Every year when Durga Puja approaches, a certain Kumortuli in Kolkata is thrown into frenzy. Kumortuli is the land of artisans in North Kolkata. They supply the idols to most of the pujas. Making the idols of Goddess Durga, along with Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswati and Lords Ganesha and Kartikeya is a daunting task in itself. For the entire puja to be auspicious, the idols need to be created with the right mixture of punya mati or blessed soil. Source: The Hindu

Mud from the banks of Ganges, cow dung and cow urine and a handful of soil from the nishiddho pallis or forbidden territories go into making that blessed mixture. So, where does one find this auspicious soil from a nishiddho palli?


From Sonagachi.

Source: Mukti Village

For the uninitiated, Sonagachi is Asia's largest red-light area, which is located in Kolkata. The area contains several hundred multi-storied buildings with an estimated 11,000 sex workers.

Every sex worker is cooped up in an abysmally small room. The rooms there are ill-lit and dingy, the walls stained and the living conditions dismal. But that is the better hand the sex workers have been dealt in life.

Source: The Guardian