Former Assamese actress Gyanada Kakati speaks at Rilbong Sports and Cultural Club in Shillong on Monday. Telegraph picture

Shillong, Nov. 14: A cluster of Bhupen Hazarika followers gathered here this evening to pay tribute to the balladeer but ended up recounting their personal journeys either with the maestro himself or with his songs.

The programme, organised by six cultural organisations of Shillong — Nikhil Bongo Sahitya Sammellan, Gandhar, Bourani, Bandhav Gosti, Nritya Malanchya and Rilbong Sports and Cultural Club — was held on the cultural club premises.

Adjectives on the bard flowed, followed by prayers.

Mawprem legislator and president of Rilbong Sports and Cultural Club, Manas Chaudhuri, said as a balladeer, Hazarika captured music and history.

“The songs of Hazarika are about humanity and this has enriched us,” he added.

Former Rajya Sabha MP, B.B. Dutta, said Hazarika could truly be considered as one of the greatest ballad singers of India.

“The balladeer has penned thousands of lyrics, besides books, short stories, essays, travelogues, poems and children’s rhymes,” he said.

Former Assamese actress and a close associate of Hazarika, Gyanada Kakati, who now lives in Shillong, said during all the past visits to Shillong, the singer had stayed in her house at Oakland.

According to Kakati, his life was not only for the Assamese, but for all the communities.

“He succeeded in bringing together all communities and tried to pick up their way of music,” she said. Kakati also had a stint with Hazarika at All India Radio, Shillong.

Kakati, who had represented India in the 1960 Berlin International Film Festival, said there was so much to learn from Hazarika.

Former principal of Higher Secondary School, Jail Road, Uma Purkayastha, said, “Bhupenda’s lyrics were deeply meaningful and we can say that he was one of the greatest ambassadors of communal harmony”.

She also recalled her meeting with Hazarika on a Calcutta-bound flight in 2000.

“We were on the same flight and although I was speaking with him in Assamese, he replied in fluent Bengali. He spoke about his life and his contribution to Calcutta, besides the Northeast,” Purkayastha said.

She said she was also present when Hazarika sang songs in Lady Hydari Park during Bihu in the sixties.

Journalist Patricia Mukhim said there is “no one word” to describe the balladeer Hazarika.

“All our thoughts are with him and we are fortunate to be beneficiaries of his songs,” she said.

According to her, the balladeer always had a smile while he sang songs and he could sing in any given situation. Mukhim also said Bhupenda had always encouraged young people to face the challenges of life.