London Sharad Utsav (LSU) celebrated 156th birthday of Rabindranath Tagore at Nehru Centre, Mayfair London on 5 May with fervour. The members took initiative to participate in the programme, and created a beautiful collage of their talents.
In each Tagore anniversary LSU selects a theme from the vast literary work of Tagore and this year’s being ‘Tagore the traveler.’ The songs and dances pivoted around this theme. LSU recalled how Tagore created a bigger meaning of spirituality and celebration of humanity with a physical feeling of journey.
On behalf of LSU Amit Guha, Sandeep Mallick, Saikat Roychowdhury, Suranjan Som, Nripen Mondal, Sharmistha Guha, Tanusree Guha, Ranjana Banerjee, Nilanjana Nag sang for the occasion where as Bidisha Dutta, Sandhya Sen, Saheli Das Mondal, Esha Chakravarty performed the dances. Mr Piyas Barua assisted with his percussion and tabla and Mr Anirban Roychoudhury recited one of the memorable poems from Tagore. The whole programme was conducted with oration by Nirmal Nag and Sudeshna Som.
LSU is committed to promote, practise and show case Indian Bengali culture, values in London and UK. Tagore was a multi-faceted talent who became the vanguard and thought leader of Bengal, India and global community in 19th and 20th century.
As part of the event LSU also arranged an exhibition of visual arts at Nehru Centre. LSU promoted art works of artists Mahua Bej, Shinjini Thakur and Ruby Bhattacharyya. These art works are based on modern Indian art and as well as traditional folk art like Madhubani art forms, Patachitra of Bengal etc. Minister (Economy) of the Indian High Commission to UK, Mr Saikat Sensharma and Patron of Asian Voice and Editor of Gujarat Samachar CB Patel graced the occasion as guests of honour.
As per the continuity of LSU's commitment to Indian Bengali culture, they have kicked off ‘Bengal Heritage Project’ (BHP) this year and Tagore anniversary celebration was also a part of it. This project aims to propagate cultural and intellectual heritage of Bengal in UK. As a part of this LSU has initiated construction of traditional idol of Goddess Durga for annual marquee event of Durga Puja worship. LSU is collaborating with the artisans of Bengal and aims to bring them in London to demonstrate the process of idol making. They will also going to have events to promote Bengali music, handicraft and mutual business interests of Bengal and UK.
