attended a wonderful musical concert today...soothing... beautiful... it was the first time for me to hear rabindra shongeet live.. and that too sung by nepali singers... i had only taken a small camera with me.. so the pictures do not do justice to the beautiful atmosphere, nor the beautiful voices...
the programme to launch the nepali celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of the first asian nobel laureate-- shree rabindra nath thakur (tagore)-- was compered jointly by robin sharma and nupurji. nupurji's translation (her own) of the songs, which she shared with the audience before each performance were in themselves sheer poetry,uttered in her mellifluous soft voice.. flowing like a river...
the programme was held at the pragya pratisthan.. this is the striking banner showing the master's handwriting bangla and english...
.. nupurji gave the welcome address once the honourable president came to the programme, and after welcoming him with chandan tika and chadar.. she said that in one of his poems poet rabindranath had wondered whether anyone would hear his works and words a hundred years hence... and now we were celebrating his songs and works on his 150th anniversary...
indian ambassador followed her...
.. then the president lighted the inaugural diyo...
... and launched the nepali version of the famous geetanjali.. which was translated sixty years ago by khagendra pradhananga, the father of playwright ashesh malla, and now reprinted by the b.p. koirala foundation...
the president spoke for a short while, first fumbling for his glasses that he had left behind in his seat... he said he was attracted to robindroshongeet when he was student himself in kolkota... at the end he apologised to all present, especially the singers, that he couldn't sit and listen to their sangeet as he had to attend another function too...
.. after the president's departure, the programme began with the singers of the anadalok ensemble-- nupur bhattacharya, robin sharma, biswajit (biltu) ghosh, sangita pradhan rana, sushmita talukdar, tapas pramanik, anjana shrestha and chandana dasgupta. they sang anandaloke mongalaloke
this fuzzy picture of ashesh malla who recited a poem from the nepali geetanjali translated by his father. he said it was when he was translating geetanjali that his father came across the word 'ashesh' (meaning endless) and chose the name for his son!
next it was nilanjana bhattacharya (nupurji's daughter) with a solo o aamar chander alo
a couple of songs later, including a duet by nupurji and robin, as well as by sushmitaji, it was a surpise to hear the hemant kumar-like voice of biswajit ghosh. we know him as biltu, mr and mrs ghosh' son. hearing his flowing voice, and seeing him reminded me of the late mrs. ghosh, who was very attached to deviji... sigh! he sang katobar bhebechhinu
next it was bimla rai's (with training in robindroshongeet) turn to sing the 'springy' song basante phool ganthlo.
this dark and fuzzy image of nupurji and sangitaji singing a beautiful duet on rainfall esho shyamala sundara
next robin sharma with his deep voice, sang the aabar eshechhe asar
there were several other songs... the only nepali song in rabindrasangeet, nupurji singing purana ti dinka kura (purano sei dinaer katha).. a solo shehdin dujane dulechhinu bohe by chandana sengupta and an extrememly beautiful rendition of dariye aachho tumi by sangita pradhan, who also trained in robindroshongeet in bengal..
then it was the turn of the anthem aekla cholo re (walk alone)sung by the choir. click on the link to hear the last stanza of the inspirational song...
the last presenation was the song khol dwar khol, laglo je dol again sung by the choir, during which girls from the kendriya vidyalaya in lazimpat danced down the aisles...
... and then performed a group dance on the stage...
... and that brought the curtains down on the robindroshongeetanjali
