Jodhpur Park 95 Pally Puja in Kolkata will create a dedicated experience for visually impaired visitors this year, allowing them to enter through a separate route and touch parts of the mandap’s artwork as part of the puja’s theme, ‘Tamasalok’, or the journey from darkness towards light.
The organisers said the installation will use Braille to present the puja and will include a sculpture modelled on the form of a Durga idol for visually impaired visitors. The mandap is being designed so that visitors who cannot see the decorations can experience aspects of the installation through touch.
Anupam Panchal, one of the organisers, said in a statement reported by Anandabazar that most people can see the beauty of the world, while visually impaired people are denied that opportunity. The puja, he said, would therefore present its concept through Braille.
“Most mandaps repeatedly warn visitors not to touch anything. We are saying: touch it and experience the puja,” Panchal said, according to the report. The organisers said the interior would contain the main play of light, while visitors would not encounter excessive lighting before entering the mandap.
The separate entrance is intended to make access easier for visually impaired visitors during the puja. The organisers have positioned them as the priority visitors for this year’s installation, shifting the focus from visual spectacle alone to a multisensory experience. The arrangement also makes the mandap’s design accessible through physical interaction rather than observation alone.
Ratan Dey, another organiser, said the year’s central attraction was for people who could not see but experienced beautiful things through their other senses. The comments underline the organisers’ stated effort to adapt a temporary public venue for a group often excluded by conventional event design.
Jodhpur Park 95 Pally Puja is entering its 77th year. Artist Parimal Pal is responsible for the concept and its execution. The organisers have not provided further operational details in the report on the number of visitors expected, the exact Braille content or the accessibility arrangements beyond the separate entrance and tactile elements.
