photograph of young Prince Kashyap stares out at readers of an English daily in Kolkata; he is yawning as he waits to inaugurate the Durga puja at a pandal in the south of the city.
A six-year-old inaugurating a puja? But before you're very surprised, you must know that this is not any ordinary six-year-old. This is the Boy Who Lived After Falling Down A 50-Foot Borewell. And whose televised rescue became a national reality show.
This is a stroke of pure genius on the part of the organisers, who have ensured maximum publicity for their puja by inviting Prince to do the honours before Maha Shashthi (September 28) sets in and signals the official start of the festival.
This quest for publicity is what has increasingly driven puja organisers in Kolkata to look for more novel themes with each passing year. The more unconventional the theme, the greater a puja's chances of attracting sponsors.
Image: Visitors at a pandal in Kolkata
Reportage: Yajnaseni Chakraborty in Kolkata | Photographs: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
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