A file picture of Pratima Barua-Pandey travelling in a bus in Gauripur. Though she came from the royal family, she was known for her joyful camaraderie with the people. Picture courtesy: Prabin Hazarika

Dhubri/Gauripur, Dec. 28: A grieving Gauripur today enfolded its celebrated daughter Pratima Barua-Pandey’s mortal remains into its collective consciousness before she was cremated with full state honours at her family’s ancestral cremation ground at Hawa Khana, Matiabagh.

Every nook and corner of the town resonated with the folk singer’s geet, even as thousands of mourners joined the last leg of her final journey. People from all walks of life, including eminent cultural personalities, assembled at the Gauripur Math for a last glimpse of the “princess who popularised the songs of the people”. Most were seen weeping inconsolably.

The legendary artiste breathed her last at a private nursing home in Guwahati yesterday. She was 67. She was admitted to the Guwahati Neurological Research Centre (GNRC) on December 21 night. She was put on life support on Tuesday after her condition deteriorated owing to multiple organ dysfunction. The folk singer had taken ill after returning to Gauripur following a performance at Tezpur festival on December 19.

The entire town was awake when the hearse, carrying the body of its famous daughter, reached Gauripur at 2.30 am this morning. Earlier yesterday, in a spontaneous outpouring of emotion, the people of Gauripur downed shutters as soon as news of her death reached them.

Padmashree Barua-Pandey, who belonged to the princely family of Gauripur, always shared what she often used to say “a special, passionate relation” with the land and people of Gauripur. The Gadadhar river, the serenity of the landscape near her Matiabagh home, the songs of the boatsmen riding its waters and those of the common masses were “the balm and inspiration” of her music-hungry soul. It was at the same place here 14 years ago that thousands of people had gathered to felicitate the legendary folk singer when she received the Sangeet Natak Akademi award.

The singer after her early schooling at Gokhale Memorial School in Calcutta returned to Gauripur where she studied at the Gauripur Girls’ High School.

The novelty of Barua-Pandey’s music lay in her voice which had the husky tone that critics consider perfect for Goalpariya lokageet. Barua-Pandey was also taken to the Dhubri district headquarters, six km from Gauripur, where people, including top government officials and students,paid their last respects to the singer whose name has till date been synonymous with Goalpariya lokageet.