Celebrating Home, Away from Home

Photo: Star

It was not so long ago that Baishakh tiptoed up to me, at home away from home.

Grim foggy London was finally waking up to spring. From my living room at Canary Wharf, the Thames sparkled like jewels. The seagulls perched lazily by the waterfront, thawing out after a cold winter. Young couples took to boating, cycling or jogging beside the river. Trees discarded their dead branches for lush green foliage, resembling huge roadside chandeliers.

On the way to the Royal London Hospital, appreciating the delightful change in nature, I caught a glimpse of the posters by the busy roads. Colourful picturesque masks like those that crop up at every Baishakhi Festival in Dhaka. Did I see it right? But this was London! I looked through the rear window and confirmed that Baishakhi Mela was to be held on 8 May 2011 on Brick Lane. Brick Lane in East London, referred to as Bangla Town, is an authentic area for Bangladeshi cuisine and the one place in the UK where street names are etched in Bengali.

Unsure of what to expect, I finally decided to make the 10 minute walk and pay a short visit with family and friends. The mela had already started at 12 noon, marked by a colourful procession brought out by the local youth and community groups. I reached the massive park at 5pm, half expecting that the crowd had dispersed by then.

To my surprise, I watched the crowd in awe -- there must have been over 100,000 people munching, dancing, slurping and singing on a bright, sunny day.

“People have come from all over Europe,” said poet Shameem Azad. 'The Boishakhi Mela (New Year Festival), organised by the Tower Hamlet, has been held for the last 14 years," added Azad, the chairperson of the London Branch of Bishwa Shahitya Kendra.

At the entrance of the carnival, children were screaming in delight as the roller coasters soared perilously towards the sky. The stalls offering phuchka, chatpati, cotton candy, kulfi, khichuri, biriyani set all around the mela premises were packed with eager foodies. It seemed nothing short of the Bangladeshi Baishakhi Mela transplanted in the heart of London.

“We have come to introduce our children to the Baishakhi Mela that we miss so much,” said a housewife, Rehana Perveen. “Our children love the deshi items such as phuchka and chatpati. Even though the price is exorbitant we want them to enjoy it,” added her husband, Abu Hena Mustafa Kamal.

I watched from afar, the stream of ladies dressed gorgeously in white and red jamdani and cotton saris, and men in colourful panjabi, the toddlers clad in yellow, flowers bedecking their hair -- all rushing to the mela ground. This was no different than what we see and experience back home in Bangladesh on Pahela Baishakh.

A huge stage at the furthest corner was set up for the cultural programme. Different organisations performed Bangla songs, starting from Tagore, Nazrul, Hason Raja to the contemporary hits. “Next year we plan to stage jatra,” added one of the organisers. Young girls and boys danced at will to the tune of “Baula ke banailo re”, a Hason Raja composition.

A deep sense of pride filled my heart. As part of Chhayanaut, we were among a handful of artistes who had started celebrating Pahela Baishakh in Dhaka. It has now stretched far and wide and is being observed with much festivity at the other side of the world!

By 6pm we reached Oxford House where more surprise awaited us. Bishwa Shahitya Kendra UK had arranged a special programme celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Tagore and a Baishakhi Book fair.

The welcome dance and song were followed by an interactive storytelling on the bard by poet Shameem Azad. Eminent writer Belal Mahmood, the man instrumental in sending out the message of Independence immediately after the crackdown of Pakistan, later gave away the Tassaduk Ahmed Award to the best volunteer at the event.

This was followed by a theatre adaptation of Tagore's “Debotar Grash”.

The amateur cast fascinated the audience with their performances. “We performed a play at Edinborough to the Bengali community recently,” said one of the organisers, Zakir Hossain. Dia Chakravarty's (granddaughter of poet Sufia Kamal) performance of Tagore songs was highly appreciated by the audience. A book launch session followed next.

At the end of the programme, the audience was treated to Tagore's art and a fashion show. The show highlighted the “fashion statement” created by the Jorashanko Thakurbari during Tagore's time. The current style of wearing saris in pleats also evolved from the experiments made by the ladies of the Tagore family. One by one the characters Labonya and Amit of “Shesher Kabita”; Nikhilesh and Bimola from “Ghorey Bairey”; Binodini from “Chokher Bali”, Nandini from “Roktokorobi” and more sprang to life attired in the style Tagore sketched himself. Ronny and Urmee Mazhar narrated the background during the catwalk.

It was late and we had to return home. One could sense the feeling of pride rippling through in the audience, a quiet confidence that despite being miles away from home, the cultural roots had not withered away in neglect. This was home away from home, or as the saying goes “home is where the heart is.”