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Market Durga Puja Like Rio Carnival: Leander Paes
Swarajya Staff
Sep 14, 2017, 09:22 PM | Updated 09:22 PM IST
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Indian tennis legend Leander Paes said the grandeur of Durga Puja should be marketed globally to make the event as big as the Rio Carnival of Brazil.
“Durga Puja is global celebration in my opinion. I was in New York for the US Open and visited the Indian Embassy, quite a few people who work there are Bengalis. They were all missing Kolkata and were desperate to come back here just for a few days,” the 18-time Grand Slam winner said.
I stayed with a Bengali family in London. They were in Kolkata two weeks ago, there is a big community in Holland that they are a part of. They want to come back here. What I want to say is that Durga Puja is a global celebration. We should market it is as such, something on the lines of Rio Carnival that Brazil has. Yes, the local Brazilians are in the parade, celebrating in song and dance. I am a thoroughbred Kolkatan. I love going to different pandals. But it’s the preparation before the Pujas, the making of the mithai, the decorations, the actual idol itself… There’s so much of culture and history that we have here in West Bengal that can be marketed beautifully.Leander Paes
Paes said the need is to put more emphasis on marketing it because Kolkata is globally well-known.
“...I think it’s a global celebration. Bengalis should go out around the world and celebrate big, globally …as the Bengalis living in other parts of the world become a part of it,” he said.
With inputs from PTI.
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