Members of Shanai, the music class for male members of Swapno Bhor senior citizen's park, put up an evening of music that entertained and enthused the audience.
Shanai had started in early 2020 when the elderly gentlemen felt the need for vocal training classes that would enable them to sing solo with confidence. The women had been having classes from well before that.
“We had started this class with many members but got disconnected due to the pandemic. Now we are back with 16 students and feel fortunate to have a great teacher who takes a lot of care to train us at this age," said Bhaskar Sardar, a resident of BC Block. Singer Sudeb Chattopadhyay takes the classes.
Each singer was alloted two songs of Tagore and Nazrul and the likes of Sukumar Mukherjee enthralled the audience with their performance. "All my life I never got a chance to learn how to sing. Now at the age of 76 I have started," said Mukherjee, who sang Tumi kon kanoner phul. He had even postponed his cataract operation so he could take part in this programme.
"Earlier people would make fun of us and refused to listen to our songs. But now they call us to perform. This is our achievement," said 80-year-old B.K. Palit, also a resident of Snehodiya.
The audience listened with a lot of admiration. "Prior to the pandemic, I too was a member of Shanai,” said Balai Chandra Ghosh, 82, a resident of BF Block who is both a covid and cancer survivor. “What better encouragement could we have had at this age than to be able to sing solo on stage? Swapno Bhor is a source of inspiration for me. It’s like bikele bhorer phul."