Dakshin Durga Durga Puja in South Dum Dum – Dedicated to Acid Attack Survivors
The discovery of love during the streets of Kolkata and Durga Puja is cut off with the same cloth, a cloth of chance and imperative. Every wrong turn can open like a mesh-in a ornate, never seen pandal, or in a stranger orbit, in the eyes of a stranger, a heartbeat becomes too long Indulgence (Offered) queue. The newness of the season seems conspiracy: the thrill of the first encounter or a completely cute is found on time. Or on Navami, when smoke Romantic worship The coil around the fading festival is a dull pain, reminiscent of a love that never blooms. By Dashami, as the goddess leaves herself for her grief, anyone can be ghostly from the date of the Kaja who promised so much.
For generations, Durga Puja has been more than a festival. It has been the most democratic platform of Kolkata for social life, a place where young men and women looked at Madox Square, or interacted under the neon light of Balliganj cultural. It was also in many ways, the original social network of Bengal, its first dating app.
Dum Dum Tarun Dal Pandal
The city has changed, and the pandals with it – simple structures are now fit for a biennial in the form of rebirth, but the pulse remains. Parents who once found love in Pooja clubs are their children who swipe the right before exiting the hop pandals. Has been transferred from courtship Add a For the algorithm, yet Pujo remains the canvas of Kolkata to face both old and new.
“I remember looking at him for the first time in a Pujo Pandal,” 57 -year -old Anisha Shaw (name changed), who met her husband, Ashish Basu (name changed), in 1996 in the puja pandal of Shib temple. “Pujo was simple then. We used to roam around Pandal for friends for hours. Add a (Conversation), helped with IndulgenceWater bucket, and fried Start (Obergine fritters) in huge Kadhais (Utensil). Parahat will be run to bring more mustard oil to someone’s cousin or Kasundi (Mustard). It was that kind of pujo. Ashish and I kept running in each other. A year later, we were married. ,
Mishka Basu
In contrast, Anisha’s daughter, 27 -year -old Sous Chef Mista Basu (name changed), met her fiance on Bumble in 2024. His romance began with a perfect swipe and the first date in the AM PM on Park Street. Where the love story of his parents came to the fore Alpunas And the table serving, his app started in the chat window.
Elgorithm before Anjali (prayer)
“So in your world, the multiplication is similar to division?” The first line was 29-year-old engineer Arpan Majumdar, who was sent to 26-year-old IT-Health professional Cylaki Nandi on Tinder-a funny reference to his microbiology background. “In cell biology, ‘division’ occurs when a parent cell is divided into two daughter cells, which actually multiply their number,” she explains. “I then melted,” laughed. “I used to talk with so many boys, but no one bothered to write something clever. Now people use AI-related lines.”
Sailanki dubbed in dating apps like Bumble and Okcupid during college, logged into “for a little verification” and removed them after a few days. But in 2020, in the long, alone months of Kovid -19, he decided to give Tinder a serious effort.
A young woman poses for pictures in a Durga Puja pandal, which was given the theme on ‘Maha Alai Maya’ in Kolkata: Manvender Vashist Lav
“Arpan was living in Jadavpur at his sister’s house, and I was in Behala. He is from Barrackpore, but our ready overlap, and we match,” she misses.
Durga Puja, she says, always has a deep meaning. “I grew up in a joint family. Pooja meant that cousins ​​were coming back to the city, after which loud, festive days.” Their first Pujo was together in 2021. “We plan to meet EighthMe – me in a sari, her in one PunjabI (kurta). But they got food poisoning SaptamiI asked him to rest, but that night he insisted, ‘Chola, North Kolkata Te Thakur Dekhte Jai‘ – Let’s look at the pandals in North Kolkata. I thought he was crazy. He traveled from Barrackpore despite being unwell, we could just meet. We queued up for a big pandal, but I said, ‘If you need a heat break, we will be trapped in the sea!’ So we ducked in a cafe nearby, sitting close to the toilet, laughing about it. ,
But Dashami In the morning he finally went to Pandal-Hoping in South Kolkata, and later Arpan came home to meet his family. “She was together our first Pujo,” she says.
“He is the most kind person I have ever got – so real. His tinder opening line still makes me foolish. Next year we are getting married. This Pujo we will come back to Kolkata to talk about our wedding.”
User behavior
Speaking about dating patterns during the festive season, Chandni Gaglani, the Indian dating app, clarify the “East and Post Festival” waves of the business of Iceley. “We see intensive intentions settings,” she explains. “People update the BIOS, refine the filter, even tweek distance or language preferences before starting short list matches.
Chandni noted that social, community-operated festivals draw very differently than global opportunities such as Valentine’s Day. “These moments are deeply cultural and vested in belonging,” she says. “They tap in some original about identity and community.”
Kolkata, she adds, sees the highest female participation on the dating app. Chandni said, “The city always has a romantic, intellectual culture, where relationships are considered as serious efforts. We see how users are explained that users have profiles and conversations.”
Iceley users range from 18 to 50 years of age, but the largest group is 26 to 35 demographic, which is the most inclined towards long -term commitment. “This cohort has generally moved away from its hometown, establishes a career, and now wants a meaningful partnership on its terms,” ​​says Chandni.
On the technology side, she emphasizes that the algorithm of the isal “indicates and optimized accordingly, but the choice and control is always with our users.” App For you The section is not only curated from age or location, she says, but “from shared values ​​and interests. Such signs increase the obstacles of real compatibility rather than only to show to everyone that fits wide norms.”
Raja Ravi Verma inspires Pandal in Tricon Park
Across age groups
A reporter in Kolkata, Thirty -eight -year -old Purnandu Guha (name changed), has been using a dating app since 2020, a year after his divorce.
“As a reporter, I don’t have enough time to go out on dates, and I can’t really date people from my workplace,” they say. “But meeting someone during Pujo is different. During those five days, I get to interact well with the person, see how they respond to art, how they interact with people, handle money when buying sellers, and if they are checking other people,” he says laughing.
“For me, Pujo has made dating safe even after being in public places. I have been doing this every year since 2020. No encounter has ended in a relationship yet, but I have made good friends who share my values ​​and share my interest in art. When you meet someone in one cafe, time is reduced, time is reduced, and with interactions -with conversation
This year, they already have a plan. “I am completing my date from my date at Tricon Park at a king Ravi Verma Themed Pandal,” he says smiling. “I already have butterflies!”
Talking about how Pujo has changed, 33 -year -old software engineers Kaustav and Ariozita Banerjee remember a different time. The two started dating after romancing the Orkut in 2010.
“So back, you can actually stand in front of a pandal and take it all in,” Kaustava says. “Now this is near a stampede crowd, you barely get a moment to see the decoration, let me meet someone alone.” After a decade dating and six years of marriage, couple now prefer to host a house party during Pujo, rather than breaking the crush out.
A 34 -year -old event planner and lesbian Megha Palit still says, the feeling of oblivion still matters, which mostly meets women through dating apps. “Hing is the place where the first hello is,” she states, “but Pujo is the place where you find out if chemistry is real. You can wander the Madox square at midnight, wander someone’s hand, and no one knows if you are just friends or anything else.”
She recalls her college years, long before swipe and matches, when Durga Pooja was the only place where she could love another woman. “It is crowded, anonymous and strangely protective,” she says. “The city is so busy that she is worshiping the goddess. It forgets you for the police. Still, when we match online, I first take a date. Between the lights and covers, in the middle of the light and the covered, you can breathe and probably fall in love.”
Shreejita and Aditya
The 28 -year -old entrepreneur, Shreejita Chakraborty, and her 32 -year -old husband, Aditya Sengupta, met a sales strategist, at Tinder in 2021.
“Being a Bengali, who grew up in Delhi, Pujo, for me, always meant four packed days in CR Park,” Aditya says.
“Shreejita is from Kolkata and my first Pujo with me was very special,” Aditya remembers. After their marriage, he recalls a moment, who stayed with him, “As soon as our flight came on Kolkata Khitij, the shiny light below felt as if he was talking to me.”
Over the years, such as their relationship deepened, Pujo took a rich meaning. “It’s not just about romantic love,” he says. “Now this is about the wheel through the pandals to my 90 -year -old grandmother, because the joy of searching for new pandals and appreciating each artistry until it is shared with the family, it is very low.”
Kolkata has always left his doors Azar for a mystery and is afraid of wandering. Durga Puja takes the hearts of her people and stains the boundary of immersive experiences every year. The goddess comes and leaves but leaves a thousand small awakening behind. Apps can now start interaction now, but real magic still occurs under those restless, feverish nights when Kolkata forgets itself and remembers the desire.
Girls click a selfie. Photo Credit: Annie