Cultural shows mark Tagore’s 162nd birth anniv celebrations

Kolkata: From dancing to the tunes of Tagore’s timeless compositions to reciting poems and enacting dance dramas, Bengal observed the 162nd birth anniversary of the Nobel Laureate with much fanfare.

Early in the morning, people started thronging the Jorasanko Thakur Bari to pay their tribute to Tagore. While some

were spotted singing Rabindra Sangeet, others were seen dancing to their favourite Tagore songs.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attended the state government’s programme of Rabindra Jayanti at Dhana Dhanya Auditorium in Alipore. Noted singers in the likes of Rupankar Bagchi, Lopamudra, Swagata Lakshmi Dasgupta,

pBabul Supriyo, Monomoy Bhattacharjee, Surojit, Indrani Sen, Indranil Sen to name a few and poets in the likes of Subodh Sarkar, Srijato Joy Goswami among others performed at Dhana Dhanye.

Mayor Firhad Hakim garlanded the statue of Tagore in the morning while state Education minister Bratya Basu also paid floral tribute at Rabindra Bharati University’s Jorasanko campus in the afternoon.

Union Home minister Amit Shah also visited Jorasanko to pay homage to Tagore.

It was for the first time this year that the party office of Trinamool Congress at Metropolitan in EM Bypass witnessed the celebration of Rabindra Jayanti. MPs and MLAs of

the ruling party were in a different mood while paying their tributes through songs, dance and recitations. The party

offices in different blocks and municipal wards across the state also hosted short programmes as a mark of tribute to Tagore.

State Parliamentary Affairs minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay paid floral tribute in the state Assembly.

The annual ritual continued at Visva Bharati University with students participating in various dance dramas and cultural events, but the university authorities have cut down on the Rabindra Jayanti celebration this year. As protests outside Amartya Sen’s house at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, continue, the authorities decided to cancel two programmes on Rabindra Jayanti.

Many believe that the authorities have decided to lay low this year given the protest against the eviction notice of Sen by Visva Bharati.

Meanwhile, Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose was present at the Rabindra Jayanti celebration at Indian Museum on Tuesday. An exhibition on the life, philosophies and ideologies of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was also organised on the occasion.