While dwelling on the significance of observing New Year in tune with what India epitomises through eternity, Rabindranath Tagore said at a Nabo Barsho (Bengali New Year) congregation at Santiniketan: “Nowadays, we value our work too much. Near or afar, during daytime or after sundown, work must move on… In the West, dying in harness is considered a grand death. What is fruitless is a trash. We must keep on rushing and pushing till we die. When such a soul-grinding concept of work is exalted as the be-all-and-end-all of life peace departs.
Here in this Ashrama, when we contemplate we realise that the real end of life is ‘to be’ and not ‘to do’… The encounter with the alien lands has disturbed the age-old tranquility Bharatavarsha is adored for from time immemorial. I do not think the impact of such encounters has increased our strength. Rather, it is sapping our energy. Today, on the occasion of the New Year, let us be inspired to live afresh in the light of what Bharatavarsha embodies in her splendid equanimity of soul.” There is another point that Tagore and other towering champions of Indian culture untiringly harp on and that is Ananda, pure bliss innate in life. That can be realised in full when we rid ourselves of the maddening craze for moving and pushing and jostling around, shadowing in futility the mirage of deeper fulfillment.
This inherent delight of existence — usually cramped by the heebie-jeebies of life with the surface ruling over the deeps — seem to have come out in full when the people across ethnic spectrum assembled at Durga Bari near the famed Doon School to celebrate the Bengali New Year —Poila Baisakh — on Tuesday.
Community gathering started in a small way at Durga Bari way back in 1956 when Durga Puja — the Bengali community’s principal festival — was held there for the first time. Things moved on, as the place evolved into what it is now over the years. Bengali Nabo Barsho followed Durga Puja soon in the line of community celebration.
When asked whether we are being swept off our cultural moorings by opting for the breathless rush of work the spirit of the Occident stresses, the president of the Durga Bari committee, Devashish Chakravarty, an ONGC official, said, it is unlikely with our culture remaining embedded deep in us. “We cannot shun our culture. We must keep our moorings erect. And this is what Nabo Barsho celebration is all about — renewing our pledge with our culture,” he affirmed.
Chakravarty said there are over 30,000 Bengali people presently residing in greater Dehradun. The stream started when they came to work for Survey of India years back. The legendary Radhanath Sikdar led the way. Things gained further momentum after the Ordinance factory came up in Raipur. Railway construction work also contributed to the flow. later, ONGC drew them in their thousands. However, Devobhoomi as Uttarakhand is known — endowed with a cluster of pilgrimage sites and temples around the deified Ganga of peerless spiritual significance — keeps on beckoning the Bengalis over the millennia. The urge to dip in the Ganga to be purified of the worldly coils in quest of the ambrosia of eternal life remains undimmed. The procession of deaths cannot deter them from coming again and again to gain immortality. The spirit is the same amidst death, in spite of death.
The former cultural secretary of the committee and an ONGC official, Debasis Das said the congregation of people to enjoy together on a special day in the Bengali calendar is the quintessence of the Nabo Barsho celebration. “However, we distribute prizes to the children who participate in various competitions that are held in the first week of April. This year too, over 150 such children have received participation prizes,” he added.
Partha Kumar, a member of the Durga Bari executive committee, said though it is around the Bengali New Year celebration it is by no means an exclusive show of the Bengalis. “We embrace all while clinging to our own roots. People from other ethnic communities come and the festival assumes a national flavour. It exemplifies the unity in diversity genius India is celebrated for,” he averred.
It was also a Bengali food festival, as a cluster of stalls catering to the peculiar Bengali cuisine adorned the Durga Bari premises on the Nabo Barsho evening. Amartya Tirhta Bhowmick, who was a student of The Doon School, gave a stall. “The spectacle of the people of all the communities relishing the typical Bengali cuisine is something I would treasure,” he said.
Time does not end. The celebration of the delight of life does not end too. The spirit would continue through celebration of the advent of new years. However, every new year signifies a rupture with the old rut of things. To quote TS Eliot –”For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”