'Gen Next' takes on the responsibility of eco-friendly Durga Puja in London this autumn

Rupanjana Dutta Tuesday 03rd September 2019 09:40 EDT
 
 

The London Sharad Utsav (LSU), a renowned Bengali organisation in the UK, promoting culture, heritage and traditions, has taken on the responsibility of celebrating an eco-friendly ‘green’ Durga puja this autumn. Promoting climate change and plastic free initiatives, the authority has also passed on the charges of this year’s successful puja to the hands of the youth. 

The experiment with ‘Gen Next’, and their interest in promoting their roots, started with a football game, followed by a thrilling cricket tournament called Indian Professional Cricket League in Harrow, where the younger generation on Sunday has beaten one of the strong adult teams, on a momentous occasion. 

Going beyond sports, the younger generation has now started taking ownership of the upcoming puja, specifically to raise awareness about climate change. As a precursor to the puja they organised a popular ‘DJ mashap’ on this Sunday, after the cricket tournament and the annual Sharad mela, which was a massive hit. They have therefore taken on the responsibility of recreating the same magic every evening of Durga puja from Friday 4th to Monday 8th October at Ealing Town Hall. The Green Puja team, under supervision of the experienced adults, will primarily take care of all the arrangements.

At this year’s puja, which is effectively called a ‘Green Puja’, LSU is also determined to keep up with London’s bigger commitments to reduce single use plastic.

Sourav Niyogi, who is a part of the Senior Advisory Body, LSU, told Asian Voice, “We believe the key to success in involving the next generation and let them organise the puja their way by nurturing their ideas and thoughts rather than enforcing our ideas on them. This new generation that was merely participants before, are now active organisers. Every youngster can be informally involved, but the ‘Gen Next’s’ active and formal involvement can only happen once you are 15 years old.

“This year at our ‘Green Puja’, we have committed to have zero consumption of single use plastic, wherever we can. But wherever we cannot, we will only be using recyclable plastic.”

In order to do so, the committee has actually decided to give up on plastic plates to distribute ‘prashad’ or ‘bhog’, and use plates made out of vegetable waste.

On 21-22 September, children will participate in a poster drawing competition. These posters, will be exhibited at the puja and will be used to showcase the ‘go green’ initiative as well describe how harmful single use plastic can be- in a bid to generate awareness, developing consciousness in everyone visiting the puja. 

17 year old Aditya Mukhopadhyay, whose father Anirban is the President of LSU, is actively involved in creating the schedule for this year’s cultural programme, including a medley of Bengali and Hindi songs from 1970s to 2019. He told the newspaper proudly how he was not pushed by the elders to take on this initiative. Instead, he had friends who were interested in performing and this made it easier to give their talent an opportunity as well as make them a member of the ‘LSU Gen Next’. When asked if he thought creation of the team ‘Gen Next’ was a good idea, Aditya added, “I honestly think it is a great way of showing us the ropes and giving us more responsibility, as we've spent a huge chunk of our lives watching it happen in front of us.”

21 year old Pritha Majumder who is also a part of the LSU Gen Next team told the newspaper, “I moved to the UK six years ago. When I was in India youngsters being involved in Durga puja, especially cultural, was a very prominent concept. This gave me an opportunity to bring that culture forward, but not only in the traditional sense. We have introduced a new section, 'DJ Mashup' which was very much taken by everybody. Gen Next as a concept should make such events we want to go to and not somewhere we have to go to under compulsion.” Like every year Pritha will also help others to execute the puja, but as a part of the 'green' initiative, she is insisting on cutting down waste. "Given LSU footfall during puja, it is very important we must consciously ensure there is absolutely no waste this year."


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