As part of their on-going 75th Foundation Day Celebration, Rabindra Bharati Society like all other Wednesdays, met virtually to usher in Independence Day in advance, with regard to Bankim Chandra Chottopadhyay and Rabindra Nath Tagore, under the guidance of their General Secretary, Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay. Sottokam Bagchi took the viewers through the 3 hour programme with songs, dances and recitations in between. He spoke about Sahitya Samrat Bankim Chandra Chottopadhyay and his contribution towards independence. During that era, his “Vandemataram” was in the mouths of every citizen and all freedom fighters died uttering this meaningful word which depicted India as everyone’s mother. It was put to music by none other than Rabindra Nath Tagore. He also apprised all about the unsung heroes who left an indelible mark in the path of the freedom movement to fight against the British Raj. But unfortunately their names are not well inscribed in the pages of history. Among them were Nikunja Sen, noted for Writers’ Building Avijan, Badal (Sudhir) Gupta, Binoy Bose and Dinesh Gupta – the trio whose names form the famous Binoy Badal Dinesh Bagh of Kolkata, Hemchandra Ghosh, known as Borda, who formed the noted Bengal Volunteers, Syed Allimuddin Mohammad and his friend Hemchandra Bose, known as Master Saheb, Apurba Sen, Mrigendra Nath Dutta and his friend Anath Bandhu, sisters Beena and Kalyani Das, Basanta Kumar Biswas whose age was manipulatively increased by 2 years so he could be hanged, Anurup Chandra Sen, Naresh Roy and his 14 associates and Botukeswar Dutta, Bhagat Singh and Jatin Das who were responsible for Sangsad Bhawan Bombing. Since today is that day when young Khudiram Bose was hanged to death, he mentioned about him and showed his pictures while in prison and the order of his hanging. All these freedom fighters either faced the bullets, noose or had a tragic death.
As part of their on-going programme for 75th Foundation Day, Rabindra Bharati Society got together virtually over their regular Budhbarer Boithoki Adda to discuss about Kolkata in gone by years. It started with a video of pictures of the then Kolkata with famous song “purano sei diner kotha” being played in the background. Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay, General Secretary, welcomed all and read out excerpts from Asit Krishna Dey’s book tilted “Oithihasik Kolkatar Onchal.” Dey was the Treasurer of the Society who lost his life to the pandemic last year. Gautam Basumallick, writer and journalist of noted Potoldanga family, pictorially took all through the history of College Street and its surrounding areas. Dr. Abhijit Ghosh, Asst. Secretary of the Society and a practising gynaecologist, recounted about how all the Medical Colleges and Hospitals came into being here. Former Chief Justice and President of the Society, Chittotosh Mukhopadhyay, spoke about how Bhawanipore was added in the map of Kolkata and mentioned about its rich cultural heritage. Dr. Parag Baran Pal, Member of the Society and a medical practitioner, rendered puratoni songs which were put to music by famous Kamal Dasgupta, whose birth anniversary incidentally happened to be on that day. Barrister Anindya Kumar Mitra, Vice President of the Society, who hails from famous Chorbagan’s Mitra family, then discussed about the lifestyle of Kolkata in those days, ranging from washing the streets with ganga water to ferriwala culture to sprouting of theatres and cinema halls and also the importance of famous Muktaram Babu Street.
As a part of Rabindra Bharati Society’s on-going 75th Foundation Day, a virtual programme was held to reminisce the life and works of two great sons of Bengal, viz. Dijendra Lal Roy and Rajanikanta Sen, whose birth anniversaries were celebrated on 13th and 18th July respectively. Both of them earned fame and repute for their songs and literary works composed within their short span of lives. General Secretary, Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay touched on the life of D. L. Roy while Sanjukta Bhaduri spoke on the life of Rajanikanta Sen with a line of few songs in between and how he was inspired by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his later years. Eminent singer Rina Dolon Bandopadhyay narrated about the various aspects of Dijendrageeti and also sang one. On her request Himadri Mukherjee sang “oi moha sindhur opar theke”. Arijit Roy Choudhury, guest artist, sang two songs taught by his guru, 105 year old Dilip Kumar Roy, who happened to be the grandson of D. L. Roy, followed by Suparna Ghosh’s song penned by Rajanikanto Sen. Then Riddhi Bandopadhyay, a member of the Society and singing teacher spoke of the two legends and rendered two songs. Dr. Utsab Das, guest artist, also a student of Dilip Kumar Roy, sang two melodious songs, followed by a rendition by Society’s member Joyashree Dey. Bulbuli Ghosh, a senior member, thanked the speakers and singers for giving their time towards making the evening worthy of remembering. The programme ended with a touching documentary titled “Kanto Kobi Rajanikanto” on the life of Rajanikanta Sen, directed by Arup Kumar Dey, who narrated what difficulties he had to face while filming this documentary. It brought tears to the eyes of all viewers. The evening ended with Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay apprising all present of the forth coming programme.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
As part of Rabindra Bharati Society’s yearlong 75th Foundation Day Celebration, we organised a virtual Budhbarer Baithaki Adda on musical soirée titled “tumi j surer agun lagiye dile mor prane” with eminent artists, to commemorate the birth centenary of legendary pianist V. Balsara, to celebrate the International Music Day and also for know-hows of the Society.
I welcomed all members present. Then the President of the Society, former Chief Justice Chittotosh Mukherjee spoke on Rabindra Bharati Society’s “Itikotha” from its inception. It was registered under the Society’s Act on 15th January, 1947, in 5 and 5/2, Dwarka Nath Tagore Lane, Kolkata and the passage way on Circular Road leading to Jorasako Thakurbari. These are mentioned in a Deed dated September, 1962. It was founded with the initiative and able leadership of the first Chief Minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, with an intention to save Rabindranath Tagore’s property being illegally occupied, to renovate it and also to preserve Kabi Guru’s works. Dr. Roy was the first President of the Society. Then Bhaskar Chandra Chunder, nephew of eminent Dr. Pratap Chandra Chunder, the first Secretary of the Society, read out extracts from Dr. Chunder’s book “Smritikotha” about the formation of the Society by the then stalwarts like Ananda Mukherjee and others. Later a University was also formed whose first Vice Chancellor was the Governor of West Bengal, Smt. Padmaja Naidu.
Moving onto the next agenda, Mallar Ghosh, son of Acharya Gyan Prakash Ghosh, cited a few anecdotes about the legend V. Balsara whom he had seen since childhood as he was extremely close to his father. V. Balsara accompanied his father in music in six movies and both did an album “Raga On Key Boards” under HMV, which became very popular worldwide for which they practiced meticulously daily for 2½ hrs for 3 months at a stretch. He was the only musician to write staff notation in English. In 1965 when V. Balsara left Mumbai for good and wanted to settle down in Kolkata, it was Acharya Ghosh who helped him find a residence and also with his profession. He was a simple, extremely dedicated, hardworking person who was loved by all. He was very passionate about music and loved his giant piano like one of his family members. He would accompany it on a matador at 6am to the venue of a programme and bring it back at 10pm when traffic rules were relaxed.
BIRTH CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF HEMANTA MUKHERJEE BY RABINDRA BHARATI SOCIETY
As a part of their 75th Foundation Day Celebrations, Rabindra Bharati Society virtually organised this Budhbarer Boithaki Adda on the Birth Centenary of legendary singer, Hemanta Mukherjee on 16th June, 2021. Siddhartha Mukherjee, General Secretary, welcomed all and gave a brief talk on the life of this great son of Bengal, who was instrumental in popularising Rabindra Sangeet among the masses after Pankaj Kumar Mullick. The star attraction of the evening was none other than his daughter-in-law, the reputed “Balika Badhu” famed star, Moushumi Chatterjee. She said she missed her father-in-law every moment and reminisced about him with short anecdotes that had entwined their lives, pointing out that he was a very simple man who helped innumerable people without anybody’s knowledge and was much loved and respected by all. He did not do much rewaz as he had a God-gifted voice and was passionate about singing Rabindra Sangeet. At the request of Siddhartha Mukherjee, his grand-daughter, Megha sang a song for the viewers. Dipankar Chattopadhyay, Hemanta’s cousin and a reputed singer of yester years, who was present, recalled some incidents and sang a few songs citing the stories behind them. Present was Sagnik Sen, a young talented artist who is reputed for having a voice quite like Hemanta and sang one of his songs. Saikat Mitra, the son of legendary singer, Shyamal Mitra, grew up seeing Hemanta Mukherjee and narrated few events which took place in his life in context to this great persona. Abhijit Ghosh, a diehard fan of Hemanta, who celebrates his birth anniversary in a big way, sang one of his songs. Brahmatosh Chattopadhyay recollected a few happenings of his life in regard to Hemanta Mukherjee. He too sang a famous song of this stalwart. Also present was Soumitra Bandopadhyay whose mentor was Hemanta Mukherjee and who had multiple interactions with him. He thus had a lot of snippets to share regarding this great man for whom punctuality was of utmost importance. He sang Hemanta’s first song that he rendered in All India Radio and became famous overnight, a much loved Rabindra Sangeet and the last song that Hemanta recorded before his death, which nobody had heard before. Dr. Gopal Chaudhuri also spoke of his interaction with Hemanta Babu as a student of Jawaharlal University in Delhi while organising a programme. Satyakam Bagchi remembered the tall, handsome, down to earth, serene bespeckled man in his typical signature half sleeved spotless white ironed Panjabi with plastic buttons and crisp dhoti with a melodious voice. Reputed singer Haimanti Sukla was supposed to join in but unfortunately could not connect because of internet issues. Member Jharna Barai rendered the vote of thanks by reciting few lines from Kobi Guru’s poem. The evening came to an end with the General Secretary, Siddhartha Mukherjee thanking all speakers and members present across the globe for giving their valuable time to make this programme a grand success. The curtain fell after a song sung by Hemanta Mukherjee on the premises of Jorasako Thakurbari.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
As a part of our yearlong Platinum Jubilee Celebration, today we are meeting for our Budhbarer Boithoki Adda to commemorate the birth centenary this year of one of Bengal’s most revered personalities of the cinema world, Oscar Awardee, Satyajit Ray. The programme very aptly titled “Maharaja tomare 100 selam”, from one of the famous songs of everybody’s all-time favourite Gupi Gyne Bagha Byne. The evening commenced with a short clipping of Satyajit Ray reflecting on his life and works.
I then read out a hand written letter penned by Satyajit Ray to Rabindra Bharati Society expressing his joy regarding pictures drawn his grandfather, Upendra Roy Choudhury, in our archive.
Since the audience was desirous to hear from the internationally famed dancer Smt. Mamata Shankar regarding Satyajit Ray. I invited her to cite a few of her experiences while working with Ray in few of his movies. She said Manik kaka, as she called him, was like a family member and respected him like her father. Her father, the legendary dancer Udai Shankar, had made a movie “Kalpana”. Ray like it so much that he saw it many times. Her debutant movie was directed by Mrinal Sen, whom she hailed as Mrinalda. Ray saw the film and commented he did not like the movie but said she saved it. She was very keen to work with Ray but did not muster the courage to tell him. So she expressed her yearning to one of Ray’s closest associates, Nimai Ghosh to work in his movies. She worked in three of Ray’s movies and inferred that he was an extremely simple man. In the Agantuk set a child artist made a dhoop dani with wire and Ray not only appreciated it highly but also made everybody see it. On the first day while shooting for Ganasatru she was terribly fearful and tensed. But he explained everything to her and in a single take the shot was done. He followed a practice that everybody claps after the first shot of the debutant. So all started clapping for her making such a commotion that the pigeons holed up in the false ceiling above, started fluttering all around creating a dreamlike ambience. Before a movie, he would always organise its script reading whereby each artist could understand how he was supposed to go about his acting. At the same time he was open to suggestions, was very liberal and flexible. He had his eyes everywhere and was very concerned about nitty-gritties and everybody. Once she had a terrible waist pain and he noticed her standing for her shot. Immediately he ordered for a stool for her to sit. In Sakha Prasakha dance sequence with the sautals she felt like dancing with them and just followed their footsteps. She ended by saying the top is being empty.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
As a part of our yearlong Platinum Jubilee Celebration, today we are meeting virtually for our Budhbarer Boithoki Adda to reminisce on one of Bengal’s illustrious personality, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in connection with Rabindra Nath Tagore. We first saw a short clipping of his life from birth to death, showing his birthplace, his school, his life style during growing years and lastly his tomb and epitaph.
Since the Former Chief Justice Chittotosh Mukherjee, President of Rabindra Bharati Society, who had recently recovered from a bout of covid, was present amongst us, I requested him to say a few words. He opened his speech by welcoming all members present worldwide. He said Raja Ram Mohan Roy was born in 1772 and was solely responsible for the new renaissance. During his childhood he had shown great interest in everything that was going on around him. Later on he broke all the then prevailing rituals like child marriage, widow immolation, etc. Raja Ram Mohan Roy saw his own boudi, brother’s wife, fall prey to satidaha which left an indelible mark in his life. With the help of Lord Bentinck he abolished “satidaha”. He was hailed as the Delhi Badshah and was sent as a representative of India to London. There he met Maxmuller and they became great friends. He encouraged his writings of demanding an independent India. Justice Mukherjee concluded by saying that in the House of Commons it was Raja Ram Mohan Roy who had the courage to mention that there should be no difference between the British and the Indians.
Then I requested Sri Aniruddha Rakshit, Member, Brahmo Samaj, to throw some light on the life of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Sri Rakshit said that the British used to send padris, to India to give the British Government information about the Indians. East India Company was also set up to spy upon the Indians. This way the British would study about the Indians whom they called “natives”. The English Raj thus got to know the social rituals of Bengal especially in the remote villages. From 1814 Raja Ram Mohan Roy started living in Kolkata and noticed how the rich people of the society would fritter their time by engaging in meaningless activities as relaxation, e.g. kite flying, making fireworks, lavish wedding of their pet cats, competitive durga pujas, gambling, drinking, etc. The British tried to bring the Brahmins who were the upper caste of the society under their control. It was then that Raja Ram Mohan Roy founded Brahmo Samaj. Though he was a hard core religious Bengali with profound knowledge in Hinduism, he was equally adept with knowledge of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. He was a genuine linguist knowing nine different languages. Sri Rakshit ended his speech with Rabindranath Tagore’s poem on Raja Ram Mohan Roy and then a prayer written by Raja Ram Mohan Roy himself.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Today’s Budhbarer Baithaki Adda on zoom is to reflect on the Memoires of the legendary world renowned dancer Uday Shankar whose 120th Birth Anniversary was yesterday, 8th December, 2020. We started with a clipping of a short dance recital of him and his troupe along with his spouse, famous danuese Late Amala Shankar.
Since I was away for a short while attending an important meeting, Shri Ranjit Nayak, Asst. Secretary of the Society, initiated the evening’s programme. He apprised all that Uday Shankar was an institution by himself. He was distinguished first for his choreography and soon rose to become an acclaimed dancer. He was the first person to adopt the dhrupadi styled dance and founded the Uday Shankar Dance Academy in Almora. This place was quite well known specially to Bengalis as Swami Vivekananda founded the Mayabati Ashram under the Ram Krishna Mission order in this city. Also it was here that Rabindra Nath Tagore stayed for quite some time for his youngest daughter Renuka or Rani’s treatment. Uday Shankar’s “Ram Leela”, “Kalpana” and “Shankarscope”, were his commended master pieces. He visited Shantiniketan to meet Kabi Guru who was 49 years his senior and on 12th July, 1933 performed a dance there which is mentioned in the “Prabashi” magazine.
After his delivery, Sri Nayak invited Shri Tathagata Mondal, who is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Tirupati and also is a dancer of the Uday Shankar gharana. He read out a letter written by Kabi Guru in 1939 to Uday Shankar, which was much appreciated by all.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Today’s (2.12.2020) Budhbarer Baithaki Adda on zoom is to ruminate on the Memories of the legendary singer Purabi Mukhopadhyay whose 3rd Death Anniversary would be on Friday, 4th December, 2020. We started with a clipping of a Rabindra Sangeet “kon aloke praner prodip jaliye” that she sang in one of the programmes for the Society.
Remembered the day when her student, Darpanarayan informed me of her passing away at 83 years due to a viral attack and I rushed to pay my last respect to the great soul by placing a garland on her. On the occasion of 125th Foundation Day of Calcutta University, we had published a souvenir where she had given a write up. Unfortunately we could not hand over the same to her before she departed.I read it out for all where she mentioned she stood 1st in a singing competition which was judged by eminent personalities and then on there was no looking back. The Society felicitated her on the Foundation Day on 15th January, 2012, towards her contribution in singing.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Since 2nd October, the auspicious day of our nation, would be two days later, we thought of celebrating yesterday’s adda by reminiscing the birth of two great sons of India, viz. Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Though the years are different, these two great personalities share the same birthday.
After welcoming all present, I informed the audience that Shri Anup Motilal, who was the sole speaker for the evening on Lal Bahadur Shastri, called to express his inability to attend the programme due to some urgent preoccupation and sincerely apologised for the same. However, he promised to deliver a talk some other day on any given topic. Since nobody could be arranged within a short span I decided to take the onus on me and speak on this great leader.
Lal Bahadur Shastri was born in Moghalsarai on 2nd October, 1904, to a truly humble family. He joined the National Congress party under the able leadership of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and served as the Railway Minister from 1951-1956 and Home Minister from 1956-1961. When the Late Indira Gandhi refused to succeed her father and take on the responsibility of steering India, at that point of time Shastriji took hold of the reins and went on to become the 2nd Prime Minister of independent India from 1961 till his death in 1966, succeeding Pandit Nehru. He was literally the hero of the Indo-Pak war which took place in 1965 and his famous slogan “Jai Kisan Jai Jawan”, united the country and is still fresh in the minds of all Indians. He had a very calm demeanour and in 1966 was appointed by Indian bureaucrats as the chief delegate to visit Russia to sign the Peace Treaty in Tashkent. He died mysteriously soon after the said Treaty was signed. His death was then passed off as cardiac arrest to avoid national unrest. But later on his family filed a case to probe his death and it was given to understand that Pakistani spies had actually murdered him. His wife, Lalita Shastri was a downright humble woman and led a very simple life.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Yesterday we gathered over a zoom meeting to commemorate the Bicentennial Birth Anniversary of legendary scholar Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar which would be celebrated on 26th September, 2020.
The forum was opened with a short speech by me on his various works which we all are aware of, having grown up studying “Barno Porichoy”.
Thanks was given to Shri Jyotirmoy Roy of Tripura for introducing Dr. Debabrata Deb Roy to Rabindra Bharati Society who joined in from Agartala, Tripura, to speak on the great personality. He mentioned that Rabindra Nath Tagore visited Tripura seven times. He also apprised us that Vidyasagar Mahasoy danced in glee when the Rajya Bhasha of the State was declared to be Bengali.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
A warm welcome to all of you present this evening. We had sent out a notice for participation in today’s programme which will be a one-of-a-kind in a year and received quite a few responses. Since tomorrow is Mahalaya we thought of celebrating the same through talks and songs on the said theme.
The programme started with few lines from the famous Mahisasura Mardini by Himadri Mukherjee, followed by the legendry song “Jago tumi jajo” by our very own Member, Saumitra Banerjee. A talk by Dr. Abhijit Ghosh, Gynocologist and our Member, on the conceptualisation of the early morning Mahisaruro Mardini episode by legendary Birendra Krishna Bhadra, ushered in the ambience for a perfect Mahalaya.
S. P. Biplab, our very own Member posted in Bangladesh, gave a talk on how Durga Puja is celebrated in our neighbouring country and the fun fare involving it.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Yesterday’s evening zoom meeting was a completely different sort. It was literally dedicated to personnel from our neighbouring country, Nepal with the theme “Study and Culture on Rabindra Nath Tagore in Nepal”. Bengalis from Nepal had got in touch with me and expressed their desire to join in our group and participate for Rabindra Bharati Society in some way or the other. Now with the new normal norms, we cannot congregate in any place, so the best available option is to perform digitally and that is what they did.
The programme started with a wonderful documentary on Nepal.
Shri Sitesh Dutta Choudhury, Member, Rabindra Bharati Society gave a short speech on Kabi Guru’s interaction with Nepal.
Smt. Nupur Bhattacharya, one of our senior members, has for a long time now been posted in Nepal. It was through her initiative that the Bengalis in Nepal got to know about our activities and cultural programmes. Though she wasn’t present physically in the meeting, she arranged the programme for us.
From the Desk of the General Secretary, Rabindra Bharati Society
Dear Members,
Last evening we joined the zoom meeting in a rather pensive mood to reminisce Bengal’s very own son and Ex President of India, Shri Pronob Mukhopadhyay, who rose to fame from a very humble background. We are all indeed saddened and grieved with his untimely demise after losing his battle with Covid.
The programme started with a 1-minute-silence in honour of the great soul who departed for his heavenly above on 1st September, 2020.
Thereafter, a short video was streamed of Shri Pronob Mukhopadhyay inaugurating our auditorium, Rathindra Mancha, at Jorasako Thakurbari premises on 23rd December, 2017 and some other clippings as well pertaining to him. It was followed with sharing of thoughts by all who were present that day, one going on to say that Pronobda, as he was fondly called by all, took out an ayurvedic pack of Kantha Sudharak Vati from his pocket and popped two tablets in his mouth before starting this oration. When the member asked him about it, he replied they were his “songer sathi…. golatake to thik rakhte hobe”. He said that had been his practice for years, something that nobody would know if not shared in this forum.
Justice Chittotosh Mukherjee, President, Working Committee, spoke on his interactions with Shri Pronob Mukherjee.
It was followed by a short speech by Dr. Kunal Sarkar, eminent Cardiologist and newly inducted Member of the Working Committee, on the Ex President of India.
Shri Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya, former Chief Justice, Calcutta High Court, gave his discourse on this renowned personality.
A short oration was delivered by Shri Sukhendu Sarkar Roy, M.P., regarding our beloved Pronobda. He said how closely they were connected politically and shared a few memorable snippets with us. Whenever a problem arose within the Party or otherwise, people would not hesitate to take Pronobda’s advice and everybody benefitted from it.
