How to arrange an office pooja in Bengaluru

The priest is the biggest part of a small pooja. Everything else you add for 20, apart from the sweets, costs less than his fee. Once you add a decorator and lunch, those two are most of the bill.

You can do it without a priest. A senior colleague lights the lamp, does the aarti and hands out prasad. A kit with step-by-step instructions helps (question 3).

The opening of a new office with guests, a ribbon and speeches is in our guide to shop and office openings.

The temple is the easiest place to start. Call or walk in, say the date, the time and the pooja, and ask whether the priest comes to offices. Many temples also hold a homa or a private pooja on their own premises, which is the cheapest way to do one.

What moves a priest's price. A homa: at the temple trust it adds ₹2,000 over the Satyanarayana vratha. More priests, travel across the city, and a festival morning, when he has other poojas to fit in.

Ask for one figure. His fee, the dakshina, the samagri, any helpers and his travel. Then ask how long he'll stay, so you can plan the meeting room and the meal.

Have the names ready. At the start of the pooja, the sankalpa, the priest names the owner or the senior person sitting for it, often with their gotra and the company's name. Ask him what he wants written down.

Language. Some Bengaluru priests with their own pages do poojas in Hindi or Bengali, at offices too. For Kannada, Tamil or Telugu, ask a temple near you. None of the decorators or caterers on this page brings a priest.

Always on the office: a low table and a clean cloth for it, steel plates, a lamp and matches, drinking water, and a mat for the priest. Ask the priest for his list two or three days ahead, and whether the flowers and fruit are on it.

Two kits, one twice the price of the other. Both are from online shops outside Bengaluru, so order early. The ₹799 kit, from a Mysuru agarbathi maker, has the vessels, a small Lakshmi idol and step-by-step instructions to do it yourself, with a quantity for each item. The ₹1,750 kit, from a Thoothukudi brand, has 43 items with no quantities: more consumables, such as gangajal, honey and dry fruits, the North Indian Diwali items, such as shubh labh stickers and a toran, a framed Mahalakshmi picture and a booklet. Neither says how many people it serves. A pooja shop near the office will sell the same things loose.

For Chopda pujan, buy the new account books before the day. The priest won't bring them.

Prasad. Ask the priest what he wants offered, and buy enough of it to hand round.

The window, in full: Pradosh runs from 5:51 to 8:20 pm on 8 November, and the new moon from 11:27 am that day to 12:31 pm on Monday 9 November. Your priest decides whether a working day before or after suits your office. Drik Panchang prints no Chopda pujan time for Bengaluru, so ask him for that too.

Flowers cost more in a festival week. In Ayudha pooja week, sevanthi went up to ₹400 a kg. Before that it was up to ₹80. Shubham Parties and Mahinava Events charge more for flower work in festival weeks. Buy loose flowers a day or two ahead if you can.

If the pooja is before 9 am, the decorator has to set up the evening before, so ask the building to let them in after hours.

What to put in the email to facilities: the date and time, a lamp and camphor, any homa, whether a pumpkin will be broken at the entrance, and when the decorator needs to come in. A coworking space may also want the floor left clean.

How long it takes. One Bengaluru priest's page puts an office pooja at 1.5 to 2 hours. A homa takes longer. A Satyanarayana katha runs long too, so ask the priest for the short version if the team has to get back to work.

Laptops and machines. On Ayudha pooja, the tools and machines get kumkum and flowers. Kumkum stains keyboards and car seats, so ask for a small mark on a cloth laid over them.

A speaker outside. A bhajan or a speaker in a tech park's open area is held to 65 decibels by day, and needs permission, under a Karnataka circular of 2022. Indoors, the building decides.

₹250 more a plate buys more dishes. Two more starters, grilled, one more main, a salad bar in place of three salads, a second drink and a second dessert. The service is the same: the same caterer's buffet with chafing dishes and staff. For 100 people that works out to ₹40,000 against ₹65,000 before GST and transport. For a pooja lunch, the ₹400 menu is a full meal. The ₹650 one is for when clients or the leadership stay to eat.

For a satvik pooja meal, Diviskitchen is pure vegetarian and leaves out onion and garlic on request. Bhandary's Kitchen cooks satvik on request in a kitchen that also cooks non-veg. Authana Caterers has a Brahmin cooking team for prasada and naivedya, for 100 plates or more: ask for the price.

Sweet boxes to take home: staff often expect one. Ask a sweet shop near the office for a bulk price.

Most offices start below where these two decorators start. Five of those nine budgets were ₹8,000 or less. With ₹5,000 to ₹9,000, a small local decorator can do the door and the pooja corner, by our estimate. Above ₹10,000 you're paying for a built backdrop and someone else's time on the day.

Why fresh flowers cost more. Marga Events told us she doesn't take fresh-flower work below ₹20,000 because the flowers, the market runs, transport and labour add up to that. Sankalana Decorations told us most of his flower work is above ₹10,000, because below that there's little decoration to show.

Glass walls and clearing up. Many offices won't let anything be stuck to the glass, so ask for free-standing frames. Fresh marigold stays with you after the pooja, so plan who clears it.

No fresh flowers needed? VSD Creative can do balloon decor for a Diwali or Ayudha pooja at an office. Ask for the price.

Fresh against artificial flowers, and paying someone to tie your own, are in our guide to pooja decoration.