Adda is celebrating its fifth Durga Puja this year from 20th October to 23rd October. Adda Durga Puja is the first Durga Puja in the UK in a Kolkata like Pandal since 2019. Based in a London suburb, Adda started its journey as a Bengali social organisation in 2013 with some five Bengali friends who used to play football to encourage Bengali culture, social, welfare and charity activities. In 2013 Adda organised its first Saraswati Puja and subsequently organised its first Kali Puja in 2016. With a resounding response from the local Bengali diaspora Adda launched the Durga Puja in 2019 successfully.
Apart from Pandal Adda is also known to showcase Bengali architecture and visual art form via a unique initiative called Gate of Joy. Bengali artisans from India create a gate at the door of the Puja using Bengal’s crafts and that depicts Bengal’s culture. In the last few years, we have depicted wooden dolls of Agradwip, Burdwan, patachitra from Nayagram, Pingla, West Midnapore, bamboo work from Kushmandi, South Dinajpur, shola work from Shantiniketan and Chhou mask from Purulia. This year Adda is going to portray the exceptional lighting work of Chandannagar. Amit Shaw, an artist from Chandannagar is creating many lighting works including the gate, Adda nameplate etc. for this. This is already the talk of the town as Adda declared to do this.
Adda’s famous food court serves lip-smacking Bengali and Indian foods to the visitors. Adda’s food court is well known for Kolkata street food like luchi-kochuri, singara, kathi roll, Mughlai paratha, chowmin-chilli chicken, kosha mangsho, various croquettes (chop) and Kolkata biryani. Adda excites its audience with its wide range of comfort foods like mustard hilsa, various fishes and sweet items like rosogolla, pantua, rosmalai or nolen gurer sondesh. Adda is the melting point of two Bengals as well, as we have vendors from Bangladesh too. It provides lot of east Bengal delicacies like famous Kachchi Biryani and various fish items.
Adda receives 15-20,000 crowd every year and is also known for post-Bijoya concerts where it has hosted celebrated musicians like Zubin Garg, Chandrabindoo, Cactuss, Anjan Dutt and this year our main attraction will be Anupam Roy and band on the 4th of Nov. The tickets are already sold out.
Adda is famous for Pandal's interior decoration have represents mini-India. There will be several segments: fine art paintings, art and craft from WB, artifice from Maharashtra, traditional Indian textile and craftsmanship from Punjab cultural representation from Tamil Nadu and many more.
Adda Durga Pujo is about passing on cultural heritage to our children. So not only do they encourage them to participate in cultural activities but also arrange activities that attract them to our Pujo. In previous years Adda had bouncy castles, sit-and-draw competitions, dhak competitions and little star competitions to showcase their talents and make them feel part of our Pujo. This year Adda is taking a step forward and arranging a funfair ride like it happens at the Indian village fair. Funfair ride includes bumper cars, ferries wheel, coursel and waltzes. The aim is to make Pujo memorable and enjoyable for the children and thus ensure they feel it is worthy to pass on to the next generation.
Speaking to Asian Voice about the security of the attendees this year, Prasenjit Bhattacharya of Adda Slough said, “We are compliant with health and safety rules and insurance. Also, we hire security men during the festival.”
