Deepavali Gift: Retired school teacher, artist paints Alpona outside stranger's house in Kolkata

Ratnaboli Ghosh, 70, a retired schoolteacher, and Mudar Patherya, 59, an artist, hopped between houses in north and south Kolkata in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday with bags full of zinc oxide. , painted “Alpona” (traditional painting). Bengali floor decoration) outside the building.

“Alpona is… an ambassador of art, design and inclusion…they (the residents) may have appreciated Alpona, but their purpose was to send the message that ‘we care’. said Pateria.

The duo stuck to a relatively “neutral” design that wasn’t tied to any particular religion. “If you want to include the world…that’s what you do. Ratnaboli Ghosh was happy to work with us and we were a successful team of two,” Patherya said. Patherya, in particular, kickstarted the trend of painting celebrity portraits on electric boxes in Kolkata.

on Saturday and Sunday, Towards Kali Puja and Deepavalithe duo painted alpona outside at least 20 homes in the city.Alpona is a centuries-old Bengali art form, with the belief that “auspicious” designs bring prosperity and well-being to families. traditionally practiced by women with

Ratnabori Ghosh, a retired teacher. Draw alpona outside the stranger’s house in front of Kalipuja. (Photo credit: Mudar Patherya)

“I have loved making alpona since I was five years old. Traditionally, alpona is made from rice flour and water, but here I used zinc oxide and mixed water with glue. And the design lasts much longer…My mother, Prativa Sengupta, was from Shantiniketan.She was a student of Nandalal Bose at the Bengal School of Art…She was truly a godsend,” Ghosh said. told indianexpress.com.

During these two days, Ghosh and Patelya painted alpona outside 10 houses in North Kolkata and 10 houses in South Kolkata, in areas such as Amherst Street, Shambazar, Lake Gardens and Rabindra Sarovar. They got up early in the morning and finished making alpona by 8:30 am on both days.

Last year, before Deepavali, Ghosh, her 32-year-old daughter, and Paselia were designing Alpona outside an apartment in Paselia’s residential complex after 11 p.m.

“Therefore, when people woke up the next day to see the alpona outside the gate and the pradip (earthen lamp) and greeting cards kept by Mudar, they were very surprised and delighted. Mudar then formed a team and designed Alpona in various locations in Kolkata.

“This time, the people who were awake saw me making alpona and appreciated the gesture. After we finished alpona, many people saw alpona,” said Ghosh. said.

However, there is one big difference between this year and last year. Last year, the duo designed Alpona for people they only knew, but this time Alpona was for total strangers. added Patherya.

“Nobody wakes up at 6:30 am these days. So the idea was to let people see Alpona in the morning when they go out to pick up their newspaper…Woman from Shambazaar saw it when Ratnabori Didi was doing it and said ‘Durdant (wonderful)’,” Patelya said.

“I remember a man who wasn’t very welcoming when he first saw me painting Alpona on his doorstep, but he ended up taking a picture and looking happy,” he said. Ghosh said.

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