It’s been close to two decades since the first big-ticket Rabindra-jayanti programme was held in Salt Lake’s Central Park. Over the years, it has inspired more such shows in the township, attracting big names and bigger bucks. But the enthusiasm of the organisers and the audience was just as much when the first initiatives were taken to give Salt Lake a taste of its own Rabindrajayanti.

1997
(From top left clockwise) Subinoy Roy, Maya Sen and Rama Mondal at the first Rabindrajayanti celebration by Bidhannagar Sanskriti Angan at Central Park in 1997. (Below Right) A full house in attendance in the first edition

“I lived in Shyambazar before moving to Salt Lake in the 80s and on Rabindrajayanti, I would take the first tram to Rabindra Sadan to listen to the programme there. But after shifting to Salt Lake, it became difficult to reach Rabindra Sadan so early in the morning,” says Subhas Pal, the general secretary of Bidhannagar Sanskriti Angan that held the function at Central Park till 2011.

So in 1997, his group organised its first Tagore birth anniversary meet, drawing 50 singers including Dwijen Mukhopadhyay of HA Block and Chitralekha Chowdhury. In a township starved of cultural programmes, around 1,000 residents flocked to the venue in the first year. That year the expenses had come to Rs 84,000.

More the merrier

Purbachal Central Committee has been celebrating the bard’s birth anniversary since 1994 — earlier than Sanskriti Angan — but they did so with in-house talent and a modest budget of Rs 1,200. From 1999, they too started inviting guest artistes.

“We received a lot of help from Mita Chatterjee, a resident who ran a cultural organisation. Poet Amitabha Bagchi, who was her friend, helped us bring in artistes, as did our block resident, the veteran singer Subinoy Roy, and his son Suranjan Roy,” said Mihir Gupta, former secretary of Purbachal Cultural Committee.

The reason behind introducing guest artistes was to raise the quality of the programme. “The Central Park event used to be a huge crowd-puller and we too wanted our programme to get popular,” says Gupta.

Money matters

Chatterjee, who is still a part of the Purbachal celebrations, remembers facing a cash crunch in the beginning. “There was a time when we could not even pay conveyance charges to our performers but 2006 onwards, we are paying elderly performers for conveyance. We are also in a position now to hand them small gifts and food packets,” she says. Their funds are set aside from the residents’ annual subscription.

2013
Sriradha Bandyopadhyay at the Purbachal Central Committee event. Pubali Debnath (centre) and Chandrabali Rudra at Central Park. (Saradindu Chaudhury)

But Sanskriti Angan has suffered a blow. The organisation was ousted from Central Park in 2012 when the municipality decided to hold its own Rabindrajayanti. Since then they have been cooped inside EZCC. “Our budget dropped from Rs 5 lakh in 2011 to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2012 as the auditorium capacity fell from 4,000 to 960,” says Pal.

“It’s not that residents are taking our shows for granted, but nobody comes up to help us financially. We do not charge an entry fee either. We are facing a cash crunch and there is no help from the government or private sources. It is becoming difficult for us to continue putting up a show of such magnitude,” he adds. This year, too, they hosted prominent names like Chitralekha Chowdhury, Rajeshwar Bhattacharya, Rezwana Chowdhury Bonya and Promita Mullick.

Growing numbers

Sanskriti Angan had begun with a 15-member advisory committee comprising singers Enakshi Chattopadhyay, Ashish Bhattacharya, Subinoy Roy and Santideb Ghosh along with the then civic chief, the late Dilip Gupta, and the late economist Amlan Dutta, who was a local resident. Chattopadhyay is still on the committee and says that despite the change in venue and drop in budget the audience has not turned away from their show.

“Earlier, we would come to Salt Lake to perform for small gatherings but the big crowd that now gathers here on Rabindrajayanti is a high for any performer,” says Chattopadhyay.

Singer Alok Roychowdhury, who performed in Purbachal and EZCC this year, misses the open-air ambience of Central Park. “Where is the romance of the sweat and the grime in this air-conditioned hall?” he said.

But the changes have not deterred music lovers, who continue to flock to the shows. Says Abhiroop Guhathakurata, a resident who has been attending Rabindrajayanti at Purbachal every year: “As the organisers have maintained the standard of the show, it continues to be an enjoyable experience. The gathering keeps getting bigger every year,” he smiled.

celebrations around the twin townships
(Left) Arjun Chakraborty and Swagatalaxmi Dasgupta sing for Bidhannagar Sanskriti Angan at EZCC, (below) a chorus performance by HA Block Residents Forum. (Right) Dr P.B. Sarkar demonstrates his interactive Gitabitan Archive DVD at Rabindra Tirtha, New Town. (Saradindu Chaudhury and Mayukh Sengupta)