Behala’s famous 10 day annual fair, known as Chandi Mela , known as Chandi Mela is held in the winter of every year at the Sakher Bazar crossing of Behala, in South Calcutta (Kolkata). Stalls are generally set up in the lanes to the west of Diamond Harbour Road at Sakher Bazar and take up the better part of an entire municipal ward. To my mind, there are two things which make this fair unique. First is the fact that it is not limited to an open ground and spills out on the streets, and the second, the fact that in the middle of a modern metropolis, Chandi Mela offers all the attractions, sights, sounds and smells of a rustic village fair. The fair gets its name from the Chandi Puja (worship of the Hindu Goddess Chandi, another incarnation of Goddess Durga) which was started by Mahesh Chandra Ray Choudhury, of the Sabarna Ray Choudhury family, in 1792.
