Bengali Club Durga Puja this year is special because the committee celebrates its 125th anniversary along with the Youngmen’s Association. Celebrations that have started with Puja will continue for a year.
The puja pandal this year has been themed around the life and works of the 19th century social reformer Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
The interiors have pictures of the various life episodes of Vidyasagar and also gives space to pictures of AP Sen and Atul Krishna Sinha, prominent people who developed the club.
The Vidyasagar Library , the first structure built on the premises after formation of club in 1892, was also highlighted during the event.
It has vast Bengali literature, including a copy of `Varn Parichay’, Bengali alphabets compiled by Vidyasagar.
The Bengali Club has managed to uplift the Bengali traditions since 1914.
The Durga Puja celebration in Bengali Club is the only existent Puja to have survived the British reign, making it the oldest Durga Puja Celebration in Lucknow.
The origin of the club is traced back to 1901 when Shri Atul Krishna Sinha, an employee of the Indian Railways Engineering Department, came to Lucknow. He had a concept of an exclusive center for Bengali Performing arts and indoor games.
The Club had changed many venues in its course of time, from Hewett Road to Sundarbagh and Shivaji Marg.
Renowned businessman, Sri Saligram with colleagues helped Atul to purchase a place on Hewett Road, where the club remains to this very day. The Club itself takes pride in the visit of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on 20th November, 1938.
Interestingly this year the Durga idol and the chalchitra backdrop in Bengali club has been designed exactly the way they were at the inception of puja 103 years ago.
For every year since 1914—the year the first Durga Puja was organised at Bengali Club—the idol has been identical.
During the centenary celebration of Bengali Club’s Durga Puja in 2014 the organising committee decided to make modifications in the structure and backdrop. That continued in 2015 and 2016 too.
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