Members of the rock band Insomnia: We are eight

A visionary rock band. Thus reads the message on their visiting cards. And it was with a vision that eight South Pointers had come together to form the South Point High School music band in 1999, taking the stage two years later at the school’s high-profile fest, Udaan, as guest performers. The boy band christened itself Insomnia and went professional with a gig at MusicWorld on July 7, 2002.

In the two years that have gone by, Insomnia’s rise as one of the most promising youth rock bands in the city has been almost remarkable. The eight-member band, inspired by rock legends Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and Janis Joplin, have been enthralling Calcuttans with their genre of “visionary rock”.

As drummer Rohit Nandi puts it, “Our symbol, of a clock running backwards with a man stuck inside, is an echo of the disturbed and restless spirit of our times. Our music is an attempt to express the anguish as well as to show the way to peace.”

With popular performances at Landmark, Someplace Else, Royal Calcutta Golf Club and MusicWorld among others to their credit, the band has also composed and arranged soundtracks for the plays Raktakarabi and Measure for Measure, directed by theatre personality Parnab Mukherjee, and PeaceWards, the Seagull Foundation PeaceWorks production directed by Jayant Kriplani in October 2003.

Organising and performing at the Reach Out Rock Concert with guest artists Cassini’s Division, Cognac, Usha Uthup, Nondon Bagchi, Katy Lai and others, in aid of the city-based NGO Reach, and playing alongside Euphoria at Presidency College in February 2003, remain memorable events in the band’s journey to fame.

But it was the Castrol Garage Rock Contest which established the band firmly in the city music scenario. It emerged champion of the eastern region and went on to bag the second runner-up award at the national finals in Mumbai in last November.

But fame is not their aim, band manager Rahul Mehra asserts. “Rather than playing music just for the sake of it, we believe in good lyrics. The anti-pressure theme defines all our songs,” says the boy who has just appeared for his HS exams from South Point.

The result is an English album entitled Cry of the Spirit, which is ready for release, and a Bengali album Bangla Gaan, set to hit the stores by October.

If the response to the gig on their second birthday is anything to go by, the octet, comprising vocalists Sayantan and Rajarshi, guitarists Bodhisattwa, Dipanjan and Shubhojit, keyboardist Sudipto, drummer Rohit and manager Rahul, sure is set to strum its way up the popularity charts.

— Madhumita Das

 

Help in need

Calcutta has extended a helping hand for one. Another case is now calling for compassionate attention.

First, the story of Siddhi Worah. After months of investigation, the 15-year-old was diagnosed with haemophagocytic lympho histocytosis, a rare disease. In fact, according to her doctor parents, she is the 180th case in the history of medical sciences.

The Class IX student of La Martiniere for Girls has had to undergo a lot — high-dose steroids, a series of chemotherapy and blood transfusion sessions, an emergency spleenectomy last October and currently, a bone marrow transplant.

The treatment is expensive. After her case was highlighted in Metro, several helping hands came forward with monetary aid. Among them were her young friends and neighbours in Rajhans Building, on Judges’ Court Road.

They organised a carnival, the profits for which were forwarded for her treatment. The youngsters did all the work — planning the games, choosing the food, playing the music, putting up the lights and the fliers. They had also set up a Wishing Well, where people dropped off personal “get well soon ” messages for Siddhi.

Also contributing to the effort was the Interact Club of LMB, which had organised a fun event, to raise money for Siddhi’s treatment.

But there is another youngster who needs help to get well. A year-and-nine-month-old Upasana Saha has congenital heart problems, called tetralogy of fallot, for which the toddler needs to undergo immediate open-heart surgery. While father Amitava’s friends and family have been helping, the self-employed man still needs to raise Rs 1,50,000 for the trip to Bangalore next week, to get his daughter treated.

The little girl had to wait to reach the right weight, and with frequent bouts of vomiting and often turning blue, she needs the surgery soon. “She is my only child and I want her to get well. I have already paid about Rs 70,000 for her treatment; I need all the help I can get,” says Amitava.

For more information, see www.geocities.com/help_upasana, or call 9830157955.

 

Dona Ganguly is welcomed at St Thomas School to inaugurate the SPICMACAY convention. Picture by Aranya Sen

Of three women

In keeping with the bicentenary celebrations of the controversial and free-spirited author George Sand, Alliance Francaise de Calcutta, Les Prometheens (a group of students and artists from Alliance Francaise) and Oxford Bookstore presented ‘George Sand, Ras Sundari Debi and Noti Binodini — A Study of Contexts’, on July 5, 6 and 7.

The three-day event was a commemoration of the lives of the three women through an exhibition. George Sand had scandalised 19th century Paris by defying conventions and pioneering an independent path for women. Ras Sundari Debi was a devoted housewife from 19th century Bengal who taught herself to read and write at a time when literacy was believed to widow women, and came up with the first full-fledged autobiography in Bengali. Binodini was a celebrated actress on the 19th century Calcutta stage whose remarkable career came to an end at age 23.

These writings bear testimony to the urge for freedom present in all three of them — very articulately in Sand, silently in Ras Sundari and with an ironic tinge in Binodini.

The exhibition was put together by Sujoy Chatterjee, Bapan Dutta, Prasanta Mondal and Arpita Mitra. It was inaugurated by Nabaneeta Dev Sen on July 5 at Oxford Bookstore. The second evening took off with a multimedia presentation on George Sand and Chopin, who were lovers for nine years. This was followed by renditions of selected pieces of Chopin by young performers of Calcutta.

The curtains came down with a panel discussion on ‘Women, Work and Family: Woman as Creator’, in which eminent scholars like Chinmoy Guha, Rajat Kanta Ray, Samik Bandyopadhyay, Samita Sen and Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty participated.

 

Culture fiesta

All roads led to St Thomas Day School earlier this month, where the SPICMACAY state convention was held. Despite a heavy shower, the event saw a huge turnout, inaugurated by Odissi danseuse and first lady of Indian cricket Dona Ganguly.

The inauguration and speeches by the dignitaries were followed by a classical vocal performance by Saunak Chatterjee, who sang the Desh and Miyan ki Todi ragas. The chairperson of SPICMACAY, Calcutta, then held an orientation programme. This was followed by a conceptual session.

Post-lunch, we were treated to the screening of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. Then followed the reading of the annual report of 2003-04 and the introduction of the new state board. Students of various institutes spoke about their experiences with the movement. The best was saved for the end — a performance by Odissi dancer Alokananda Ray.

— Sohini Dey,
Class XII, GD Birla Centre for Education

 

Marriage of the arts

There is a spring in their steps these days. And why not? Priyanka Das, Sreetama Bhattacharjee, Nilanjan Chakroborty, Abhijit Roy Chowdhury and Sreemoyee Roy Gosthipaty, school students all, are going to perform ballet-painting and music-painting, two new art forms, at Swabhumi on the evening of July 17. Also on the agenda is origami, the Japanese art of paper-cutting.

The five are students of The Singing Fingers Group, a painting school at Kasba Rathtala. Also performing will be Asim Patra, an ex-student of the school in his early 20s, who is suffering from thalassaemia.

In ballet-painting and music-painting, the feet tap in time to the music while the hands create a distinct rhythm on canvas. It’s the result of a marriage of three art forms — music, dance and painting.

The idea came from Arunava Roy Gosthipaty, director of The Singing Fingers Group, while he was idling in the streets of Paris in the late 1980s. “I saw some people painting in the rhythm of music and creating an extraordinary effect,” he recalls.

Priyanka Das, a Class VII student of BD Memorial Institute, is the oldest of the group. She has already received calls from Jakarta and the North American Bengali Conference to perform.

At the moment, the youngsters are nervous about their first stage performance, but they are confident of putting up their best. Three months of hard work surely will show.

— Subhajoy Roy,
Mitra Institution