Two patients at a Salt Lake hospital were treated to mini private concerts on Saturday.

A visually impaired violinist played Rabindrasangeet tunes in their cabins.

Indranil Kesh, who suffers from total visual impairment, arrived at ILS Hospitals, Salt Lake, a little before 3pm on Saturday. His first stop was the lobby, where he played the tune of Aamar mukti aaloye aaloye. The audience — a handful of relatives of patients admitted to the non-Covid hospital.

Kesh, who represented the Society for the Welfare of the Blind, an NGO, then went to the two cabins. The patient in the first cabin, Pallabi Singha, was admitted earlier in the morning with abdominal pain.

Kesh played Aalok er ei jharna dharaye in front of her. “I enjoyed the music. I was in a lot of pain and was stressed in the morning. The pain is much less now. The music lifted my mood,” said Singha, a resident of Khardah, on the northern fringes of the city.

Kesh’s second stop was the cabin of Monolita Guha, a Chetla resident who was admitted on Friday evening for gallbladder removal. There, too, he played Aalok er ei jharna dharaye as Guha listened in rapt attention.

The mini concerts were organised to mark the World Violin Day on December 13.

Kesh has been taking violin lessons since his school days at the Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys’ Academy in Narendrapur. He is now pursuing a bachelor’s in English literature from Rabindra Bharati University.

The youth from Burdwan was part of the school band that performed at several auditoriums in and outside Calcutta. Though deprived of sight, the sense of touch and sound are integral to his music. The V.G. Jog admirer remembers “sweating in panic” the first day he took the stage for a concert at the Ramakrishna Mission centre in Rahara.

His favourite raag is Shivranjani.

“We are extremely delighted to be able to organise this uniquely conceptualised event for patients and visitors, so that they are able to find some happiness at the end of this rather cumbersome year,” said Debasish Dhar, the group vice-president, ILS Hospitals.

Biswajit Ghosh, the secretary of the Society for the Welfare of the Blind, accompanied Kesh to the hospital. “Visually impaired people get help from society. This is a chance of giving something back. This year has been gloomy. Being able to bring some cheer and a smile on the faces of people means a lot to us,” said Ghosh.