Puja Shopping in Bengaluru and Vijayawada

Durga Puja outside Bengal is not a smaller version of the Kolkata festival. It is a different occasion with different clothes, and treating it as the same thing is how people over-buy.

Bengaluru: a transplanted Puja

Bengaluru's Puja is driven by its Bengali associations and by a large, young, well-travelled crowd. It runs in the evenings, it is heavily photographed, and it is more social than devotional for a lot of the people attending.

That shapes what works:

• Lighter, more contemporary pieces do better here than heavy traditional silk. Organza, georgette, indo-western and co-ord sets.
• The weather is on your side. October in Bengaluru is mild, which is the only place in this list where a heavier silk is comfortable all evening.
• One good saree, three easy outfits is the right ratio. Fewer days are formally dressed than in Kolkata.

Our Jayanagar store is in the middle of the community that runs the largest of the city's Pujas, and carries both the traditional and the contemporary side.

Vijayawada: Dasara, not Durga Puja

Andhra observes the same nine nights as Dasara, and the emphasis is different: temple visits, Batukamma in the Telangana districts, family gatherings, and a strong daytime component that Bengal's largely evening festival does not have.

Daytime changes everything about the fabric choice. Cotton and linen, Kota and light Tussar are the practical answers, with one Kanjivaram or silk saree for the temple visit and the family day.

The colour convention is also different — yellow, green and red run through Dasara in a way they do not through a Kolkata Puja.

Both cities: buy in September

Neither city has Kolkata's long shopping season, and both run out of tailoring capacity by the end of September. Mahalaya is 10 October. See the stitching timeline.

Everything festive is at festive collection, with the family covered by RANJH menswear and kids ethnic wear. The six-day plan is here.