New space for Tripti Mitra museum

Kolkata: There's a ray of hope for

Tripti Mitra

Smaran

museum

after a long struggle for existence. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has found a new address for the museum that is currently housed on the first floor of a dilapidated KMC building at Karaya Road.

In May last year, TOI had reported how the building was in poor shape with concrete chunks falling from the ceiling on mementos and awards - Padmashree and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award - the thespian had won. Sensing how grim

the situation

was, KMC mayor-in-council Debashis Kumar came to rescue and got a new address in Baghajatin.

In late 80s, Tripti Mitra had requested Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for a rehearsal space near her rented house in Park Circus. While Bhattacharjee did find a space, Mitra couldn't fulfil her dreams and succumbed to

cancer

in 1989.

In 1993, it was decided that the first floor of the KMC building inside the Park Circus market would house the museum and double up as a rehearsal space for Pancham Vaidic. This group was founded by Mitra's daughter Saoli Mitra.

Over the years, the building crumbled. It's a sheer

stroke

of luck that miscreants haven't yet broken into the museum. But during monsoons, water drips down the ceiling. Mitra's costumes from her cult plays have got damaged. Damp walls have also affected a lifesize photo of the thespian. "Recently, a framed photograph broke to pieces and fell off the wall," said Saoli Mitra.

Mitra has herself not visited the new premises. "We couldn't even do our rehearsals properly. It is a happy news if the corporation has given us a space where we can rehearse properly," she said.

Trinamul MP and theatre personality Arpita Ghosh, who is also the secretary of Pancham Vaidic, has personally visited the new space. "The earlier government never bothered to look into this matter. We are humbled with the suggestion offered by KMC to help relocate our museum and rehearsal space. I have also written to the mayor and expressed my gratitude," Ghosh said on Tuesday from Delhi.

Two options were offered for relocation. One of them was in Gariahat. "But it wasn't big enough for us. We were then offered another space in Baghajatin," informed Ghosh.

"We have received a letter from Aprita Ghosh. We will begin the phasewise shifting of the museum artefacts," Kumar said. Though the date of shifting hasn't been finalized yet, work is expected to progress after the polls.