Bengalis Celebrate Kabijayanti
Bengali Association of Greater Atlanta (BAGA) celebrated "Kabijayanti" (a felicitation of poets) on May 7th in a gracious way at Shamrock middle school with an audience of over three hundred. The program was dedicated to the stalwarts of Bengali literature such as Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul Islam, Sukanto Bhattacharya and others. The evening was filled with the concoction of poems, dances and songs from various genres.
Mrs. Mamata Paul, president of BAGA, introduced the new BAGA committee and welcomed the audience with her eloquent speech. Mrs. Shraboni Bhattacharya a poetic emcee stitched the whole program with her sweet melodious voice. Mrs. Debashree Datta started with "Jagotey anondojoggey, amaar nimontron?" It was followed by "Chokhey amaar trishna?" and "kushum e kushum e charono chinho?". Mrs. Richa Sarkar recited the marvels from the quivers of the famous poets like Annadashankar Roy, Shakti Chattopadhyay and Purnendu Potri.
The prime attraction of the evening was the group rendition named "Jaltarongo". The coordination and song selection was excellent. The whole theme was directed by Dr. Raktim Sen. BAGA theme song "Ek chhotto bangla gorechhee?" was performed in chorus punctuated with the slideshow video projection. It was very easy for the onlookers to track down their own roots in Bengal through the melancholic tune. "Nabo anondey jago?" was the second chorus in the theme. Mrs. Mohua Mukherjee and Dr. Sohini Datta performed the second song "shukno pataar nupur paye.." very graciously. Mrs. Mohua Mukherjee performed her two solos with perfection. The numbers were " Sagor dakey aye?" and " Naa mono lagey naa..". Dr. Sohini Datta sang "O mor moina go.." with her sweet voice. The last two songs of the group performance made the audience dance on their toes. The popular numbers were taken from two bengali bands, ?Paroshpathor' and ?Bhumi'. "Ajee gaaner taaley hridoy doley.." and "kaandey shudhu mon keno kaandey re.." were applauded by audience with a non-terminating reverberance. The lead singer of those two popular last numbers was Mr. Rupak Das. He also accompanied most of the songs on tabla. The superb accompaniment and harmonization was done by Dr. Raktim Sen, Mr. Ashoke Sarkar and Dr. Bhaskar Datta. Dr. Sen was flawless on the keyboard.
Rituranga came next in the queue. A wonderful production performed by the kids. The choreography was done by famous bharatnatyam dancer Natyashree Mrs. Anupa Guha Thakurta, Mrs. Madhumita Bhattacharya and Mrs. Ria Rakshit. Rituranga encompasses the six fascinating seasons of Bengal. "Esho he boishakh..", " himer o raatey oyee gagoney?" and " orey bhai fagoon legechhey boney boney?" were some of the songs performed in Rituranga. In total, Rituranga contributed superbly to the success of the kabijayanti evening.
"Shodhbodh", written by Rabindranath Tagore was staged by the local talents. The drama and its music was directed by Dr. Raktim Sen. The main caste were Sanjoy Mukherjee, Moumita Mitra, Indronil Chowdhury, Dr.Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Urmi Datta. The supporting caste was equally good in acting.
- Lopa Das Chowdhury
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