Durga Puja, established as the largest carnival of the world, is celebrated globally, and specially in West Bengal in India. This event is marked by the visit of Goddess Durga to her own house, i.e. the earth with her 04 children. Few hundreds of community Pujas are organized and in Kolkata, along with a few cities, the theme of the Puja has become extremely important. My friend Arunava Das from Shantiniketan finds the most meaningful Durga Puja in Kolkata and makes it a point to share with all readers of this blog.
This is the celebration of Sobhabazar Ahiritola Sarbojanin Durgotsav and they have dedicated their work to Sonabai Rajawar.
Sonabai Rajawar lives at Puputra village in Sarguja district of Chhattisgarh. As she had no child till tenth years of her marriage she had to face regular insults from her husband’s family and fellow women folk of the village. After ten years at last she gave birth to a boy child and started making toys for him using locally available materials like clay, hay and cow dung. Unconsciously she had developed a new style of doll making which somehow caught the eyes of art lovers. For their initiative within some years Sonabai came into limelight and appreciated by the art critiques across the country. President of India honoured her with a special prize not only for unique creativity but also for her exceptional kind of protest against social injustice to housewives of rural India. Now Sonabai Rajawar is an internationally famed artist, but, still she lives simple life of a careful mother of a growing son at remote Puputra village in Chhatishgarh.
Pictures:
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