Come September and the countdown for Goddess Durga's "visit" and Durga Puja begins. Chandigarh, too, will witness the annual festival, however, with a shade of difference. For, this year the Goddess' visit to her parents house promises more income for her shilpi, the sculptors.

Khokon Adhikari, coordinator of the shilpis at the Sector 47 Kalibari, explained: "This year we have made the maximum number of murtis ... 48 in all." He's been coming to Chandigarh each year since 1992. At the rate of Rs 2,500 to 3,000 a set (apart from the sculpture of Ma Durga slaying Mahisasur, a set includes the murtis of Ganesha, Kartik, Saraswati and Lakshmi), the sculptures this season would net between Rs 1,20,000 and Rs 1,44,000.

The credit of giving Chandigarh its own Durga murtis rests with Adhikari's father, a some-two-decade-old story. Today, Adhikari has made it a mini-industry, bringing in skilled workers from his native village, Joynagar, South 24 Parganas in West Bengal. For these workers the annual visit to the city is pure manna. Each one of them can hope to return to his village richer by Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 after a three to four month stint of hard work shaping beautiful figurines of the Mother and her children.Says Chandicharan Haldar: "The lumpsum that we collect from here helps us meet some of our urgent needs back home," like renovating their huts, procuring the basic necessities or even purchasing raw materials for their trade.

Another sculptor, Parikhit Sardar, has already taken an advance from Adhikari, yet hopes to return to Joynagar with enough money to help him keep body and soul together for monts that follow.

Then, is it only the money incentive that brings these shilpis from the interiors of Bengal? Not so, if Bapi Adhikari is to be believed. He proudly discloses that murtis made in Chandigarh become the centrepoints of Durga Pujas in Patiala, Udhampur, Avantipur, Ambala, and other places in Punjab and even Srinagar. "The murtis are priced lower here than in Calcutta, but it's our work that can be seen in theNorth."Coordinator Khokon Adhikari has altogether a different story to tell. He has been in the city for the past 22 years and has carried on the family trade along with his uncle. In no way does the Rs 25,000 to 30,000 he earns annually by making murtis of gods of the Indian pantheon adequately compensate the skill that he puts in. But there's always the Plus Factor for him. So, with the plain rice and dal there's always this delicacy called "contentment" to savour.

"All for the age-old family tradition," says Adhikari.