Deliberation, songs and drama at World Bengali conference

Nagpur: The World Bengali conference was inaugurated with a host of participants from all walks of life attending it at Vasantrao Deshpande hall on Friday at 9.30am. Organized by city-based International Council for World Bengali Conference, the event was held to highlight the cultural endeavours of Bengalis and of those associated with Bengali culture.
The event was inaugurated by Indarani Mukherjee, director of Rabindra Sangeet Gabesana Kendra, Visva Bharati. The first session saw presentation of Ananya awards to luminaries like Sahitya Akademi winner for 2014 Satyabati Giri, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh Salahuddin Noman Chowdhuri, and football players PK Banerjee and Tulsidas Balraman.
Two Nagpurians, former DG of CMPDI Dipankar Banerjee and Anjan Chatterjee were also felicitated.
In the literary session, participants deliberated upon subjects that are integral to Bengali ethos. While Mukherjee spoke about Rabindra Sangeet and Visva Bharati, Banerjee and Balraman shared their experiences of football and various clubs they have been associated with. Poems from Gitanjali were recited by Tapas Maiti.
The session ended with soulful rendition of Rabindra Sangeet by Maya Charkravarty, an artiste of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and Sarojini Sil who presented two songs in Nepalese.
“Rabindra Sangeet, which is 150 years old, is the heart and soul of Bengali culture and there are thousands of songs which depict change of season, have patriotic flavour and also portray emotions,” said Chakravarty. The two songs sung in Nepalese had been translated by the principal of Geetgunjan Music College in Darjeeling, informed Sil.
The evening session was fully devoted to entertainment. The iconic play Chokher Bali was staged by a team from Sakher theatre of Mumbai. The actors who performed were all professionals like bankers and financial analysts from Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. “They rehearsed for this performance on Skype,” informed Bibek Mukherjee, president of the conference.
Nari Shakti, a half-hour play by local artistes, was also staged. The evening ended with a musical recital by well-known singer from Bangladesh Rezwan Banya Choudhary.