Jadavpur University Alumni Association Hyderabad Chapter

Maa Durga and her children have departed for Kailash but the festivities do linger on –  the ‛Jadu Paribar’ of Hyderabad gathered once again to celebrate the festive season with a ‛Bijoya Sammelani’ at the opulent Country Club. Food and adda apart, the highlight of the evening was the impromptu cultural show put up by the alumni members, spouses and children recreating the mood of the campus of their alma mater which has always buzzed with the strums of guitar, enthusiastic rendition of all kinds of music and laughter. The evening began with a short talk on the initiation of Durga Puja by Madhab Chattopadhyay who briefly touched upon the Mahisasurmardini form of the idol and the controversy over the portrayal of an Aryan goddess against non-Arayan demon as a victory of good over evil. Barnali, aptly accompanied by husband Abhijit on the tabla, began with a sublime rendition of Bhavani Dayani and signed off with Begum Akhtar’s legendary Jochona koreche ari. Cajoled by the two anchors of the show – Susmita and Saswati – the children went on to put up a wonderful show with a shy recitation of Sukumar Ray’s Baburam Sapure by Disha, melodious rendition of Ai tobe sahachari by Titas while Aishani was truly the flower-girl dancing to the tunes of Phule phule dhole dhole. The ‛Chatterjees’ – Nilanjan, Aindrila, Megh and Brishti had put up a superlative performance of Sukumar Ray’s Petuk as a shruti natok, complete with background scores. With Chandana Khan in the lead SK Das, Mandira Basu, Debopom Chakrabarti, Dr SK Chaudhuri and Saswati Majumdar explored the much-relevant theme of ‛home, away and loneliness’ through poems of lesser known poets. Aditi paid a tribute to poet Poulomi Sengupta following her untimely demise while Piyali recited a classic, Tagore’s Agomon. Joy and spontaneity  flowed as Mother-daughter duo Anindita-Mohona teamed up for their dance performance. A medley of Hindi and Bengali popular scores and golden classics by Shubhabrata, followed by Sabyasachi, Sreeparna, Gautam and Susmita made the evening truly musical. While Indranil reminded the alumni of the need for new blood the dying notes of Bhupen Hazarika’s Protidhwani shuni sung by Debopom summed up the mood  – a new beginning awaits the Hyderabad chapter of  Jadavpur University Alumni Association.