With songs, poems, stories and paintings, friends and associates from The Bengal came together to remember former president Sunil Gangopadhyay at ICCR on Saturday evening. Actor Arindam Sil played host, taking the gathering through Gangopadhyay’s works. Film-maker Goutam Ghose recited from a book of poems that the writer had gifted his wife in 1991, while musician Bickram Ghosh remembered Suniljethu and growing up on his novels and poems. Usha Uthup, who could not be present, sent her recording of Frank Sinatra’s My Way. Roopa Ganguly sang Aachhey dukkho, aachhey mrityu (picture extreme left). “I don’t think he realised how much he was loved by so many of us. Being a poet myself, it makes me proud to see so much love in people’s hearts for a Bengali poet. At the same time, even if he had never written a poem in his life, people would still remember him with as much love because he wrote three novels that will remain classics,” said writer Nabaneeta Dev Sen (picture left with the Gangopadhyay’s wife Swati), who will take over as the president of The Bengal. “He had this amazing quality to remember things from the past and observe people acutely. That is probably what made him a great writer. Apart from other things, we connected very well because both our roots were in Faridpur, Bangladesh,” said artist Jogen Chowdhury, after gifting a sketch of the writer to Swati and their son Souvik. The Bengal also announced the Sunil Gangopadhyay Award for Excellence in Bengali Literature of Rs 2 lakh, to be given annually for the next three years. On Sunday evening, members of magazine Krittibas, founded and edited by Gangopadhyay, remembered him at a programme at Rabindra Sadan. The guests included Swati, Souvik (picture right), film-maker Mrinal Sen, poet Nirendranath Chakraborty, writer Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Jogen Chowdhury and Goutam Ghose. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya and Sanat Kr Sinha)