Kolkata, Sept. 28 -- As the city dons its festive finery for this year's Durga Puja, a striking theme has emerged, one that turns the city's gaze back to the silent sentinels of its riverbanks, the ghats of Hoogly.
Hatibagan Sarbojanin being one of the major puja committees in north Kolkata has chosen a theme titled 'Atho Ghat Kotha: An Unfolding Enigma,' the pandal draws attention to the Hoogly River ghats, once bustling centres of ritual, preference and daily life, now quietly receding from public memory.
The phrase 'Atho Ghat Kotha' draws from Rabindranath Tagore's 1884 short story "The Ghat's Story' (Ghater Kotha), in which a ghat narrates the tragic love of young woman, Kusum, tracing her hopes, heartbreak and ultimate emotional decl...