Children take part in the sit-and-draw competition on the concluding day of Basant Mela in Bhagalpur on Sunday. Picture by Amit Kumar

Basant Mela, a five-day fair organised in the memory of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, drew guests not just from the district but Bengal too.

The fair, which concluded on Sunday, was organised for the first time to mark the sesquicentenary birthday celebrations of Tagore.

“School students successfully projected various aspects of Tagore’s creation during different competitions at the five-day event,” Ajit Trivedi, a poet from Calcutta, said while addressing a literary discussion on Tagore’s works in the afternoon.

Bhagalpur district unit of Rabindra Parishad had organised the fair in collaboration with the department of art, culture and youth affairs of the state government and All Bihar 150th Birth Anniversary Celebration Committee.

Trivedi said: “The efforts of the organisers, who brought back Tagore’s legacy through various programmes and competitions at the festival, should be appreciated.”

He also praised the different creative aspects of the great poet.

Poets Parimal Roy and Nantu Sarkar were also present on the occasion and they deliberated on Tagore’s works.

Binoy Kumar Mahata, former head of postgraduate department of Bengali at Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, also spoke about the literary genius of Tagore.

A cultural programme was also organised in the evening, where artistes from Calcutta and Bolpur in Bengal played Rabindrasangeet and presented a dance drama.