Durga Puja 2007

Durga Puja 2007, or the five day Durga Puja festival honouring the Goddess Durga, was celebrated with vigour from 2007-10-17 (ষষ্টী, shashthi) to 2007-10-21(দশমী, dashami), all over the lands where Hindu Bengali and other Eastern Indian peoples live. As usual, Kolkata was the epicentre with a large number of pandals competing for attention.

Legal Wrangles

Leading up to the Pujas, the matter of possible copyright violations by Pandal designers was highlighted when the publishers of Harry Potter in India, Penguin India, sued the FD Block puja committee in Salt Lake, Kolkata, over their pandal (marquee) which was designed to resemble the Hogwarts Castle. The suit claimed a fine of 25,000 pounds or 2 million Rupees but was eventually thrown out by Delhi High Court, subject to certain conditions.

Tragedy

On the second day of the Pujas, mahashaptami night, the pandal at pocket-40, Chittaranjan Park in Delhi was burnt to the ground around 4 a.m. on 2007-10-19. The fire originated from the kitchen area, and electrical short-circuit is a possible cause. There were no casualties.

Gallery of Pandal images 2007

<gallery>Image:5433g suruchi gate crowds.jpg|Durga Puja pandal by Suruchi Sangha, in New Alipore, Kolkata, adopting the Gurjari handicraft style of Western Gujarat. This pandal, which has consistently won awards in the last few years, won the......
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