Amid fun, food and fiesta; city goes back to its roots on Poila Boisakh

Rallies for peace and social integrity, cultural shows and mouthwatering Bengali dishes served in some restaurants marked the beginning of the Bengali New Year celebration in the city on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) paid tribute to Jamini Roy by organising a documentary film titled 'The Art of Jamini Roy' at Nazrul Tirtha as a part of the New Year Day celebrations. Shibabrata Roy, the artist's grandson was present at the function.

At Café Ekante, mouthwatering Bengali items were served to the guests. The traditional Bengali vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes were appreciated by the guests. There was Baul music and other musical programmes to welcome the New Year. Café Ekante at Eco Park has become an important destination for foodies. There was special menu at the Houseboat restaurant also. The state IT minister Bratya Basu organised a two-day programme on Hindusthani classical music called "Margasangeet Utsav" at Rabindra Bhavan in Dum Dum. This was for the second time when this show was held. Noted vocalists and instrumentalists like Parveen Sultana, Ustad Rashid Khan will be performing along with Hariprasad Chaurasia, Tejendranarayan Mazumdar and Shivkumar Sharma.

There was a cultural programme at Basushree cinema too. Organized by the owner of the hall Montu Basu, it had become the most important cultural event in the city till mid-1980s where stars like Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sabitri Chatterjee and Supriya Debi used to take part along with Hemanta Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Arati Mukherjee, Pintu Bhattacharya and Haimanti Shukla among others. After a gap of many years since Basu's death, the programme has been revived. Filmstars from Tollywood took part in the programme.

State Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay took out a colourful rally in his constituency at Rashbehari in the morning. The rally whose message was peace and integrity was well attended by children in colourful dresses while men and women wore traditional Bengali dhoti-kurtas and red-bordered white sarees respectively.

Meanwhile, Mayor Sovan Chatterjee treated underprivileged children to biriyani at the 'Dekho Re' programme in Laldighi. "How can I have food when they are half-fed? So I treated them with biriyani on the first day of the Bengali New Year," said Mayor.