Durga Parade brings Bengal’s Bhatiyali to London’s Thames

After the huge success of the inaugural Thames Durga Parade in 2022 UK based Heritage Bengal Global, a not-for-profit Organisation comprised of Bengali diaspora mostly with roots in Bengal, India celebrated this year’s second edition of ‘Thames Durga Parade’ on 28 October with a double storied boat and a larger audience than the last year. The Durga protima was sailed downstream through an open Tower Bridge, from Blackfriars pier to Canary Wharf to Waterloo and back to the loud cheers of, “Durga ma Ki jai” and sounds of dhaak (drum) and kansor ghonta (cymbal), replicating the emotions of the Red Road Carnival in Kolkata organised by CM Mamata Banerjee.  The event saw over 230 members of the diaspora on board some who had flown in to London only for this, from as far as from Australia as well as India. In attendance was globe trotter, author and influencer Indranil Halder, from Sydney, who visited Durga pujas in the US and UK over past one month before the finale on Thames Parade. It was also attended by dignitaries such as the current British Deputy High Commissioner (DHC) to Kolkata Dr Andrew Fleming and the outgoing British DHC to Kolkata Nick Low, along with members of Armed Forces, Royal Air Force and local Mayors and Councillors. Noted Tollywood actor-turned-filmmaker Soumyajit Majumdar was also present.Working on the Kolkata London bonding, this year’s parade also saw the launch of the centenary celebrations of Calcutta Rowing Club (CRC) - an event to be held in Kolkata, in November, supported by London Rowing Club (LRC). On the HBG boat- members of CRC and LRC symbolically flagged off the Kolkata event on Thames, making it a unique Indo British experience.The event also saw Bhatiyali (river folk songs mostly sung by boatsmen) live singing, first time on river Thames by the famous Saurav Moni, as the audience joined him and danced to his beautiful music. HBG President Anirban Mukhopadhyay, who started this Durga parade on Thames last year (2022) said, “Last year we started this Parade with one boat and this year we have doubled the participation with actual Durga idol display on the deck celebrating the final journey of Ma Durga to her husband’s abode on Dashami with culmination of the Bijoya Dashami (final day of the puja) celebration. We are not far from the days when we would have more boats on the Thames parade, to fulfil our objective of attracting more local people to watch this extravaganza, so to be inspired to visit Bengal during this annual festival in India thus to boost inward tourism into Kolkata and Bengal as the destination.” A separate boat was organised by Camden Durga Puja (London Durgotsav Committee) which witnessed Kojagori Lakshmi Pujo on board for the first time in history.