Asim Bando's KOLKATA BLOG

In the year 1922, on this day, Rabindranath Tagore established Sriniketan - the rural centre for folk culture and cultivation of rural activities, near Shantiniketan. Today, 6 February, to mark the foundation day, the festival of folk culture organised at Sriniketan, where tribal dancers of rural Bengal performed beautiful dance programmes. Moreover, stalls decorated with rural handicrafts and functions of folk culture are the other attractions of Sriniketan Utsav. -- A. B.

Inauguration of 36th International Kolkata Book Fair 2012 today at Milan Mela ground in Kolkata. Focal theme of this year's book fair - country Italy. At international level Britain, Vietnam, USA, Indo-Latin American Association, Spain, Turask, Peru, China, Apple Publishing International, Japan, Israil and gigantic Bangladesh pavilions will be there. A 6-day long literary meet would be the main attraction of book fair where eminent writers of national and international fame will discuss about the present status and future of books. Bengali version of Severgnini's La Bella Figura will be released on this occasion. The Bengali version of this book is called Chhokher Aloy Italy. This years book stalls have been reduced to 782 from 842. The event would witness the Guild pay tribute to Swami Vivekananda. A children's pavilion would be dedicated to Sukumar Roy, to mark his 125th birth anniversary. The book fair would be inaugurated by Italian journalist, author and

Eminent American philosopher Martha Nussbaum recommended 'The Essential Tagore' as the best book of the year 2011. The 800 pages book is the largest anthology of Tagore's literary collections translated in English by a group of eminent translators of India and Bangladesh. The US edition of the book published by Harvard and south-asian edition by Visva-Bharati. -- A. B.

'Shibalik' - the house at the riverbank of Khardaha, near Kolkata going under river Ganges (Ganga) as it is very old house where Rabindranath stayed four times. The poet used to like the light coldness during winter here and stayed in this house from the year 1932 and in total, he stayed here for 54 days. During this period, the poet wrote poem-letters like 'Har' 'Kalo Ghora' 'Maranmata' 'Marichika' 'Ratrirupini' 'Yatra' 'Pasarini' 'Godhuli' 'Aprakash' 'Puspacharini' 'Bhiru' and many more. Later, these poems placed in the collection of poems 'Bichitra' and 'Bithika'. He wrote the last part of 'Malancha' also in this house. Now, the residents of Khardaha alongwith numerous admirers of Rabindranath want the administration shall take concrete steps to conserve the heritage house in memory of Rabindranath Tagore.-- A. B.

Book fair is the main attraction of this year's Poush Mela at Shantiniketan. Literary collections of Rabindranath translated in 26 languages will be exhibited here for the international tourists. Moreover, souvenir collections published to commemorate Tagore's 100, 125 & 150 birth anniversary will also be exhibited, translated in Indian and foreign languages. Tourists and foreigners started to come here already. Apart from this, usual items of rural handicrafts will also be there. The mela is officially open for 3 days (23-25 Dec) but unofficially it will run upto 31 December. -- A. B.

Rabindranath staged his play 'Dakghar' (The Post Office) at his own house in Kolkata and acted in the role of Fakir (on the right here).-- A. B.

An unprecedented event going to take place this evening in Kolkata. One thousand singers across Bengal will sing 27 songs of Rabindranath Tagore in chorus. Arundhati Deb of the organisation 'Muktadhara' is responsible to realise this venture. The venue of this cultural function is Netaji Indoor Stadium of Kolkata. -- A. B.