Colours of Rongali Bihu in City of Joy

By Ratan Bhattacharjee

The Kolkata Assamese Cultural Association is a wonderful team of young and veteran artists and writers, dancers and singers who give the show of Rongali Bihu a brilliant ambience each year.
Bohag matho ata ritu no hoi (Bohag is not just a season), sang Bhupen Hazarkia, the legendary cultural ambassador of Assam. This year too, there was no exception. Life suddenly bloomed like the Kopou festivity when the spring comes. It is a wonderful feeling of heart and mind where cultural diversities are melted into one cauldron of unity.
Laughter and gaiety, enthusiasm and energy were never in dearth and the whole-hearted participation of the Assamese and Bengali artists gave the Rongali Bihu 2018 in Kolkata a glorious height of performance. It shows how culturally Assamese and Bengali people are close.
The Baul singers with their dotara go hand in hand with young Assamese singers with dhol, pepa and gogona.
Spring inspires people everywhere to come out and celebrate. From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to the Roman Valentine celebrations, spring brings to the mind of the people the sunny feelings of American Cherry Blossoms. In Kolkata too, people enjoy the beauty of Kopou flowers, which are iconic of Assamese culture.
But it was a stormy evening of Sunday and yet the city of joy was resonant with the sounds of dhol-pepa-gogana again on May 13 when the Kolkata Assamese Cultural Association (KACA) showcased the rich and diverse culture of Assam by organising the yearly Rongali Bihu celebration anchored Pallavi Gogoi.
The highlight of the evening was Simanta Sekhar who amazed the audience with delightful numbers.
Eminent Baul folk artist Padmashree Purnendu Baul was felicitated. The nationally renowned choreographer, Sudarshan Chakraborty, and others were also felicitated on this festive display of regional culture.
The programme started with a Mukoli Bihu by the members of the association where others too joined for dancing and also with their cameras. The felicitation with fuloni gamocha is another important event. The well dressed Assamese young men in dhoti and punjabi and the women in Muga sadar gave the occasion a dignity of its own.
Students of Padmini Dance Academy paid tribute to their founder late Monideepa Sarkar Mukherjee by performing a beautifully choreographed dance drama. The annual publication Sristi, the magazine of KACA, was released by eminent journalist Tamal Kanti Ghosh. The Bihu team of KACA ‘Ramdhenu’ had their brilliant performance that enthralled the audience. Every year, this Bihu celebration is attended by eminent personalities from various places of India and the states of Assam and Bengal. The harmonious feeling enervates all.
The magazine ‘Sristi’, edited by Ratul Bezbaruah, is a wonderful trilingual landmark of literary creativity accommodating writings from all over India in Assamese, Bengali and English. It is an interesting fact to know that Assamese culture is promoted through Rongali Bihu in Delhi and Haryana to usher in spring. The songs of Simanta Sekhar enthralled their ears while the beautiful dances made a colourful feast for their eyes and the impressions were really indelible. Suddenly the drab and dull routine of life got a new lease of colourful and melodious spell.
The celebration of Bhupen Hazarika’s birth anniversary was also a grand event organised a few months ago by KACA.

(The author is Associate Professor and Chair of Post Graduate
Department of English, Dum Dum
Motijheel College, Kolkata)