Councillor Tulsi Sinha Roy plants a sapling in front of Dishari Bhavan while civic chairperson Krishna Chakraborty sprinkles water on it. Picture by Saradindu Chaudhury

Bidhannagar Horticultural Society celebrated Forest Week by distributing 650 saplings free to township residents recently. The event was held at Dishari Bhavan in DD Block. Over 200 people are estimated to have come.

Among the 16 varieties of flowers were Jasmine, Gardenia (Gandharaj) and Inxora (Rangan). For the first time, a flower called Yesterday Today Tomorrow was given out. It is so named as it appears violet, yellow and white on three consecutive days.

Eight fruit varieties including Lemon, Chiku and Pomegranate and four kinds of foliage were given out. Everyone got three plants each.

Municipality chief Krishna Chakraborty and councillor Tulsi Sinha Roy were present on the occasion. While Chakraborty spoke on the need for organised planting of trees, Sinha Roy asked residents to promote greenery and protect against global warming. The two went on to plant a Mussaenda outside the hall.

“I’m an avid plant lover and will plant the saplings I get today in my house as well as on the road dividers,” said Sumitra Basu, a resident of DL Block, who had come to pick up some plants. “Our block’s ladies club had planted lots of trees there before but the authorities chopped them off for Metro construction.”

Staging Tagore

EC Block-based Dancers’ Guild staged Tagore’s dance drama Chitrangada recently at EZCC. The version enacted was neither a revival of the earlier one choreographed by Dancers’ Guild founder Manjusri Chaki-Sircar 25 years ago nor a remake of Esho Sundara Niralankar, another production based on the dance drama staged a decade back.

Members of Dancers’ Guild on stage

What the audience saw was a collaborative venture between Aishika Chakraborty, an ex-student of the guild, and Jonaki Sarkar, director of the guild. While Aishika scripted and conceived the show, Jonaki helmed the production after a month-long workshop on kalaripayattu, an ancient Indian martial art from of Kerala. They were assisted by Sadhana Hazra, the lead dancer.

Chitrangada tells the tale of the Manipuri warrior princess who eventually became the queen of Arjuna and mother of the brave Babruvahana from the epic Mahabharata. The script merged two different texts of Chitrangada written by Tagore at different periods of his life and was punctuated with his songs, poems and some instrumental pieces. It depicted the story of three women — the self which is the unchanging identity of Chitrangada, while the two others, Surupa and Kurupa, portrayed the exterior selves in two separate ways.

The stage was beautifully decorated by scroll painters from Midnapore, Moyna and Maleek Chitrakar, who took up their brushes to capture the moments of the rehearsals and recreate the narrative of Chitrangada in their own style. Arindam Dey’s contemporary scrolls told another version of the story.

The free-flowing script with its twists and turns and the dancers playing their part made the show an all-round success.

Sadhana Hazra as Kurupa deserves special mention and the well-synchronised group dances by the sakhis added colour to the vibrant show. The production was co-ordinated by secretary of the guild Parbati Gupta.