Bengalee of West Bengal always love to celebrate the day with
traditional joy, happiness, respect, fun and rituals.
When the first light of the day about to break, the traders rush to
Kalighat or Dakshineswar to worship goddess Kali with their red book
(খেরোর খাতা) i.e. ledger book. Not only the traders, common people of
Bengali community go to Kali temple in the morning. Till 1980, a
musical function used to held on the morning of Nabo Barsho at
Basusree cinema hall. Most of the renowned performers of Bengal like
Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, Dwijen Mukhopadhyay, Arati
Mukhopadhyay, Manabendra Mukhopadhyay, Pratima Bandyopadhyay, Shyamal
Mitra even Uttam Kumar used to perform here. I never had an
opportunity to present at that function, but, it was traditionally a
very popular event for which Bengalee may feel pride. Various clubs
and NGO's use to organise 'pravat pheri' with childrens to welcome
'Nabo Barsho'. Cultural programmes are being organised at the evenings
and above all, delicacy of foods, especially pure traditional Bengali
foods are the weakness of Bengalee on this Poila Boishakh.
When I was a school boy, my father used to take me with him for the
evening invitation of 'Haal khata' by traders. Wearing new dresses,
we, the brothers used to reach to the jewellery shop with our father.
And then, they welcomed us with cold drinks (orange squash). A new
Bengali calendar with a box of snacks & sweets were the main
attraction of this evening. Later, when I was in college, used to
watch 'nabo borsher boithak' on Doordarshan Kolkata. In fact, a day,
different from other 364 days, we used to enjoy very much.
--
A. B.
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