On the 114th birth anniversary of Rabindrasangeet exponent Sailajaranjan Majumdar, a music school was opened at AD 276, where he spent his last years. A programme was held at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan to mark the launch.
Organised by Salt Lake Surangama, the ceremony was attended by poets Sankha Ghosh, Kali Krishna Guha and curator of Rabindra Tirtha Anup Motilal. Guha recalled an occasion when he heard Majumdar singing the Tagore song Bhubaneshwar hey. “I went back home after the show but two lines from the song — Timir ratri ondho jatri — kept me up all night,” said Guha. He added that though Majumdar joined Santiniketan as a professor of chemistry in 1932 he later became the head of Sangeet Bhavan.
Motilal shared anecdotes about the singer’s life. “A native of Netrokona, in present-day Bangladesh, Majumdar was born in 1900 and got his first music lesson from his grandmother. In 1918, he heard a Tagore song, accompanied by the piano, and decided to learn it,” said Motilal.
Annual notes
AE Block-based music school Sameepyo held its 13th annual programme at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan recently.
The school teaches Rabindrasangeet, Hindustani classical music, Nazrulgeeti, songs of Atul Prasad, Dwijendrageeti etc. and the students performed all that they’ve learnt in the past year.
Thirteen junior students sang Anandolokey mangalalokey, the inaugural song. Thereafter, song-and-script were presented both in solo and chorus. This included numbers like Aakash bhora surjo tara and Aaji subhodiney pitar bhaboney.
In the second half of the programme, senior students took stage. Three songs Moha biswa mohakashey, Noi noi e madhur khela and Bipul torongo were sung in chorus and 14 other songs were performed solo.
“We had started this music school with four students but we now have a strength of 35. They learn different forms of Indian music,” said Santanu Gupta, a founder-member.
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