Kolkata gives fitting tribute to UNESCO’s Durga Puja recognition; “Never seen such enthusiasm,” said UNESCO rep
UNESCO’s giving Kolkata’s Durga Puja the status of an ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ was celebrated with a big and colourful rally today. Organised by the Bengal government, it started from Jorasanko Thakurbari (ancestral house of the Tagore family, including Rabindranath Tagore) and culminated at Red Road. Similar rallies to thank UNESCO were organised in all the districts of the state.
A colourful song-and-dance programme, followed by a felicitation ceremony, were staged at the concluding point of the rally in Kolkata. Among those presented mementos were Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, two senior UNESCO officials (Eric Falt, UNESCO Representative for the UNESCO New Delhi Cluster Office and Tim Curtis, Secretary of UNESCO’s 2003 International Cultural Heritage Convention), who had come specially for the rally, and Tapati Guha Thakurta, a professor in history at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, who was the person who prepared the dossier on Durga Puja in Kolkata, which was presented to UNESCO by the Indian government in support of the nomination of Durga Puja.
Eric Falt was ecstatic. “I did not expect anything so big. We will report back to our headquarters is Paris. I have never seen such enthusiasm. We will come for pre-puja celebration and during Durga Puja. We are already working with Bengal MSMEs,” he said at the ceremony, following his felicitation.
