The Midlands Indian Association (MIA) celebrated the birthday of Rabindranath Tagore at Walsall, West Midlands on the 17th June, 2018. The programme was well attended and started with a rendition of Tagore’s poems and songs by a group of talented young children. The recital and singing were all of high quality. The polished performance, aided by the flawless diction of the Bengali words, of the young generation of kids left the audience spellbound.
It shows the future on Indian culture is in very capable hands at the MIA. This was followed by a wonderful presentation of Tagore’s works by the renowned celebrity Mrs Saswati Guhathakurta. Her melodious voice, measured emotion and expressive recital brought Tagore to life. She concluded her performance with a mesmerising reading from Lipika.
The final part of the show comprised of a captivating performance called Aloy Phera (waking up to light), an experimental work on the relevance of Tagore, then and now. It started with the concept of enlightenment in 19th Century Bengal from darkness with Upanishadic sloka, song aguner parashmani and further elaborate presentation of poems and songs including je rate more duarguli, nirjharer sapnabhanga, edin aaji konghare go, and suprabhat.
After a subtle hint at Bengali renaissance, it moved to the remembrance of Tagore today and went on to present some of the masterpieces of Tagore’s works, including the song ei kathati mone rekho, poem Taaj Mahal (e katha janite tumi) and excerpts from Sesher kabita. The pathos of biraha (heartache of the estranged lover) was beautifully brought to life by soulful rendering of kandale tumi more, bhalobashar i ghaye.
This was followed by a poem written for this occasion by the programme director, and then the song andhakarer utso hote utsarito alo. After a chorus of aloker ei jharnadharay, it concluded with the Indian National Anthem, Jana Gana Mana, which incidentally was also written by Rabindranath Tagore. All in all, this was a highly enjoyable evening and left the audience with an enthralling experience.
