With the tried and tested anti-imperialistic stand caught in a melee, the state-sponsored Bangla Ganasangeet Mela (October 9-15) at the Rabindra Sadan-Nandan campus made a sincere effort to set the record straight and turn a few tables upside down when required.

The pessimism of Salil Chowdhury?s Gnayer Badhu, first recorded by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, gave way to Purabi Mukhopadhyay?s redressal composed by Anathbandhu Das. Hemanga Biswas? Shankhachil, was rendered by protege Amitava Mukhopadhyay.

But the man who took the October 10 evening to starry heights with an outstanding 70-minute recital was Tommy Sands (in picture), the legendary Irish singer on his maiden India trip. Taking on the stage with daughter Moya, a guitar-strumming Sands made friends with the capacity audience in no time, making them sing Home Away From Home, taking them to the roots of Irish revolutionary politics with the stirring They Were Roses.

Pete Seeger got a tribute as well (Where Have All The Flowers Gone). This mother of all anti-war songs was preceded by Sands? ballad on a terminally-ill Japanese girl who made a thousand paper-cranes to overcome the Hiroshima tragedy. Sands? conviction stood tall.