Every year we have a separate theme chosen for Rabindrajayanti. This year it was “jiban jatra (journey of life)”. Since this year my own school journey is coming to an end, the theme took on a personal touch.
The theme, decided by our principal Nandini Sen, was to trace the careergraph of Rabindranath Tagore. Rehearsals that took place for over two weeks before the programme were much-awaited as it allowed us to miss classes with impunity. Our co-curricular coordinators Sanjukta Basu Sengupta and Srimoti Roy informed us that this time we would have a colourful showcase of Tagore’s entire life to present, starting from a musical medley of his favourite season, spring, to many a dance drama of his.
Helping our teachers find the most graceful dancers from amongst us was not difficult with students from Classes VI to X taking part wholeheartedly.
The show was to start at 8am but Chitrangi Roy of Class VII was still struggling to fit into her dress. “What in the world can make this dress fit me!” she exclaimed in exasperation. In fact, half of us were struggling too, be it with our make-up or with our dresses. It was chaos in the green room. Some got the length of their floral headbands wrong and some couldn’t find the bindi to be put on their forehead. Finally, struggling in saris, we got on stage to get the day’s proceedings going.
We started by paying tribute to both Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. It was followed by the song Dhonilo Ahoban in chorus, led by our music in-charge Sushmita Chatterjee, with Anurag Dutta of Class XII on the synthesizer. Before going on stage, he had nervously muttered: “I hope this doesn’t sound out of tune or monotonous!” He was, however, a great success with the next songs Elo oi bonante pagol basanta and Ami pothbhola ek pothik eshechhi. Our head teacher, Kaveri Chatterjee and vice-principal Sanghamitra Banerjee joined in, giving voice to the powerful tune of Nazrul’s Srijono chhonde.
A short presentation by Abir Ghosh of Class XII highlighted similarities in the philosophies and writings of Tagore and Nazrul.
Next was the theme item, Jibonjatra. The audience was sitting in anticipation even as we hurried with the final touch-ups. Samyak Sinha of Class IX tore away from the rest of us. “I am the only boy among you girls. Amake lipstick lagachchhis kyano?” he protested, horrified at the attempt. Pranomita Pal looked anxiously at classmate Nikita Saha, both of Class IX: “Tor kaporta amar paye jyano na joriye jay!”
The young spectators happily clapped along as we performed Amader jatra holo shuru and Ha re re re amay chhere de re, followed by “Tumi khushi thako”. Recitation by Srijoni Banik and Debmalya Das of Class VIII and Bishmadeb of Class IX was applauded. Meghabati Banik of Class IX played an affectionate mother as the others skipped and hopped about in the exuberance of childhood. As we entered the final stages of the journey, the mood in the auditorium became sombre with us singing: Jokhon porbe na mor payer chinho.
— Pritha Banerjee,
Class XII, Hariyana Vidya Mandir
