This year, you just have to walk into the pandal of Hatibagan Sarbojannin Durgautsav to get a feel of Rome. This Puja committee has chosen the ruins of ancient Rome as their theme.

“Rome is one of the most fascinating ancient civilisations and its architecture has inspired the rest of the world. For us to simply recreate the ancient Roman world is almost an impossible task but what we have tried to create in our small space is a replica of a part of St Peter’s Church,” said Saurav Bose, secretary of the Puja committee.

St Peter’s Church, which is one of the landmarks of the Roman civilisation, has now been re-constructed in this small lane in North Kolkata, something which the organisers claim has never been done before in such grandeur.

“Of course what we have here is not an exact replica as originally the dome is at the back of the church, but we had to construct it in the front to make it look impressive. Apart from that, everything else within the pandal will be a replica of the insides of the church — from the large marble pillars, to the marble busts and the statues,” said Bose.

This year, the Hatibagan Sarbojannin Puja will be celebrating its 75th year and the original plan was to work on a bigger budget, but the organisers said that recession has forced them to slash the budget. “Our original plan was to create the Roman ruins even outside the pandal, but the reduced budget made it difficult to carry out the original plans,” said Bose.

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