While Kolkata prepares for grand celebrations after the city's Durga Puja is inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Tucked inside north Kolkata, Kumortuli or Kumartuli (or the potter’s abode) is a maze of lanes and by-lanes where deft hands mould clay to give shape to divine forms. Rows of idols in various stages of completion stood inside the dark workshops. In about three months, these rudimentary frames will emerge as the ten-handed Goddess Durga standing over a lion in her demon-slaying pose, her long spear piercing the evil Mahishasura. Her four children stand on either side – Ganesha and Lakshmi to her right and Kartikeya and Saraswati to her left, each on their own mount.

It is amazing to see how the craftsmen painstakingly create the marvellous idols out of mere clay.