It was a crisp Saturday afternoon in London. Despite the national rail strike, tube closures and crazy traffic that grind the city to a halt, no one could beat the indomitable spirit of UK’s Bengali community, who gathered to celebrate the first-ever Durga Parade on Thames organised by Heritage Bengal Global (HBG). Coinciding with the Red Road Carnival in Kolkata on 8 October, this was an effort to showcase Bengal’s cultural and social legacy, that won Durga puja the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity crown recently.
On 9 October HBG also participated in Diwali on the Square organised by the Mayor of London.
The Durga Parade on Thames saw Golden Sunrise and an accompanying yacht carrying the Goddess - provided by London’s famous Camden Durga puja. There were cutouts of the protima (idol) from Midlands Bengali Association, Birmingham and Bengali Sanskrit Club of Peterborough as well as Bhowanipur 75 Palli and Bagbazar Sarbojanin pujas in Kolkata. There was a large flex of the landmark pandal of Sreebhumi Sporting Club too.
The main boat carrying the idol was decorated with the traditional Chhou masks and various puja artifacts from Kumortuli (a traditional potters’ quarter in north Kolkata) transforming the boats into mini tableaus of Bengal. Kumortuli artisan Kaushik Ghosh flew down from Kolkata specially to help with the decors of the boats.
Over 200 people participated in the parade. The boat sailed from Millbank Pier to London Eye and back. The Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK, Sujit Ghosh along with representatives of His Majesty’s Armed Forces and FICCI were present on board among other dignitaries.
At the annual Diwali celebration at Trafalgar Square, organised by the office of Mayor of London, the Heritage Bengal Global members put up a grand colourful cultural show, which entailed an ‘Adivasi’ or a tribal cultural programme commemorating India’s first President from the tribal community.
A HBG spokesperson said, “This year’s the back-to-back events of Durga Parade on Thames and Diwali at Trafalgar Square helped us immensely in our endeavour to promote Durga puja and the traditional cultural heritage of Bengal, which should likely put Kolkata on the global tourism map. We wanted to convert the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage tag of Durga Puja to something more tangible to realise its full potential.”
