Rabindra festival at Powai draws revellers from all parts of Mumbai

MUMBAI: Leave aside the memory of the Bard of Bengal, the sands of time have deepened its footprint in India's collective psyche. The

Powai

Bengali Welfare Association (PBWA) has contributed to preserving the legacy of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore since 14 years.


Celebrating the 158th birth anniversary of Asia’s first Nobel laureate, the PBWA in collaboration with The Times of India organized a cultural and culinary fiesta at Norita Grounds, Powai, on Saturday.

Tagore lovers from all parts of Mumbai arrived to participate in the event named 'Bichitra' (variety). As the name suggests, the soiree celebrated Gurudev’s teachings of open-mindedness through various forms of art. Bratati Bandyopadhyay, a Bengali language elocutionist, recited Tagore's poems.

"We chose this (Norita grounds) place for our event because it is open, there are trees all around. This ties well with Tagore's idea of open-mindedness. We want to pass his philosophy to the next generation because it is relevant even today. Tagore had a lot of personal grief, and from that grief arose his beautiful music and poetry," said Sourav Mitra, a member of the organizing committee.

People of all ages tapped their feet to the '

Rabindra Sangeet

' and contemplated the many layers of his profound poetry. "I have been outside of Kolkata since 10 years. I look forward to this event each year. It's like a small home away from home," said Ratula Halder who enjoyed the evening.

‘Aharey Baharey’, a food festival which is an important part of the celebration had stalls serving ethnic delicacies like vegetable chop, fish chop, ghoogni, mutton kosha and mishti doi.

Bichitra's rasgulla competition was a laugh riot as always. Each participant was assigned a plate of 15 large creamy Nolen Gurer rasgullas brought from Kolkata. Omkar Walhekar was the winner, acing the rest at 49 seconds. Miti Chakraborty was the first runner-up who took 50 seconds to eat, while the second runner-up Bishwajeet Bandyopadhyay took 54 seconds.

Interestingly, a stall serving free tea and biscuits was one of the special attractions. "Cha (tea) and biskoot (biscuit) connects Bengalis everywhere. This is a small initiative but so significant to the ethnic population," said Jayati Sarkar who along with her friends had set up the tea stall.