Engineers are not always solely occupied with constructing bridges and roads; they are equally conscious of the richness of their mother tongue. That is what motivated the members of BE College Ex-students’ Club, Bidhannagar, to celebrate poet Rajanikanta Sen’s 150th birth anniversary and Bhasha Dibash. 

The previous day being Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s birthday, Bhabasagara tarana was chosen as the opening song. “Kantakabi”’s patriotic song Maer deoa mota kapor set the tone for an evening charged with patriotic fervour and faith. “Though Rajanikanta has enriched the world of music with a wide gamut of songs, he is most remembered for his devotional songs. The period from 1861 to 1871 was a golden decade as it witnessed the birth of four stalwarts in music — Rabindranath Tagore, Dwijendra Lal Ray, Rajanikanta Sen and Atul Prasad Sen,” said the Club’s cultural committee chairman, Amal Dam.

The first half of the programme was called Amar Bangla, featuring performances of popular compositions like Atulprasad’s Moder garab moder asha and Pratul Mukherjee’s Ami Banglay gaan gai. Apart from recitation of  poems by Bangladeshi poet Abdul Latif to mark ekushey February.  Mitali Ghosh recited a poem by Manish Ghatak in honour of 16-year-old Kamala Bhattacharya, the youngest and only female martyr of the Bengali Language Movement of 1961 in Silchar.

Shardho Shatabarshe Rajanikanta, the programme’s second part, showcased the poet’s romantic, satirical, humourous, patriotic and of course devotional songs. “Taba charana nimne, which was composed impromptu at a gathering became very popular, such was Rajanikanta’s talent. He got introduced to D.L. Ray at Rajshahi, which inspired his satires and humourous creations. His book Amrita contains short poems in lucid language with moral lessons for children,” said one of the organisers, Soumitro Maity.  
“In Bangladesh, one can hardly spot any Bangla words misspelt, such is their reverence for their mother tongue.

Through events like these we want Bengalis here to develop such love and respect for the language,” said club vice-president Samaresh Bandopadhyay.