Four couples decked up in wedding gear and exchanged garlands once again in the autumn of their lives. There was neither priest nor any paraphernalia. And instead of doing the seven rounds of the open fire as in a Hindu wedding, they walked down a red carpet ramp to the designated spot under the watchful eyes of a choreographer and the audience members.
The fashion parade, organised as part of the CG Block-based NGO Prayasam’s December-long festival Pranaam, featured 60-plus participants and was suitably titled Balai Shaat.
After getting tremendous response in the opening year, this was the third time that the ramp walk was being held for the elderly. The theme, this year, was the various rituals of a Bengali wedding and the aim was to increase awareness about them. “Bengali weddings have so many fun stages about which this generation has no idea. So, they ape north Indian wedding rituals like sangeet and mehndi instead. This made us think of celebrating our own wedding traditions drawing participation from a generation which knows about them,” said Amlan Ganguly, the founder of Prayasam who mooted the concept.
A total of 27 people, including 25 from Salt Lake, took part in the fashion show. “Our theme was wedding, which we divided into three stages — mangalacharan, gatro horidra and saptapadi,” said Manish Chowdhury, the choreographer. “We had envisioned seven couples taking part in the last segment of exchange of garlands but three backed out, citing health ailments,” said Ganguly.
On the appointed evening, the driveway and porch of Prayasam’s CG Block office was agog with activity. The premises were already done up with upcycled material from the NGO’s Duoranir Sangsar scheme, through which used clothes are collected through the year. Strips of these clothes were tied around the branches of a tree and also coated a welcoming elephant at the entrance.
“Have you heard of patipatra? It is the paka katha that happens between the bride’s and the groom’s sides. It is an agreement to take the alliance forward,” said Rina Chatterjee of BD Block. She brought sweets on a burnt clay plate to lend a sweet touch to the show.
Krishna Dam of DB Block also featured in the first segment. A veteran of two ramp walks in her block programmes, the lady, who stays alone, carried the plate of sweets brought by Chatterjee in hand while the latter carried the pati patra itself. “My son stays in London. He said for me the programme should be called Balai Sottor,” said Dam, who, at 74, was the second oldest in the cast.
The second segment Gatro Haridra featured five single women from DA Block and two from Labony Estate. They were all dressed in yellow saris with red blouse.
Ratna Pal was widowed three years ago. “The doctor has asked me to try to stay happy. I enjoyed attending this programme so much,” beamed the lady from Labony.
A singer couple from Kankurgachhi, Debasish and Sutapa Basu, got acquainted with the Prayasam team on coming to record an audio play in their studio. “Last year, we went to Varanasi and I got this Benarasi sari. I was wondering when I would get a chance to wear it as our golden jubilee is still 15 years away. And then this opportunity came along to participate in saptapadi,” said Sutapa.
The couple did not spare any item on their buying list — topor, darpan, gachhkouto, garlands… “The owner of our local dashakarma bhandar knew that our only daughter had got married four years ago as he had supplied the list then. So he got suspicious this time,” laughed Debasish.
This was Sunanda Sarkar’s third consecutive Balai Shat show. “My husband usually comes to click my pictures. This time I was asked to make him participate. We had no clue we would have to dress up as bride and groom. Meye ke baper biye dekhiye chharlam,” the retired schoolteacher laughed, adding that their daughter was in the audience and had shot a video.
The oldest of the four couples was Rabindranath and Ila Roy of Karunamoyee. The 72-year-old Ila had taken part in the inaugural edition of Balai Shaat and urged her 79-year-old husband to join her this time. “I used to do plays earlier. So it was not an issue for me to perform in public.” On being complimented on managing the dhoti smartly, he confessed that it was a stitched one gifted by his son who stays in California. “But we had to buy the veil and the topor. During our golden jubilee, we had only done mala bodol without dressing up in such wedding gear,” he said, smiling.
Manish, the choreographer, made the participants rehearse for three days. The sessions turned out to be as much play as work. “My husband Ashok was making so many mistakes that at one point, I commented that I would be better off renting a husband for the show. That comment caused a big laugh,” recalled Sunanda.
Manish, said Ganguly, also faced a tough time handling the more exuberant or young-at-heart participants. “One lady was determined to wear a lehenga and we were hard put to explain that it would be out of place in a show on traditional Bengali weddings. Another wanted to include a bit of dance in her walk routine and needed to be dissuaded. But they were also scared of Manish pulling them up for getting the sequence or the steps wrong, which helped,” Ganguly commented.
So committed were the participants that they turned up for rehearsals despite a downpour. “Though it stopped raining, I had to send all the boys to ensure none of them slipped and fell in the wet driveway. At their age, it would be a disaster,” he added.
Thankfully, the show went off without a hitch. As they dug into the phuchka and ghughni on sale at the counters of Prasaad, the catering subsidiary of Prayasam, talk was already of next year’s edition. “Our age reduced on taking part in this programme. We are ready to participate next year as well,” one of them said.
