BE Block, New Town
Do we get to put up a cultural programme? Or will it be a blank like last year? Puja was drawing closer but there was no answer from the block committee.
Finally, with barely 15 days left, we got permission to host a cultural programme. It was quite a task to put up a show of any kind on such a short notice, adhering to Covid protocol. But everyone took up the challenge. For 10 days, they rehearsed in a big hall seated away from each other.
The stage was built bigger than usual to allow distancing and there were less people taking part in group performances than in other years.
This time, since the elder generation could not step out amid the pandemic, we, the youngsters of the block, were asked to shoulder most responsibilities of organising the puja.
The cultural programme was put up mostly by our block’s ladies club, Alor Tarani. With little time to rehearse, most of the performances were to be impromptu. For the 15 days that were left, my mother Kumkum Roy and other mashimas of the block diligently made time from household chores to practise.
Sashthi evening began with a poem, titled Abahoni, recited by Ma, that she dug up from the Net, followed by a recital in chorus of a couple of agomoni songs and a beautiful rendition of the song Bairagi koy ma go by Rachana Sengupta. There was a solo performance by Tamalika Ghosh. The highlight was chanting of stotra from Devisukta by Soma Basu, who also anchored the programme.
On Saptami, the ladies group entertained the audience with a couple of Santhali songs. We had tried to hire a percussionist as accompanist but failed to find one on such a short notice. So group member Sikha Mandi played the harmonium as Tandra Ghosh kept the beat with her ghungur.
That set the tone for the dance performances to follow, one by little Jinisha Sarkar and a kathak recital by her older sister Krittika. Both received much applause.
A comic audio play titled Sasuri vs Bouma regaled the audience. Debi Dey, who played the Bouma to my mother playing the sasuri, had jotted down the dialogues of the entire play from a YouTube recording.
Ashtami and Navami nights featured dance by Pallavi Jaiswal and Aashi Sharma, songs by Poulami Barman and a couple of audio plays. In one of them, two male characters were played by ladies. “Male actors are hard to come by as the men come late from office and are not available for rehearsals. That is why we hunt for plays with no male characters when we stage something. When we fail, some of us have to play male roles,” my mother said.
Another humourous audio play, written by Nabaneeta Dev Sen, was staged by a real-life couple from our block, Asish and Jayashri Majumdar, who enacted the styles of conversation between husband and wife at different stages of life.
Rahul Chakraborty and others of our age group organised an antakshari contest. The programme was started late to make people stay up for Sandhi puja which began almost at midnight this year.
Other attractions of Navami evening were the conchshell-blowing, candle-lighting and phuchka-eating competitions. While Laksmi Chakraborty won the first, my mother won the lamp-lighting contest by lighting nine lamps in a minute, ahead of the first and second runners-up who lit seven and five lamps respectively. The phuchka-eating event was keenly contested with Ira (Das) aunty tying with Rahul and Aryan Jaiswal at 18 phuchkas each.