The 3,000 letterboxes have the address of almost every person who has contributed to the history of the city. (Photo: Tapas Bairy/India Today)

Durga Puja theme pandals always have something unique about them but this year it is some nostalgia too. Chetla Agrani Club in South Kolkata has made a pandal out of 3,000 letterboxes that have now been replaced with emails. The entire project is a story of a letter from letterboxes to its evolution into an email. The entire pandal has been beautifully decorated with old typewriters, lanterns, phones, landlines, gramophones and pendulum clocks!

Speaking with India Today TV, Arijit Roy, a committee member of the pandal, said, "This year's theme is based on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore - 'Kolikata Cholichhe Norite Norite'. At the entrance, you will get to see many letterboxes like it was there in the old days and between them are mice we use with the computers. There is a statue of a pied piper from the folklore, Pied Piper of Hamelin, on one side of the gate. He is holding 'Behala', a Bengali musical instrument. The pied piper had played this instrument in the story to hypnotise all the mice to lead them out of the town."

"We have tried to portray the same story; only in place of an actual mouse, we have incorporated a computer mouse that is now there in every household. We have tried to promote a technology-free Kolkata besides bringing back the pride of the Bengalis, that is, nostalgia or the love for the days gone by. So, we are trying to go back from the new Kolkata to old Calcutta. You can see vintage cars, pulling rickshaws, gramophones, old king-sized beds found at zamindars' palaces, typewriters, etc," he said.

Kolkata is also has a serious affection for a period in the past.

The 3,000 letterboxes that you see in the pandal have the address of almost every person who has contributed to the history of the city - from Sourav Ganguly to Subhash Chandra Bose to several other celebrities who have been in Kolkata.

Yasser, presently in charge of the puja pandal, said, "We are showing old Kolkata turning into a new Kolkata. So, when you enter, you see a lot of letterboxes here, you see a musician installation where he is playing an instrument and all the mice going out of the city. So, basically we are trying to show that in today's world, technology is everywhere. You have mobile phones, all the equipment, gadgets and everything like iPads, computers and all. So, with all these things, the old flavour of Kolkata is what we are missing out. Our artist Anirban Das and our team decided to turn the old Kolkata into a new form."

As you enter the pandal, the beauty just expands over you. Even the inside of the pandal has been made to the feel of a Zamindar's house.

The Durga Puja celebration is not just about the 3,000 letterboxes converting into a technological advancement that the city of Kolkata has seen over the years but also a lot more about the celebration of history and revisiting them in the best possible form.

Reelina Basu, member of Chetla Agrani explained, "This year we have focused on the age-old Kolkata that we had and have lost now. If you look around, you will find the vintage car, the tram, and the mailboxes that symbolise the older version of Kolkata. The typewriters, the gramophone, the telephones and if you walk further inside, you will find that the entire Kolkata landscape is on the ceiling in sepia tone. That is how we see Kolkata when the dusk is setting. We also have the murals around the wall that signify the little things of Kolkata s tied to every day of our lives like the prawns, the Hilsa, the yellow taxi."

The people visiting the pandal are loving every bit of it. Avika Toshniwal said, "There are very beautiful things inside with tram and other beautiful things inside."

A pandal hopper Rajdeep said, "First, we are Bengalis and Durga Puja is very close to our hearts. This pandal has brought nostalgia. The way it showed all the elegant things of the north Calcutta, it's just amazing."

Manju Toshniwal said, "The trams, the rickshaw, the letterboxes, and every little thing is just beautiful. It's amazing to see their creativeness."