Spurred by the discriminatory gaze they are subjected to during pandal visits and in an attempt to marginalise transgender community in Puja celebrations, Udyami Yubak Brinda Durga Puja committee from Kolkata is all set to scale new heights.
For the first time in the history of Durga Puja, people will worship a transgender Durga idol that has been inspired from Shiva’s Ardhanarishvara – a mythological and cultural concept of both male and female powers needed for creation of the universe.
Yes, you read that right.
The Pratyay Gender Trust, in association with the local club, will organise this year’s puja at Joy Mitra Street, near Sovabazaar in north Kolkata, with the message that humanity surpasses all divides, including gender.
One half of the idol has a moustache, a pectoral instead of a breast, smaller eyelashes, and a dhoti (traditional male garment). The other half is the female Durga idol which is usually seen at Puja pandals.
Udyami Yubak Brinda Durga Puja committee has been celebrating Durga Puja for 27 years now, but it is the first time that the association has inducted into its working committee a host of individuals from the transgender women community.
The Puja celebrations will be inaugurated with a ‘Jatra’ (a form of folk-theatre) performance by the troupe of senior transgender artist Manorama Kinnar on October 18.
With an estimated budget of Rs 1.50 lakhs, the group has also started a fundraising drive on Facebook, inviting donations from the public, in order to secure a sound financial base to this first-of-its-kind initiative.
The Ardhanarishvara Durga is possibly the first such idol in the 300-year-old history of Durga pujas in Bengal.