The Inadequacies of Bob-the-Builder [Lily]

Durga Puja is coming up. It lasts ten days. Too bad Christmas doesn’t. Lucky Indians! Well; Durga Puja is the biggest Bengali holiday of the year; celebrating the Indian goddess, Durga. She has ten arms that hold all these magical weapons and she rides around on a lion.

Anyway, around town, they have been setting up these buildings that are called pandals. A pandal is the guest house of Durga while she’s staying in India. Well, it’s like, amazing to see how these things are built! The structure is huge bamboo poles all tied together with rope. Then cloth is draped over them. But don’t think these are that simple. I mean, some pandals are huuuge, and they’re elaborately decorated. And they’re hand made!! I’d like to see Bob-the-Builder do that. I bet he can’t.

The idols that go in pandals are also very elaborate. First, bamboo is used to create a skeleton for the idol. Next, straw, rope and string are used to shape it. The clay is put on in three steps. First, thin, watery clay is used to fill in the cracks in the straw. Next, extremely fine clay is carefully put on, leaving no bumps. When that is almost dry, a very thin layer of clay is applied. It fills in any cracks that were created while drying. When all the clay is dry, the idol is painted with a white earth color. Then, pink or yellow earth colors are painted on. Finally, a red blood earth color is applied. The head artist paints on the eyes and other details, before the idol is varnished. Black yarn is glued on for hair. The final step is dressing the idol in fancy clothing and decorating it with jewels, glitter, and jewelry.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get some good pictures of the Durga Puja festivities to put on the blog. Especially pictures of the pandals and idols.