Rabindrasangeet to start the day at Bani Niketan Library’s Rabindra Jayanti programme. Picture by Gopal Senapati

The Baisakh heat was full on, but that did not prevent Rabindra connoisseurs to gather from as early as five in the morning to celebrate the poet. From recitations to his songs, dance dramas and plays, Rabindra Jayanti on May 9 was full of Tagoreana and more.

From 6.30am, residents of Ramrajatala gathered at the ground floor hall of the Santragachhi Public Library to listen to songs, poetry and reading on Rabindranath. Since 1987, the library authorities have been organising Rabindra Jayanti at this hall where a marble bust of Tagore was installed that year. The morning started with secretary Subhas Chandra Bose’s welcome speech. This was followed by Subhasish Bhattacharya’s recitation of Tagore’s last poem that he wrote on his birthday in 1941. Amitananda Moitra pens his thoughts on Rabindranath every year on Panchishey Baisakh and reads it out at the library programme. The programme is incomplete without Srabani Dey and Roma Sinha’s songs and Deepa Biswas recited a piece from Sesher Kabita. Since this is the centenary year of Geetanjali, Sulagna De recited a few of the English poems from Geetanjali.

In another corner of Howrah, at Bally Ghoshpara, members of Nicwon Centre for Performing Arts took out a prabhat pheri (early morning procession) at 5.15am. This was the 16th year of celebration of Tagore’s birth anniversary and the theme was Tagore’s play Phalguni. The procession walked around the narrow lanes of Ghoshpara as members sang Ore bhai phagun legeche bone bone, Eto din je bose chilem, Chokher aloye dekhe chilem and so on. Dancers of Nicwon’s ballet troupe performed to Amader khepiye beraye, Ore aaye re tobe maat re. In keeping with the theme, dancers performed with ektaras to Basantey sur maatlo and Sabai jaare sab diyeche. Dandiya dance is a regular item at Nicwon’s programme and this year the students danced to Amra bhalo manush noi re. As in other years, the members of the group again tied rakhis on the wrists of bystanders and whoever they met on the way. “Many cultural groups and clubs took part in our programme,” said Partho Nag, the director of Nicwon Centre for Performing Arts.

With an election embargo imposed on the new Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC) board, Rabindra Jayanti was a simple affair of song and dance at Sarat Sadan. Local singers and cultural groups were invited to perform in a short programme on this day.

Dandiya dance at the prabhat pheri organised by Nicwon CPA

In the evening at 5.45 pm at Mandirtala, Central Howrah Utsav organised Rabindra Jayanti for the ninth year. It started with a chorus performance by group members who sang Joy tobo bichitra ananda. The stage was all set for Rabindrasangeet artistes from Howrah and Calcutta. Chandrabali Rudra Dutta presented E monihar amaye nahi saje while Rajeswar Bhattacharya sang Khara bayu boy bege. Pranati Thakur recited a portion from Geetanjali and Kajol Sur read excerpts from writings on Rabindranath and his works.

In between these were performances by artistes from Howrah like Swapna Ghoshal, Moumita Bandopadhyay, Subhranil Kundu, Sikha Ghosh and others. A 20-minute dance performance with a compilation of poems taken from Rabindranath’s works was a special attraction of the evening. “The theme of the dance was Kabir Bhabanaye Janmadin. It included a compilation of excerpts from various poems by Tagore where he had written about his thoughts on his birthday or how he would like to celebrate it,” said Rajiv Chandra, secretary of Central Howrah Utsav. The little ones of the group also recited a compilation of poems.