Best Pujas get Times honours

KOLKATA: For Sweta Sarkar and D.K. Mukhopadhyay of Mainak Apartment on AC Avenue, Friday was a red letter day. And one they won’t forget in a hurry. Neither will Atanu Kr Das of the Alkapuri apartment on Ballygunge Circular Road. They were some of the awardees whose pujo had won Times of India Pujo Barir Shera Pujo awards.
It was the final call for the winners but one that will linger in their minds for a long time.The competition was organised in association with the National Insurance company.
It was a star spangled night, with a host of Tollywood stars descending on Science City Auditorium in the evening. Busloads of enthusiastic winners of the various categories of the award started arriving early, excitement and happiness writ large on their faces. The women had come dressed in their best, the men mostly in silk dhoti kurtas. The stage too had been decorated richly to bring back memories of the festivities we have just left behind. Budhadeb Guha, the chief guest, came dressed in his by now trademark red kurta.
A total of 257 apartments had participated this year. Golf Green Urban complex (II, V, VI) won the first prize in Category I while Digantika Abasani Salt Lake walked away with the second prize. In Category II, Vaijayanti, Lake Gardens received the first prize, while Mainak of AC Avenue were placed in the second category.
The guests who came in to give away the awards were Arindam Sil, Arunima Ghosh, Deboleena Dutt, Gargi Roy Chowdhury, June Maliah, Koneenica Banerjee, Mandakranta Sen, Nelanjana Bhowmick, Piu Sarkar, Sreelekha Mitra, Subhashis Mukherjee and Tanima Sen.
For Subimal Chaki of Nimta housing estate, Belghoria, receiving the Judges’ award in category I from actress Nelanjana Bhowmik was indeed a special moment in his life.
The large audience that had turned up for the programme were in for a good time with performers Pratik Chowdhury and Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta rendering some of their most popular numbers. Lopamudra Mitra was the other performer but a bad throat at the last minute made her cancel the programme. But Mitra did come on stage and apologise to the audience for her failure to perform.