’m assembly my date at a Raja Ravi Varma themed pandal in Tricone Park,” he says, smiling. “I have already got butterflies!”

Speaking of how pujo has modified, 33-year-old software program engineers Kaustav and Arjoyita Banerjee recall a distinct time. The two started relationship in 2010 after sparking a romance on Orkut.

“Back then, you might truly stand in entrance of a pandal and take all of it in,” Kaustav says. “Now it’s close to stampede crowds, you barely get a second to take a look at the decorations, not to mention meet somebody new.” After a decade of relationship and 6 years of marriage, the couple now prefers internet hosting a home social gathering throughout pujo as a substitute of braving the crush outdoors.

A way of anonymity nonetheless issues, says Megha Palit, a 34-year-old occasion planner and lesbian who meets girls principally by means of relationship apps. “Hinge is the place the primary hi there occurs,” she explains, “however pujo is the place you discover out if the chemistry is actual. You can wander Maddox Square at midnight, maintain somebody’s hand, and nobody is aware of whether or not you’re simply buddies or one thing extra.”

She remembers her school years, lengthy earlier than swipes and matches, when Durga Puja was the one place she might threat a cheeky flirtation with one other girl. “It’s crowded, nameless, and oddly protecting,” she says. “The metropolis is so busy worshipping the goddess it forgets to police you. Even now, after we’ve matched on-line, that’s the place I take a date first. In the center of the lights and the dhak, you possibly can breathe and perhaps fall just a little in love.”

Sreejita Chakraborty, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, and her 32-year-old husband, Aditya Sengupta, a gross sales strategist, met on Tinder in 2021.

“Being a Bengali who grew up in Delhi, pujo for me all the time meant 4 packed days at CR Park,” Aditya says.

“Sreejita is from Kolkata and my first pujo along with her was so particular,” recollects Aditya. After their marriage, he remembers a second that stayed with him, “As our flight descended upon the Kolkata skyline, the intense lights beneath felt like they have been talking to me.”

Over the years, as their relationship deepened, Pujo has taken on a richer which means. “It’s not nearly romantic love,” he says. “Now it’s about wheeling my 90-year-old grandmother by means of the pandals, as a result of the enjoyment of discovering new pandals and appreciating the artistry of every means little until it’s shared with household,” smiles Aditya.

Kolkata has all the time left its doorways ajar for thriller and awe to wander in. Durga Puja takes the guts of its individuals and blurs the vary of immersive experiences annually. The goddess comes and goes however leaves behind a thousand small awakenings. Apps could begin the dialog now, however the actual magic nonetheless occurs beneath these stressed, fevered nights when Kolkata forgets itself and remembers want.