Saraswati Puja 2025

“Namo Saraswati mahabhaage

Vidye kamalalochane

Vishwarupe vishalakshmi

Vidyangdehi namostute”

– Excerpt from the Saraswati Pranaam Mantra.

Invoking her divine aura on the auspicious occasion of Vasant Panchami, The Bhawanipur Education Society College venerated the Goddess Saraswati during Saraswati puja 2025, held on the 3rd of February 2025 with more than 700 students. Everyone dressed in their best ethnic wear, came together to celebrate a day dedicated to the goddess of knowledge, language, music, and all art forms. Beginning at 10:00 A.M., the ceremony stretched for an hour and a half, concluding at 11:30 A.M. Before the activities commenced, a crowd of students and teachers gathered in the Valia Hall for the pooja archana that began at 8:30 A.M. The archana was a devout ceremony that ended with the Aarti and followed by the Prasad distribution.

The latter half of the day continued on the Turf premises, where members of the governing body of BESC joined the audience to witness a few performances and observe participants taking part in the ‘Conch Shell Blowing’ competition as well as ‘Shlok Recitation’ competition. First in line was a performance by student Aritri Banerjee who sang “Modhuro dhwoni baaje” as a form of Vandana, praising the goddess, and setting the tone for the day. Up next, the Classical dance team of the Collective of Flames took the stage and presented a 10-minute performance that was an aesthetic delight. With the performers clearing the stage, it was time for the ‘Shlok Recitation’ competition, where 6 participants chanted shlokas, sourced from the ancient Hindu scriptures. The winner of this competition Manu Kumar Gupta, in second place, was Prof. Nitin Chaturvedi while the third position was won by Prof. Devina Gupta. Keeping up with traditions, the Rector and Dean of Student Affairs, Prof Dilip Shah along with members from the management felicitated 40 out of the 70 Professors present in the ‘Saraswati Samman’, a form of recognition offered by BESC to their educators who either completed their Ph.D. in the previous year or published a book, article, or research paper with the college’s name. The second competition of ‘Conch Shell Blowing’ began after the teachers’ felicitation and awakened the presence of the goddess. The winners of this competition were Manisha Shah, Muskan Kothari, and Prof. Sampa Sinha Basu who came 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The day ended with the distribution of the Mahabhog. Simultaneously, many students enjoyed the DJ setup that was made available on the Turf and ended their day on a high note with cheerful music.

REPORTER – Aniket Dasgupta

PHOTOGRAPHER – Sanika Shaw, Aditya Saraf, Gourav Chowdhury