In the annual cultural calendar of Kolkata, Durga Puja sits right at the top. Preparations for the autumnal festival begin in the early summer months as artisans begin crafting idols from fistfuls of clay and organisers start hunting for sponsors and workers to erect their mega street spectacles. As the auspicious dates draw near, the city is wrapped in an envelope of bamboo barricades, glittering electronic archways, and hundreds of makeshift fast food stalls. Large organisers vie with each other for advertiser space, as do decades-old hoardings and new electronic screens. The police issue detailed traffic advisories, newspapers print guides and timings of communal rituals, politicians make lists of pujas to inaugurate, and droves of young people return to a city now seen as a poorer cousin to India’s biggest metropolises.