BE College Ex-Students’ Club celebrated Rabindrajayanti with music and an audio drama performed at its CK Block centre.
The first event was a musical presentation of Tagore’s Kaalmrigaya, directed by Anuradha Dasgupta, who herself played the part of Rishi Kumar, the sage’s son who gets shot with an arrow by King Dasharath mistakenly. Adhiraj Chatterjee sang the songs for the blind sage. Several others sang numbers like Bela je chole jaye and Neharo lo sahochori, in chorus. “At shows like this, many people come simply to meet others and chat but this time no one chatted or disturbed others, not even the backbenchers,” said Dasgupta, a resident of FD Block.
There was recitation by Urmila Sen, whose father and father-in-law are both alumni of the college, and an audio drama based on Tagore’s novel Malancha. This one was directed by Shukla Mallick, who also essayed the lead role of Neerja.
“I am extremely interested in performing arts but never found time to perform here. I had started rehearsing for my first play — a Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay play — before the pandemic but two months into rehearsals, the 2020 lockdown got called," said Yasmin Rehman, who was delighted to take part in Malancha this time. “I’m sure I'll perform more now.”
Perhaps the senior-most member in the audience was Prabir Sengupta, who at 93, sat right in the front row. “For two years, I was following shows online but I’m much more satisfied to be here in person today. I am a sitarist and they were asking me to perform today but I told them I would do so in seven years’ time, when I turn 100,” smiled the resident of BE Block.
Cultural secretary Dipta Sundar Mallick was happy with the turnout. “Though we recorded today’s event and will be releasing the video online, we got 120 to 130 people as live audience, just like we would before the pandemic,” said the IB Block resident.
Probhati Adda
Morning walkers around AF Block took a break from walking one morning and instead gathered outside the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics to celebrate Rabindra-Nazrul jayanti. This was the first time in two years that the association — Probhati Adda — came together for a cultural event.
Probhati Adda members in AF Block. Shatadipa Bhattacharya
“The pandemic has been hard on us but the music was our support,” said Aparajita Maitra, before singing the Rabindrasangeet Probhu toma lagi ankhi. “We, who have been introduced to singing since our childhood, have learnt to walk the path along Tagore and Nazrul.” The AB Block resident does not walk regularly anymore but has kept in touch with the friends she had made here.
Ratna Ghosh gave an impromptu performance with Apon hote bahir hoye. “The last two years have affected me badly and I suffered from depression. I was advised to walk regularly and have been doing so for the last one year,” said the AE Block resident. “I have been seeing other walkers off and on, maybe sharing a greeting or two once in a while. But when I saw them gathering today, I wanted to join them and sang what came to my mind.”
"For the last two years we were not able to celebrate any occasion but this year when we decided to organise it, the support we received was enormous. Everyone came forward to join as they all want to return to their regular lives,” said Asish Dasgupta, secretary of the association.
Shatadipa Bhattacharya
Surosingar
BC Block-based music school Surosringar had a good reason for celebrating Rabindrajayanti after the bard’s actual birthday.
“We have a young singer who shares her birthday with Rabindranath Tagore,” explained Mukul Das, the teacher who runs the school. “She wants to spend the day with her parents and would be hurt if excluded from this show so we hold it later. My objective is not just to teach but keep students happy.
The event, held at the school itself, began with a rendition of Edin aaji kon ghare go by junior students followed by solo performances by the likes of Sreehoney Kapoor, Ishan Chakraborty and Mritwika Goswami, the nine-year-old who shares her birthday with the bard.
Among senior students, Monalisa De sang Choker alloy dekhechhilem, while her teacher accompanied her on the harmonium. “I am amazed to see Monalisa singing so well today despite suffering a severe cerebral attack in 2016 after which she had lost her speech. She had to re-learn everything at the age of 37,” said her proud husband Abhishek, in the audience.
Another senior student Manisha Nandi said these classes were a breath of fresh air for them. “And by no means did we want to miss it after a prolonged pandemic,” said the lady who performed despite a vertigo attack in the morning.
Tabla player Sanjiv Ghosal joked that he too deserved to be included in all the photographs being clicked. “Accompanying musicians have an important role in highlighting singers,” he smiled.
The show, that was anchored by Sayan Banerjee, concluded with a chorus of Biswasathe joge jethay biharo.
Bharati Kanjilal
Singers perform at Surosingar’s BC Block centre
Sangeetalaya
Despite the world opening up once again, CE Block-based music school Sangeetalaya celebrated Rabindrajayanti online this year. Their Facebook Live event began with Tagore’s last composition, that he wrote for his birthday Hey nutan. It was sung in chorus by students like Sohini Samanta, Saswati Dhar and Shreyashi Sarkar.
Several other songs were presented solo and in chorus like Praner manush, Amar ongey ongey ke bajaay and Amar hiyaar majhe. Most women who participated have been training in Rabindrasangeet for several years. There are also others who train in Nazrulgeeti.
Amita Sarkar, who played the tabla, felt offline programmes should be held more often. “Even teaching music or tabla offline is better. It is difficult to pick up the finer nuances through a video call,” she said.
“I have been a music teacher for the last 40 years at Sangeetalaya. In the last couple of years we did a lot of programmes online like Rabindrajayanti, Nazruljayanti and Poila Baisakh during the pandemic. Though we have returned to the offline format, this time we stuck to the online format because of several reasons,” explained Arpita Roy, who runs the school. “One, it could start raining anytime and an open air program could easily get disrupted. Second, it saves a lot of money that we otherwise spend on decoration, hiring tables and chairs, microphones etc. Third, the reach of the social media is massive, which none of us realised till the pandemic,” said Roy.
She said that an onsite programme gets maximum 100 people in the audience but their Facebook live ones have been garnering close to 1,000 views in three days. “That is a huge achievement. Even the comments on social media have been very encouraging,” said Roy.
They are planning to return to offline events a couple of times a year.