Caesurae at Calcutta School of Music

OF CAESURAE AND RACHNA FRIENDSHIP This Friendship cannot end … for, ideas are like a travelling caravan for, visions we shared for, books we read for, conversations we had for, dreams we dreamt … Rachna Bookstore is the piece of the moon in Gangtok. It is a cozy nook by the side of a waterfall, gazing at the mountains yonder. Inside, the warm company of books and book lovers. With the steering man of Rachna, Raman Sreshtha and wife, Sarvada, book lovers from the world over find a nest to dream, to think, to write and of course read. The smell of hot coffee from ‘Café Fiction’ wafting up, and the conversations of the readers from the ground floor makes you feel at home. Rachna, has always been a home for the elitists, creative writers, artistes and creative thinkers. It’s a haven for all kinds of intellectual chit chats, controversial issues, the university of thinking minds constructively coming together. Caesurae Collective has always been a friend and shall always be. We organized three events in Rachna. A poetry reading session with Rochelle Potkar, a Caesurae poet and writer hailing from Mumbai, and two lectures by Professor Niladri Chatterjee, from Kalyani University on Gender. Besides these collaborative events Caesurae members in Gangtok have always loved to participate in Rachna events.

The members of Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Association (SILA) led by Tashi Lhamu Lepcha (Gen.Secretary, SILA) visited the landslide hit area at Dzongu, North Sikkim, on 14th of August, 2016, accompanied by Tshering Wangchuk Lepcha (General Secretary, Sikkim TMC). The whole area looked as if an atom bomb has been dropped. According to GREF, the landslide created a natural lake which is 300 feet deep and around 3 km in length. Around 22 houses were under water at 4th mile, Dzongu. After field inspection, they went up to Lingtem, where a relief camp was set up for the affected people. They handed over some relief to Shri Norbu Tshering Lepcha (ward Panchyat, Lingtem). The land slide area had cut off main villages like Lingtem, Tingvong, Lingza, Sakyoung and Pentong. This seriously affected the residents settled in these villages. According to SILA, Vice President Pem Tshering Lepcha, it was sad that no national media came forward to cover this deadly incident, in a proper manner. SILA members appealed to the public to come forward and help the people stranded in these villages who were cut off from the rest of the state by donating relief items and material at Relief camp 1 at Lingtem or at Passingdang. They also urged the government to rethink on the implementation of pipeline Hydel Projects inside the Dzongu region in the interest of the vulnerable indigenous Tribe. After the first visit and after witnessing the gravity of the situation, Sikkim Indigenous Lepcha Association collected a total amount of Rs 2,88,550/- in one day campaign for Humanity and Relief for Dzongu at MG MARG, Gangtok, Sikkim on 18th August 2016. Artists like Prakash Sundas (winner of North East got talent -2), Sofiyum, Tribal Rain, beat boxer Sonam Leno Lepcha and the like performed at MG MARG to raise funds for affected people by Dzongu landslide. We also would like to thank the people of Sikkim for always supporting the cause for humanity. From the total amount collected, half was given to DC North and half, to an NGO in Dzongu working for conservation of environment and Ecology. We would like to thank CAESURAE COLLECTIVE SOCIETY , OMAS, DAMC, DS, Talk Sikkim, The VOS, and Sikkim Express for supporting the event. Also, our gratitude goes to major contributor, which includes State bank of Sikkim (Football team), State Bank of India (Sikkim), Demazong Pangtoed Bas, Besthesda Christian Fellowship church, IDBI Bank (SIKKIM), The Coffee shop, Tsela traditional one stop. Apart from cash, a large number of people donated relief mater

Another feather was added to Caesurae’s cap in July, 2016, when a group of budding musicians and dancers (part of the Gangtok-based group Shantih) came together for a musical performance that soon turned into a free-flowing adda session. The evening also witnessed the formal release of Caesurae’s first CD, Meghbalika (Cloud-girl), a musical transcreation of Joy Goswami’s narrative poem by Caesurae Collective, in India. Prof. Sanjukta Dasgupta of Calcutta University honoured us with her presence and presided over the launching ceremony along with Dr. Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, the Vice-President of the Caesurae Collective. Meghbalika was officially first released, during the SARI (Société d'activités et de Recherches sur le Monde Indien) colloquium in May this year at the University of Paris, 13. Only a year and a half old, Caesurae Collective, an organization with a peer reviewed international e-journal (www.caesurae.org), has been holding events on literature and other arts across the nation now. This is our third collaboration with Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad as Dr. Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, the President of Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad, inaugurated the event thanking both the organizations. Dr. Mukhopadhyay welcomed all and expressed his well wishes for Caesurae and its various ventures. He ended his address with a short personal testimony on his long-standing friendship with the north-eastern parts of India and described it his “almost second home.” This was followed by a short felicitation ceremony where each of the distinguished personalities, musicians and organizers alike, was presented with a khada (traditional ceremonial scarf in Tibetan culture). Sannidhi Sengupta, a tiny tot of only nine years, performed the inaugural dance to a Rabindrasangeet (Eso go jwele diye jao pradeepkhani) sung by Smt. Snehsree Thapa with Shri Kinshuk Mukhopadhyay on tabla and Shri Sagar Routh on violin. Sannidhi’s expressions belied her tender age as she moved with a grace unmatched. Next came Pawan Rai with his soulful rendition of raga Sur Malhar, accompanied by two other members of Shantih, viz., Shri Routh on violin and Shri Nishaant Singh on tabla. With an ambience of classical music seeping through every corner of the room, Shri Bhabani Shankar Dasgupta, the elder son and disciple of the eminent Sarode maestro Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta, played on his sarode ideations of Tagore, while Smt. Snehsree Thapa crooned the originals, viz., Aaji jato tara tabo akashe, Aamar kantho hote gaan ke nilo, Ei lobhinu songo tobo, Ebar abagunthan kholo, and Shedin dujane. Gora’da, as Dasgupta is fondly addressed by his acquaintances, shared the story behind this experiment that dates back to his father; almost twenty-five years ago when Shri Buddhadev Dasgupta performed a few of his own ideations with stalwarts like Suchitra Mitra and Subinoy Ray at the Mahajati Sadan. With rapt attention, everyone listened closely to the bandishes while Dasgupta spontaneously shifted from one taal to another as the similarities with the corresponding Rabindrasangeet unfolded. The excitement and vigour continued as Anjali Rai, student of Rabindra Bharati University studying M.Mus. Kathak and a member of Shantih, performed her solo Kathak recital with Shri Nishaant Singh on pakhwaj and Shri Routh on violin. With her bare feet beating along with the music against the floor, the rhythm and melody became more tactile to the audience. The vibrant bol entrapped all as Shri Kinshuk Mukhopadhyay drew the tabla to himself and joined the celebration impromptu. The conclusion to such a mellifluous evening struck the perfect chord when Shri Nishaant Singh presented his pakhwaj presentation with Shri Routh on the violin. Before the performance, Nishaant paid homage to his Guru’ji, the renowned pakhawaj maestro Pt. Chanchal Kr. Bhattacharya, and reminisced about his journey as a solo pakhawaj player in recent times. Nishaant began with some traditional pieces, continued with a few improvisations of Swami Vivekananda (from Sangeet Kalpataru) and ended his recital with an original composition. In their unassuming enthusiasm Nishaant with his fellow members of Shantih not only bestowed upon us a memorable evening but also created a space of a true cultural translation; a space where language difference was hardly a barrier as the universal medium of music connected the hills with the plains.