The Bengal Heritage Foundation and London Sharad Utsav from the UK are now making their way to Kolkata, the City of Joy, to promote Bengal's Tourism. This initiative has been taken up by both the organisations to ensure a cultural exchange between UK and Bengal, as a follow up from West Bengal Toursim Secretary Atri Bhattacharyya's visit to London earlier this year.
The members will meet at the Victoria tramcar in Kolkata viz. 'Victoria on wheels,' on December 30th, which also promotes Bengal's culinary journey. A newly refurbished tramcar, designed as a fine-dining 28-seater restaurant, is an innovative way to keep the city's tram service alive. It runs from Shahid Minar to Kidderpore, in Kolkata, offering non-vegetarian and vegetarian meals and some sightseeing on the way. Kolkata's tram system is operated by the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC), and is the only tram network operating in India. It is the oldest operating electric tram system in Asia, running since 1902 and was a part of the British initiative in the country, during their colonial rule.
Anirban Mukhopadhyay, President of the London Sharad Utsav, Sourav Niyogi, President of Bengal Heritage Foundation with wife Tanusree, Mahua and Jayanta Bej, Sambrita Das, Avi and Shreyoshee, Bhaskar and Gitanjali Bhattacharya are heading to Kolkata with respective families to be a part of this unique initiative. They will be joined by Atri Bhattacharyya to discuss further plans of cross-cultural promotion. Dr Saptarshi Basu, of the Ballygunje Cultural Association Pujo, Subir Das of the 75 Palli Pujo and Dulal Seal of the Ahiritola Pujo, will also join the team to identify how the Kolkata Pujos can collaborate with LSU and UK Pujos as part of LSU’s unique initiative called Global Durga Puja, whereby the Kolkata Pujos and UK ones interact with each other through live video.
From the tram, BHF and LSU will announce their various yearly projects as well as their plan to launch the Fagun Fest of 17th February, at Bhavans, West London. The organisations are working closely with the British Council, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Bangla Natok, in getting 3 Baul Shilpis (folk singers) over to the UK from West Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.
Mukhopadhyay told Asian Voice, “Following the grand success of last year, we will organise a football tournament in June, a cricket tournament in August and of course Rabindra Jayanti in May. Like every year we will also organise the Biswa Sharad Samman- the initiative to promote Durga Puja of Bengal at a global level- a durga puja rating contest where the foreign visitors to Kolkata Pujas act as judges.”
