There were two items in abundance at Labony School on Rabindrajayanti — cards and fans.
The cards were playing cards —hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades — and were in massive sizes as they were full-length costumes to be worn by students performing Elem Notun Deshe, a dance drama based on Tagore’s Tasher Desh.
And the fans were the humble hathpakhas that almost every mother in the pre-primary school was using to fan her ward with. “It’s the first thing I packed in my bag today,” said Rama Bose, sweating profusely and fanning furiously as her three-year-old daughter Torsha sat before her. “It’s a miracle she’s not crying yet, what with all this make up, floral jewellery and sari that she’s got on.” Torsha had just danced to Mamo chitte with her classmates.
Rony Das, another three-year-old, had danced to Amra shobai raja and retired to his mother’s lap, weather-beaten. “I’m fanning him with the cloth he wore as waistband over his kurta,” said his mother as the boy played with the garland he had worn for his dance. It was too big for him and reached lower than the hem of his kurta but he refused to remove it.
The school takes in students aged between two-and-a-half and five years and around 125 children had taken part in the programme that day. Most were too young to understand what cards were, let alone ever having played them. “I don’t know what a card is but I know that I am a card princess today. I shall dance to some songs,” said Debosmita Mondal, wearing a placard of cards over her dress.
Headmistress Anindita Bose led around 25 teachers in a chorus of songs like Elem notun deshe and Bnadh bhenge dao as the students danced and enacted the play. “The kids performed very well despite the heat and I hope they took home the message of being spontaneous and original from the play,” she said, thanking school president and secretary of the school Harinath Ghose and Arun Chandra Lahiri and councillor Asesh Mukherjee for their support. Labony School was started in 1976 and is run by a committee formed by residents of Labony Estate.
