LOS ANGELES, CA: The 150th birth anniversary of the “Viswa Kavi” Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the architect of Bengali literature was celebrated from September 24 to October 3 at different venues of Southern California.
Tagore was a famous poet, an artist, philosopher and above all a great teacher. He was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature for ‘Gitanjali’ in 1913.
The Festival started with the photographic exhibition of Tagore’s life at Loyola Marymount University and the opening speech of Dr. Pratapaditya Pal, Art Historian and Padma Sri awardee.
Discussion on Tagore took place at the Gujarati celebration of Tagore’s legacy at CSU Long Beach which was sponsored by Yadunandan Center.
The film festival was celebrated at Korn Hall, UCLA. Talks on Rabindranath’s influence on Satyajit Ray were discussed by Prof. Dilip Basu and others. A screening of documentary on the Viswa Kavi by Satyajit Ray was included.
The play ‘Kabuliwala’ was staged in Gujarati at the Jain Center of Buena Park.
Remarkable performances were held from at Loyola Marymount University and CSU Long Beach.
Tagore’s works including music, dance and exploring his relationship with Mahatma Gandhi were presented at De Neve Auditorium UCLA. Saturday October 2nd was the busiest day of this festival. The day started with the conference to assess the great poet’s contemporary global relevance at the Hilton Hall.
The most memorable performance of the day was at St. Robert’s Hall Loyola Marymount University. In the first part of the program, Rabindra Sangeet singers Sapratik Das, Jayati Ghosh, Pubali Mukherjee and Averee Chaury presented popular Rabindra Sangeets like “Jodi tor dak shunay keu na ashey tobay akla chalo ray”.
It was also the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. While recollecting the memories of Gandhi-Tagore personal relationship, the speakers referred to different occasions of their personal correspondences and meetings including Gandhiji’s visit to Shantiniketan. The common area of their thoughts, principles and works on human cause were similar though their style of expression were different. The speakers cherished that Rabindranath believed in acquiring strength and self-confidence in the struggle of human life which he exposed in his writings while Gandhi called for acquiring strength by peace and unity among people irrespective of caste, color, religion and language for common goal of human rights.
In the last part of the program the renowned dance drama Chandalika of Tagore was staged through dances and songs by Anita Mallick, Sagarika Roy, Kobita Chatterjee, Prosanta Chatterjee and other artists. It was a wonderful performance. The parts played by the young girl in the role of Prakrithi (Chandalika), her mother and also the Buddhist Monk were appreciated. In the drama, it appeared that a real picture of the then Indian social happenings were exposed where it was taught that “All men are equal in the eye of God” and “Love among human beings is more powerful than anything else.”
Sunday 3rd October, the final day of the festival included talks and recitations by Prof. Fakrul Alam of Dhaka University, performances by Averee Chowdhury and “Gitanjali” verses in English translation arranged for piano by Walter Arlen. Rabindra Sangeet and variety performances by distinguished artists at Murphy Hall and Marsee Hall were the closing program of the festival.
Avadesh and Uma Agarwal Navin and Pratima Doshi were the grand sponsors and UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, California State University of Long Beach, Shah Foundation and Yadunandan Center were the institutional co-sponsors of this great festival.
ASM A. Awal
