Everyone in Kolkata this year seemed armed with phones. Going from one puja to another, they clicked away to glory, looking at the idols of Durga, her children and Mahishasur, only through the cameras. In the process, they held up the long queues behind them, created bottlenecks and even safety hazards that are the nightmare of organisers and police personnel. An officer at Selimpur, another famous puja in south Kolkata said the single-most overwhelming challenge this year was getting people to move on, instead of standing and taking pictures in front of the idols.
Premeditating the problem from past experience, Kolkata Police banned selfies in front of the idols this year. As The Times of India reported on September 10, the police had asked the organisers not to allow revellers to take selfies with the idols as their backdrop. If the organisers were keen to allow people to take pictures of themselves, they would have to create special "selfie zones" at spots that would not obstruct the entrance or exit. A good plan, without any doubt, because India earned the dubious distinction of recording the largest number of selfie-related deaths in 2015. According to a report in The Washington Post, "India may have a selfie-loving prime minister, Narendra Modi, but Indians in general seem to be bad at selfie safety. Of at least 27 'selfie related' deaths around the world last year, about half occurred in India."
But banning selfies, it seems, was not enough. For, cellphones are ubiquitous, as are pocket cameras, tablets and a thousand other devices that allow one to capture pictures. And, everyone fancies themselves as a photographer. Of course, the beauty of pandals competing with each other for attention through newer and more startling innovations in design and decor would be tempting to capture for posterity. Perhaps, one can better appreciate the artistic innovations in "theme" pujas in the comfort of one's drawing room, in HD pictures. As art historian Tapati Guha Thakurta, in her book In the Name of the Goddess: Durga Pujas of Contemporary Kolkata writes, the "mega consumerist carnival" is a "city-wide street exhibition". Now, it is less about devotion and more about the show, often designed by professionals. Ms Guha Thakurta writes: "The design concept covers the puja in its entirety: The pandal structure, the image of the goddess, the outer environment and decor, the colour, the lighting and now, often, even the music which is theme-produced by the… designer in collaboration with a music composer."
Yet, this hardly explains the propensity among visitors to keep clicking away, almost oblivious to the discomfort they were causing to other and the hazards they were exposing themselves to in the process. Also, does one really appreciate the art through the cellphone screens? As Susan Sontag writes in her book-length essay, On Photography, "Photography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation." Describing tourists and their compulsive photography, Sontag writes: "Most tourists feel compelled to put the camera between themselves and whatever is remarkable that they encounter. Unsure of other responses, they take a picture." In other words, photography is a process of familiarising oneself with the unfamiliar. But for visitors to Durga Puja pandals, taking photographs is the exact opposite: Exoticising the familiar.
Through cellphone camera, brightly, gods and goddesses, animals and demons, are transformed from the familiar myth to tech-age memory. Till next year, when we have newer idols, newer designs, and newer cellphones.
Postscript
As far as familiarising the unfamiliar was concerned, the Durga Puja at FE Block in Salt Lake, the satellite township to the east of Kolkata, took the cake. The organisers got people from the Asur community - who claim to be descendants of Mahisashur - from the Sakhuapani district of Jharkhand to perform at their pandal. Their surname and their disdain for the goddess who slays their ancestor has isolated them and put them on the fringes. But, now, members of the community wish to be accepted by the larger society, without compromising their identity. Even as they played their madools and sang and danced at the pandal, it looked like the perfect opportunity to take a selfie - or that being banned, a perfect subject for the amateur auteurs.
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