Dakshindari Youth Durga Puja in South Dum Dum — devoted to acid assault survivors
Kolkata’s streets and the pursuit of love throughout Durga Puja are lower from the identical material, a cloth of probability and inevitability. Every flawed flip would possibly open like a trapdoor — into an ornate, never-seen-before pandal, or into the orbit of a stranger whose look lingers a heartbeat too lengthy within the bhog (providing) queue. The newness of the season feels conspiratorial: the joys of a primary encounter or a superbly timed meet cute. Or on Navami, when the smoke of Sandhi Puja coils across the fading festivities, there’s a lingering ache, a reminder of a love that by no means fairly blossomed. By Dashami, because the goddess herself departs for her sojourn, one would possibly even be ghosted by the Hinge date who promised a lot.
For generations, Durga Puja has been greater than a competition. It has been Kolkata’s most democratic stage for social life, an area the place younger males and ladies exchanged glances at Maddox Square, or struck up conversations underneath the neon lights of Ballygunge Cultural. It was, in some ways, Bengal’s authentic social community, its first courting app even.
Dum Dum Tarun Dal pandal
The metropolis has modified, and the pandals with it — easy buildings now reborn as spectacles match for a biennale however the pulse stays. Parents who as soon as discovered love in puja golf equipment have kids who swipe proper earlier than stepping out to hop pandals. Courtship has shifted from adda to algorithm, but pujo stays Kolkata’s canvas for encounters each previous and new.
“I remember seeing him for the first time at a pujo pandal,” remembers 57-year-old Anisha Shaw (identify modified), who met her husband, Ashish Basu (identify modified), at Shib Mandir’s puja pandal in 1996. “Pujo was simpler then. We friends circled around the pandal for hours of adda (conversation), helped with the bhog, ferried buckets of water, and fried beguni (aubergine fritters) in giant kadhais (utensils). Someone’s cousin would be sent running to Gariahat to fetch more mustard oil or kasundi (mustard). It was that kind of Pujo. Ashish and I kept running into each other. A year later, we were married.”
Mishka Basu
In distinction, Anisha’s daughter, 27-year-old sous chef Mishka Basu (identify modified), met her fiancé on Bumble in 2024. Their romance started with a proper swipe and a primary date at AM PM on Park Street. Where their dad and mom’ love story unfolded between alpanas and serving tables, theirs started in an app’s chat window.
Algorithms earlier than anjali (prayers)
“So in your world, multiplication is the same as division?” That was the primary line 29-year-old engineer Arpan Majumdar despatched to 26-year-old IT-healthcare skilled Sailanki Nandy on Tinder — a witty reference to her microbiology background. “In cell biology, ‘division’ is when a parent cell splits into two daughter cells, which actually multiplies their number,” she explains. “I melted right then,” Sailanki laughs. “I’d chatted with so many boys, but no one bothered to write something clever like that. Now people use AI-generated lines.”
Sailanki had dabbled in courting apps like Bumble and OkCupid throughout faculty, logging in “for a bit of validation” and deleting them after a number of days. But within the lengthy, lonely months of COVID-19 in 2020, she determined to provide Tinder a critical strive.
A younger lady poses for footage at a Durga Puja pandal, themed on the ‘Maha Alaye Maa’, in Kolkata
| Photo Credit:
Manvender Vashist Lav
“Arpan was staying at his sister’s house in Jadavpur, and I was in Behala. He’s from Barrackpore, but our radii overlapped, and we matched,” she remembers.
Durga Puja, she says, has at all times held deep which means. “I grew up in a joint family. Puja meant cousins coming back to the city followed by loud, festive days.” Their first pujo collectively was in 2021. “We planned to meet on Ashtami — me in a sari, him in a panjabi (kurta). But he got food poisoning on Saptami. I told him to rest, but that night he insisted, ‘Chol, North Kolkata te thakur dekhte jai’ – let’s go see the pandals in North Kolkata. I thought he was crazy. He travelled from Barrackpore despite being unwell, just so we could meet. We queued for one big pandal, but I said, ‘If you need a loo break, we’ll be stuck in a sea of people!’ So we ducked into a café nearby, sitting close to the restroom, laughing about it.”
On Dashami morning they lastly went pandal-hopping in South Kolkata, and afterward Arpan got here house to satisfy her household. “That was our first Pujo together,” she says.
“He is the kindest person I’ve ever met — so genuine. His Tinder opening line still makes me smile silly. Next year we are getting married. This Pujo we will be back in Kolkata to talk about our wedding,” Sailanki provides.
User behaviour
Speaking about courting patterns in the course of the festive season, Chandni Gaglani, Indian courting app Aisle’s head of enterprise observes clear “pre- and post festival” waves. “We see intense intent setting,” she explains. “People update bios, refine filters, even tweak distance or language preferences to short list matches before celebrations begin. Usage frequency spikes, then dips once Durga Puja is in full swing, when everyone is absorbed in family and community. After the festival, there’s a beautiful reflection period.”
Chandni notes that social, community-driven festivals exert a really completely different pull than international events reminiscent of Valentine’s Day. “These moments are deeply cultural and rooted in belonging,” she says. “They tap into something fundamental about identity and community.”
Kolkata, she provides, sees the very best feminine participation on the courting app. “The city has always had a romantic, intellectual culture where relationships are treated as serious endeavours. We see that in how thoughtfully users craft profiles and conversations,” remarks Chandni.
Aisle’s customers vary from ages 18 to 50, however the largest group is the 26 to 35 demographic most inclined towards long run dedication. “This cohort has typically moved away from their hometowns, established careers, and now seeks meaningful partnerships on their own terms,” Chandni explains.
On the expertise facet, she emphasises that Aisle’s algorithm “takes signals from user activity and adapts accordingly, but the choice and control always remain with our users.” The app’s For You part is curated not simply by age or location, she says, however by “shared values and interests. Such signals raise the odds of real compatibility rather than simply showing everyone who fits broad criteria.”
Raja Ravi Varma impressed pandal in Tricone Park
Across Age Groups
Thirty-eight-year-old Purnendu Guha (identify modified), a reporter in Kolkata, has been utilizing courting apps since 2020, a 12 months after his divorce.
“Being a reporter, I don’t have enough time to go out on dates, and I can’t really date people from my workplace,” he says. “But meeting someone during pujo is different. Across those five days, I get to interact with the person thoroughly, see how they respond to art, how they interact with people, handle money while buying from vendors, and if they’re checking other people out,” he laughs.
“For me, pujo makes dating safer too since it’s all in public spaces. I have been doing this every year since 2020. No encounter has culminated into a relationship yet, but I’ve made good friends who share my values and my interest in art. When you meet someone in a café, the time is short, and the conversation stays on the surface. But during pujo, with longer hours and constant brushes with culture and art, I find both of us open up more.”
This 12 months, he already has a plan. “I’m meeting my date at a Raja Ravi Varma themed pandal in Tricone Park,” he says, smiling. “I already have butterflies!”
Speaking of how pujo has modified, 33-year-old software program engineers Kaustav and Arjoyita Banerjee recall a distinct time. The two started courting in 2010 after sparking a romance on Orkut.
“Back then, you could actually stand in front of a pandal and take it all in,” Kaustav says. “Now it’s near stampede crowds, you barely get a moment to look at the decorations, let alone meet someone new.” After a decade of courting and six years of marriage, the couple now prefers internet hosting a home celebration throughout pujo as an alternative of braving the crush exterior.
A way of anonymity nonetheless issues, says Megha Palit, a 34-year-old occasion planner and lesbian who meets ladies principally by means of courting apps. “Hinge is where the first hello happens,” she explains, “but pujo is where you find out if the chemistry is real. You can wander Maddox Square at midnight, hold someone’s hand, and no one knows whether you’re just friends or something more.”
She remembers her faculty years, lengthy earlier than swipes and matches, when Durga Puja was the one place she may threat a cheeky flirtation with one other lady. “It’s crowded, anonymous, and oddly protective,” she says. “The city is so busy worshipping the goddess it forgets to police you. Even now, after we’ve matched online, that’s where I take a date first. In the middle of the lights and the dhak, you can breathe and maybe fall a little in love.”
Sreejita and Aditya
Sreejita Chakraborty, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, and her 32-year-old husband, Aditya Sengupta, a gross sales strategist, met on Tinder in 2021.
“Being a Bengali who grew up in Delhi, pujo for me always meant four packed days at CR Park,” Aditya says.
“Sreejita is from Kolkata and my first pujo with her was so special,” remembers Aditya. After their marriage, he remembers a second that stayed with him, “As our flight descended upon the Kolkata skyline, the bright lights below felt like they were speaking to me.”
Over the years, as their relationship deepened, Pujo has taken on a richer which means. “It’s not just about romantic love,” he says. “Now it’s about wheeling my 90-year-old grandmother through the pandals, because the joy of discovering new pandals and appreciating the artistry of each means little unless it’s shared with family,” smiles Aditya.
Kolkata has at all times left its doorways ajar for thriller and awe to wander in. Durga Puja takes the guts of its individuals and blurs the vary of immersive experiences every year. The goddess comes and goes however leaves behind a thousand small awakenings. Apps could begin the dialog now, however the true magic nonetheless occurs underneath these stressed, fevered nights when Kolkata forgets itself and remembers need.
Girls click on a selfie
| Photo Credit:
ANI
