As the countdown for Durga Pujo begins on the auspicious occasion of Mahalaya, people are thronging to idol makers to take Ma Durga home.
Trucks full of people line-up in the streets, and people have to carry the deities on their shoulders from the alleyways where they are sculpted to the streets where the trucks are parked.
Mahalaya is the day that the idol makers paint the eyes of Ma Durga, a sign of the completion of the idol.
People offer prayers to their ancestors, with holy water and sesame seed. It is a vedic practice termed 'Tarpana'.
The Quint visited the famous idol makers of Kolkata’s Kumartuli and some idol makers in Delhi to document how they spent their Mahalaya.Two cities apart, some traditions remain the same.
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