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Magh Bihu celebrated in Kolkata

by TRANS WORLD FEATURES | @twfindia 15 Jan 2025, 03:10 am

Magh Bihu, the harvest festival of Assam, was celebrated with due respect to tradition by the 150 year old Assam Socio Literary Club (ASL) at Asom Bhavan, Kolkata, recently.

By custom, ‘Uruka’ is celebrated on the previous night of the auspicious Makar Sankranti. In the evening friends and families gather together to enjoy home-made bora rice pitha, sesame seed laddoos, coconut laddoos, etc. which is followed by a cultural function and wrapped up with a grand dinner for all, where fish tenga curry is a must.

The ASL Club kept up with the tradition this year too, as in the past. An additional attraction was a performance by the duo, singer Mitali De and journalist-poet Atanu Bhattacharya from Guwahati, with their presentation titled ‘Golpo Katha’.

In this innovative idea of melding literature with music, Bhattacharya narrates well-known short stories while De, a classical music exponent, weaves her songs seamlessly keeping to the theme.

The duo have performed  widely at home and beyond.

At their 100th performance coinciding with the Kolkata Magh Bihu celebration, Bhattacharya presented love story Rupa located in Dhaka and written by Humayun Ahmed of Bangladesh, Gohbor (Cave) by celebrated Assamese writer Dr Bhabendranath Saikia,  Kafir (Infidel) by Ismat Chugtai, etc.

(Reporting by Ranjita Biswas)