Members of Gitayan Sangeet Academy on song. (Saradindu Chaudhury)

Gitayan Sangeet Academy, an AC Block-based music school, hosted its 31st annual programme at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan recently.

The function was divided in three phases, each with a specific theme. The first showcased the children of the academy. Their spontaneous singing was accompanied by narration by 10-year-old Sayari Sarkar.

The second phase was dedicated to Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali, commemorating the centenary of his Nobel Prize in 1913. A selection of 23 songs followed, along with narration and quotes by authors like W.B. Yeats, Abu Sayeed Ayub and Sankha Ghosh on the Gitanjali and Tagore.

Jabar bela ei kathati, sung by Goutam Baran Adhikari, deserve special mention. Adhikari, a disciple of Shantidev Ghosh, is an architect by profession and is the chief instructor of the academy. His students Barnali Pal, Snigdha Kar Acharya, Biswajit Roy, Swarup De, Ashish Mitra, Agnish Jana and Sutapa Ganguly presented lesser-known songs of Tagore.

The third phase, titled Shesh Paranir Kori, concentrated on songs composed by Tagore in the last 10 years of his life. Jakhon Brishti Namlo, sung by Camelia Aich in this section, was impressive. The event came to a close with a chorus of Oi mohamanob ashey.

Listeners like Ashita Ghose of GC Block appreciated the music and the thought-provoking narratives through which a lot of information was disseminated.

Bharati Kanjilal

Books & beyond

All the seats were taken at BF Park and there were people sitting even on the benches around trees as authors Samaresh Majumdar and Swapnamay Chakraborty came down for the foundation day celebrations of the block’s library recently.

BF Block Residents Association Library is situated on the first floor of their community hall and this year it turned 19.

Majumdar shared what inspires him to write: “I can’t write on the same topic twice as I would find it monotonous and am lucky that I still haven’t run out of ideas. I find new impetus to write when readers tell me that a book of mine has moved them.”

While he has readers in Bengal and in Bangladesh, he lamented that the former are not as liberal as the latter. “Readers in Bangladesh have never had a problem with my protagonist blowing a conchshell but whenever my characters are shown performing namaz, my book sales in Bengal have been dismal,” said Majumdar, shaking his head sadly. “Publishers say that sales will pick up if I change the religion and names of the characters but I have refused.”

Chakraborty told the audience about his life and about how his experiences of working in fields as diverse as land reforms and metrology have influenced his writings. “I have read more chemistry, psychology and meteorology than literature and the reader in me has influenced the writer in me strongly,” he said.

Residents listened to the authors with rapt attention and asked questions on their writings. One such resident, Tushar Kanti Roy Chaudhury, felt readers were more interested in books if authors were invited to meet them once in a while for such interactions.

Chairperson of the library Krishna Ganguly said they were struggling to increase their membership. “The library achieved a membership of 100 people within its first 10 years but the figure doesn’t seem to rise beyond 100 or 120 now. Children join every year but discontinue due to studies,” she said.