Chaitali Dasgupta's unique initiative

On Wednesday, Chaitali Dasgupta paid tribute to “podatik kobi” Subhash Mukhopadhyay on his birth centenary, by organizing an issue-based exhibition where the displayed clothes bore lines from the poet’s famous works. “Podyapashak is a great way of reaching out to the youngsters, who I feel are losing touch with literature; many don’t even read books.So, the clothes are my canvas and my paintings happen to be Bengali literature,” she said. Chaitali said she was inspired by the poet himself to come up with the initiative. “Long back, when I told him about my plans, he not only liked it, but also gave me two of his poems to use on clothes,” she adding, adding that while one was on porishtiti (situation), the other, Dom bondho hoye ashchhe khola hawa kothao nei, was on poribesh or environment. Chaitali, who has done a series on Abol Tabol, said she wants to take the project forward. “I am indebted to many people, one among them is Subhashda. He was around when I organised a programme to mark Jibananda Das’ birth centenary, some 20 years back. Several known faces from the cultural world — Pratul Mukhopadhyay, Srijato, Bidipta Chakraborty, Ritocheta Goswami and Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee — performed at the venue.