Celebrating Tagore
Last Saturday, September 17, Bengali Society celebrated 150 th birth
anniversary of Rabindra Nath Tagore. Before writing about the
celebration itself, I would love to say a few words about this society.
As usual, when two people make friends, those who were left out or
didn’t join them for per reason, begin to guess, against whom this
friendship is? This was not exception here. Though I don’t belong to
this society (I mean I am not a member), I think it is foolish to stand
against those organizations aiming to spread Bengali culture here in
Russia.
I came to Moscow in 1983 and from the very first day I was a part of our cultural team, then known as “Choir Bangladesh”. Not that I was a good singer, I would say, I am not a singer at all. But those days, our senior brothers needed some new comers to support them, so I used to sing or rather cry songs. In short I worked as amplifier to them.
Thanks to that we had closer relations with those from West Bengal who were also active in their cultural life. There were many, but only a few of them, Biswarup and Sumit, are still here. So when last year we create a new organization “Bangladesh Probashee Porishad, Russia” and they took active part in our cultural life, there was always a hanging question, in which capacity they will be with us? People like them need to have their say, but an invitee is not the way to solve it. We had options like honorary member, and when we include this option in our charter, we thought about our friends from West Bengal as well as our well wishers from Russia. But for many reasons we could not take our message to them.
So when a few months ago few people in Moscow decided to organize a society to accommodate everyone who loves Bengali culture I welcomed it. And people from both Bengal find no problem to join there. Ok, there were a few questions why didn’t they do it under BPPR (we have a strong cultural wing and almost everyone, who are now taking active part in Bengali Society, are also active here). I think there is little justification in it, as when we talk about BPPR, we think about Bangladesh. And people from other side cannot find it easy, ok we have good relations, but there are some other technical questions, those needs to be answered. So in my view, BPPR should cooperate with BS and they should be complementary. In this way, both BPPR and BS will be gainer, as we don’t have too many people who can sing, or dance or entertain. If our motive is to spread Bengali culture and involve more people -Bangladeshi, Russian, Indian and others, we should and have to work hand in hand.
Now let us go back to the Interclub. On 17 th BS celebrated Tagore’s 150 birthday anniversary. In recent time it is the best program I have seen (I am talking about those involving local artists only). A few high profile Bengali experts of Russia were present there. Not every day you can meet them. Since the program was totally communicated by Biswarup Sanyal, the presentation was exceptionally good. I am not sure we could do the same in BPPR platform, as due to other commitments we have to be diplomatic and give floor to many people – as a result a cultural function becomes a bit artificial. Unfortunately, among the people present in that function, almost half were Russians, they were either specialist or studying Bengali or somehow related to Bengali culture, a handful of Indians and a few Bangladeshis give the fact that more than 50 students currently studying in PFU alone. I was proud to see how foreigners celebrates Tagore, happy to attend an exceptionally well organized and well thought program, at the same time a bit ashamed as I saw many of my friends, who side them as cultural people, Tagore lover and so on so on, skipped it. Yes, they have their reason, but when everyone find his own reason for not attending Tagore celebrations – it becomes alarming.
Bijan Saha
Dubna, September 19, 2011
I came to Moscow in 1983 and from the very first day I was a part of our cultural team, then known as “Choir Bangladesh”. Not that I was a good singer, I would say, I am not a singer at all. But those days, our senior brothers needed some new comers to support them, so I used to sing or rather cry songs. In short I worked as amplifier to them.
Thanks to that we had closer relations with those from West Bengal who were also active in their cultural life. There were many, but only a few of them, Biswarup and Sumit, are still here. So when last year we create a new organization “Bangladesh Probashee Porishad, Russia” and they took active part in our cultural life, there was always a hanging question, in which capacity they will be with us? People like them need to have their say, but an invitee is not the way to solve it. We had options like honorary member, and when we include this option in our charter, we thought about our friends from West Bengal as well as our well wishers from Russia. But for many reasons we could not take our message to them.
So when a few months ago few people in Moscow decided to organize a society to accommodate everyone who loves Bengali culture I welcomed it. And people from both Bengal find no problem to join there. Ok, there were a few questions why didn’t they do it under BPPR (we have a strong cultural wing and almost everyone, who are now taking active part in Bengali Society, are also active here). I think there is little justification in it, as when we talk about BPPR, we think about Bangladesh. And people from other side cannot find it easy, ok we have good relations, but there are some other technical questions, those needs to be answered. So in my view, BPPR should cooperate with BS and they should be complementary. In this way, both BPPR and BS will be gainer, as we don’t have too many people who can sing, or dance or entertain. If our motive is to spread Bengali culture and involve more people -Bangladeshi, Russian, Indian and others, we should and have to work hand in hand.
Now let us go back to the Interclub. On 17 th BS celebrated Tagore’s 150 birthday anniversary. In recent time it is the best program I have seen (I am talking about those involving local artists only). A few high profile Bengali experts of Russia were present there. Not every day you can meet them. Since the program was totally communicated by Biswarup Sanyal, the presentation was exceptionally good. I am not sure we could do the same in BPPR platform, as due to other commitments we have to be diplomatic and give floor to many people – as a result a cultural function becomes a bit artificial. Unfortunately, among the people present in that function, almost half were Russians, they were either specialist or studying Bengali or somehow related to Bengali culture, a handful of Indians and a few Bangladeshis give the fact that more than 50 students currently studying in PFU alone. I was proud to see how foreigners celebrates Tagore, happy to attend an exceptionally well organized and well thought program, at the same time a bit ashamed as I saw many of my friends, who side them as cultural people, Tagore lover and so on so on, skipped it. Yes, they have their reason, but when everyone find his own reason for not attending Tagore celebrations – it becomes alarming.
Bijan Saha
Dubna, September 19, 2011
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