Poila Baisakh do for Kolkata

The décor insidewas done up keeping Poila Baisakh in mind. The event took off with Harsh Neotiaringing a ghanta and launching the Baishakh special volume of the magazine, TheTimes of India Amar Somoy with Kaushik Chatterjee. It was followed by thepre-Poila Baisakh addar ashor. Moderated by author Kaveri Roy Chowdhury, thespeakers for the evening — Ranjit Mallick, Suvaprasanna, Sidhu, ArijitDutta, Abul Bashar, Nondon Bagchi, Dr Rupali Basu and Harsh Neotia— gave their take on Bangaliana. “Bangali ekti mishro jaati,”said Suvaprasanna. Arijit Dutta concurred, adding that Bangalis are, in general,not very loud by nature and that’s the reason why only three per centBangalis visit plexes today. “I call our generation Neo-Bangalis andbelieve we are going through an evolution, a radical change. And any evolutionis healthy,” said Sidhu. Harsh Neotia, on his part, spokeabout his emotional attachment with the place, which is “much more”than Rajasthan, to which he traces his roots. “You can be anybody inBengal — a writer, actor, singer, cook. Just that you have to be civilisedand cannot get away by pulling others down,” quipped Nondon Bagchi. Theaudience listened with rapt attention.