Apsara launches the ‘Amaar Haate Amar Pujo’ campaign.

For the first time in Kolkata, the stationery brand Apsara decided to hand the creative reins of the city’s greatest festival over to those with the most imagination. The campaign, aptly named Amaar Haate Amar Pujo (My Pujo, In My Hands), asked a rather beautiful question: how do children see Durga Puja?

Armed with the colourful shavings from Apsara’s Matt Magic 2.0 pencils, children from ten different art schools set to work. Slowly, painstakingly, they crafted 28 distinct artworks. They turned what usually ends up in the wastepaper basket into breathtaking, tactile interpretations of Kolkata and the festive spirit. The results, quite simply, were magical.

Of course, it is one thing to create a picture for the fridge door; it is quite another to have it displayed to the city. Apsara took over the branding at two of Kolkata’s most prominent pandals — Ultadanga Bidhan Sangha in the North, and Selimpur Pally in the South. Here, the children’s masterpieces were mounted for millions of pandal-hoppers to admire, reminding every passer-by of the unadulterated joy of childhood creativity.

As an added attraction, the campaign invited the public to join in. At Ultadanga Bidhan Sangha, Apsara commissioned a live, interactive installation: the world’s very first Maa Durga crafted entirely from pencil shavings. It was not merely a spectator event. People visiting the stall were invited to contribute their own creative flair, applying pencil shavings to collaboratively fill the Goddess’s form.

The entire endeavour — from the intense concentration on the children’s faces to the collaborative spirit of the festival crowd — was captured on camera and has been turned into a charming video campaign.