City’s Bengalis welcome spring with songs and dance

Early on Sunday morning, a group of women, dressed in yellow saris, neatly tucked flowers in their hair and got inside the Empress Garden. After checking the props, what followed was a celebration to welcome the Spring season- Basanta Utsav 2019.

The celebration that was started at Santiniketan by Rabindranath Tagore has now spread across multiple cities in the country that have a sizeable number of Bengalis residing.Since the last 14 years, the Bangiya Sanskriti Samsad has been organising this event at the Empress Garden premises. This year, the event began with select songs of Tagore. Ore Grihabashi Khol Dwar Khol, an iconic song to welcome the season, started the celebrations and it was followed by performances like Briksharopan on the songs Aay Aamader Angane and Moru Bijayer Ketana, along with poetic narrations that brought out the spring feels. Apart from the dance drama, Nabeen, the group also presented Horikhela, a musical recitation of Tagore’s poem during the event.

Guest artistes, actress Saswati Guhathakurta and her daughter Shreya Guhathakurta from Kolkata, presented Tumi Mata Tumi Kanya, a musical and poetic rendition from the books of Tagore. Speaking about the celebration, Saswati said, “I have always had a special connection with Pune as my daughter studied here. Being a student of Santiniketan, I have closely been a part of Basant Utsav programmes back in West Bengal, and this event was no less than that. An open-air seating and early morning performances recreated the charm of the celebrations at Santiniketan.”
Saswati Guhathakurta and her daughter Shreya Guhathakurta