The cultural centre Chhayanot, vandalised and partially torched as fresh unrest gripped Dhaka in December, is back on its feet.
The institution has just concluded its two-day classical music festival, an annual feature in its calendar, in the same auditorium that was attacked. Singing classes have resumed in the very classrooms that were ransacked, and the annual evaluation of trainees, held every January, has not been pushed back.
“The attackers wanted us to sever our ties with our culture. We took it as a challenge to come back within a fortnight,” said Sarwar Ali, president of Chhayanot.
In his inaugural address at the classical music festival on Friday, Ali told the audience that no single country could claim the cultural legacy of Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Lalon Sai or Bijit Lal Das. “Their legacy belongs to all Bengalis,” he said.
“The legacy of Charjapad, Lalon Sai, Rabindranath, Nazrul, Jasimuddin, Bijit Lal Das and Sahabuddin Karim does not belong to any foreign country. Their legacy belongs to all Bengalis.”
Singing tutorials at Chhayanot Sangeet Bidyayatan resumed on January 3. Classes at Nalanda, the school run by the organisation, also resumed within a day or two of the attack.
The classical music festival, Suddhasangeet Utsab, was originally scheduled for January 1 and 2 but had to be deferred to January 9 and 10. A member of Chhayanot said the immediate focus after the attack in the early hours of December 19 was repairing damaged halls, classrooms and offices. “We could not have held the festival on January 1 and 2, but we were determined not to delay it any longer,” he said.
The auditorium where the festival was held had also been targeted in the attack. A backdrop was ripped apart and a curtain was damaged. Despite this, the auditorium overflowed with visitors during the festival.
“The auditorium has space for 350 people. We do not have chairs; people sit on the floor to listen. Our assumption is that around 550 people attended each of the three sessions,” said a Chhayanot member.
Besides trainees and teachers of the institution, guest artistes performed at the festival.
Chhayanot has 35 classrooms. Many bore soot marks on the walls after the attack and had to be repainted. One room, however, has been left untouched. The blackened wall has been preserved as a reminder of what the institute endured.