Friends' Union

Friends Union – A Shyambazar–Bagbazar Puja in North Kolkata

Friends Union is a Durga Puja committee based in the Shyambazar–Bagbazar area of North Kolkata, with its club premises at 9, Bhabnath Sen Street, Bagbazar Colony, near Shyambazar Metro. The committee is one of the many longstanding para pujas that give the northern part of the city its dense, devotional Durga Puja character, sitting a short walk from the buzz of the Shyambazar five-point crossing.

In October 2025, Friends Union organised its annual Durga Puja at Shyambazar, continuing a neighbourhood tradition of community worship. Photographs from the celebration show the pandal, the decorated idol, and the festive crowds that mark the committee’s Saptami–Dashami programme. The club is also listed among the member puja committees of the Forum for Durgotsab, the city-wide umbrella body that coordinates and documents Kolkata’s community pujas.

Friends Union’s location places it in a historically rich puja landscape. Bagbazar is home to one of Kolkata’s oldest Sarbojanin pujas (established 1919), and the surrounding north Kolkata lanes have nurtured community worship for over a century. A para committee such as Friends Union represents the everyday continuation of that barowari heritage at the neighbourhood scale, sustained by local residents rather than by large institutional backing.

For pandal-hoppers exploring north Kolkata, Friends Union offers the experience of an intimate, residential puja — the rhythm of the dhak, the glow of the lighting, and the easy familiarity of a para that comes together each autumn. Its presence in the city’s puja record, including contemporary press coverage of its 2025 celebration, marks it as a living part of Kolkata’s Durga Puja map.

• Area: Shyambazar–Bagbazar, North Kolkata
• Address: 9, Bhabnath Sen Street, Bagbazar Colony
• 2025 celebration: Durga Puja organised at Shyambazar