City old-timers recall Durga Puja musical extravaganzas

Patna: T N Jha, a retired teacher of B S college, Danapur, still remembers vividly danseuse Sitara Devi’s Durga Puja performance during a function at Patna Junction roundabout, keeping the audience spell-bound for 13-long hours at a stretch.Come Durga Puja, old-timers like him are reminded of the golden era when the city used to soak in musical extravaganzas. Rituals and pandal hopping apart, Durga Puja was also about dusk-to-dawn dance and music programmes during the fifties, sixties and seventies, when men and women of all ages enjoyed live shows. They still remember performances by renowned artists, from shehani player Ustad Bismillah Khan to noted singer Mohammad Rafi, at least on the three major days of the festivity — Saptami, Ashtami and Navami. It used to appear that the entire city had come out on streets to spend their nights hopping pandals and attending cultural programmes.Old-timers recall how the city used to be a cultural hub. Music lovers from different parts of the state used to come to Patna during Durga Puja just to watch the cultural programmes organised by different social organisations and clubs. They vividly remember the musical soirées organised at Patna Junction roundabout, Gandhi Maidan, Lodipur (near Golghar), Boring Road, Gardanibgh, Langertoli, Govind Mitra Road and Musallahpur. Jha said he used to come all the way from Danapur to Patna on a cycle-rickshaw to watch renowned artists in action. “I have watched great performances by shehani player Ustad Bismillah Khan, violinist V G Jog, sitar player Ustad Vilayat Khan and danseuse Sitara Devi,” he said. L N Mithila University’s retired English teacher Parth Sarthi Sanyal recalled how he used to hop from one music programme to the other in Patna throughout the night. “As a student of Patna University in the sixties, I was fortunate enough to watch such great instrumentalists like tabla player Alla Rakha and Samta Prasad Mishra (Godai Maharaj), sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, noted singers Kishori Amonkar, Shamshad Begum, Parveen Sultana, Anup Jalota, Pankaj Udhas and Jagjeet Singh, Kathak dancers Pandit Birju Maharaj and Lchchu Maharaj performing on stages at various popular spots of the city during Durga Puja. An old resident of Patna City, Mahesh Chandra Sharma, said besides these classical instrumentalists and vocalist, playback singers like Mukesh, Mana Day, Mohd Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor and Sulakshana Pandit also used to perform. He recalled that qawwalis programmes were held regularly in Musallahpur Hat area during Puja.Unfortunately, the cultural feasts suffered a big jolt after the 1975 floods that swept the entire city. Some organisations tried to restart such events in later years, but they did not succeed in regaining the old charm. In recent years some social organisations have organised cultural events at various halls of the city, but entry to such programmes is restricted. Hence, people in general can’t enjoy such closed-door musical soirées, Sharma added.And the younger generations have missed those experiences out.
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