Rohan Chowdhury in Paris
While visiting Paris for the first time, most travellers would have the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum high on their must-see list. The Louvre, home to Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, is an iconic landmark. As a person deeply attached to my hometown of Kolkata, I never imagined that a visit to this world-famous museum would evoke memories of the bustling crowds of Kolkata’s Durga Puja.
One leisurely day, while covering the Paris Olympics, my colleagues and I decided to visit the Louvre. As we emerged from the metro station, we were met with streets teeming with people. The crowds didn’t surprise us; we chalked it up to the Louvre’s universal appeal as a major tourist destination.
For me, stepping into the Louvre’s courtyard immediately brought to mind scenes from the film The Da Vinci Code, based on Dan Brown’s novel, where the museum plays a pivotal role in the plot. Unfortunately, the museum was closed that day, so we couldn’t get a glimpse of Mona Lisa or masterpieces like the Madonna of the Rocks, St. John The Baptist and others. However, the 230-year-old architectural marvel of Western art was breathtaking, even from the outside.
The juxtaposition of medieval architecture and the lively crowd of young and old Parisians meandering around sparked an idea in my mind—this could easily be the inspiration for a Kolkata Durga Puja theme pandal. In recent years, some of the larger puja committees in Kolkata have taken to recreating famous monuments and tourist spots as themes for their pandals. The Eiffel Tower and Disneyland have both been featured, but I’m not sure if the Louvre has caught the eye of any puja committee yet.
As we soaked in the historic ambience of the Louvre, a sudden commotion arose. It turned out that a local marathon was passing through the perimeter of the museum, and the gates were promptly closed. Thousands of spectators gathered to cheer on the runners, and we had no idea when the gates would reopen. This unexpected scenario felt eerily familiar—like being caught in the middle of a packed Kolkata puja, with throngs of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, phones in hand, snapping pictures.
After an hour of waiting, we finally found an alternative exit. The slow, crowded shuffle out of the Louvre was strikingly similar to the experience of leaving a popular Kolkata puja pandal—everyone moving at a snail’s pace, tightly packed, hands in pockets, security officials urging the crowd to keep moving.
I couldn’t help but mention to my colleague that this felt just like exiting one of the big pujas in Kolkata—Sreebhumi, Suruchi Sangha, or Deshapriya Park. Perhaps it was homesickness speaking with Puja two months away, but I’m confident that anyone familiar with the crowds at these pujas would relate to the experience. If the Louvre hasn’t yet inspired a Kolkata Durga Puja theme, it surely could in the future, and I’d be thrilled to join the queue, fondly recalling my time in Paris.
Fun fact: A tuktuk, or toto, or whatever you may call it, seeing it outside the Louvre was an added flavour of Kolkata in a distant west.
