150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore

The meeting held for the celebration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore was a great success. The driving reasons for this meeting was well explained in the introductory address by the Director, EZCC. Tagore’s writings and philosophies were further highlighted by Dr. Bharati Ray, Vice President, ICCR (also a member of the delegation which had been to Bangladesh). For the knowledge of the dance personalities from different traditions the music tradition of tagore vis-à -vis the dance dramas were explained by Smt Pramita Mullick, noted Rabindra Sangeet Exponent. There were many useful inputs by the Chairman, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Smt Leela Samson, Malika Sarabhai, Mamata Shankar, Tanushree Shankar, Sabita Devi, Director, Art & Culture, Govt of Manipur and from others present. The unique part of the meeting was that five choreographers attended from Bangladesh, who have shown keen interest in collaborating and taking this initiative forward. Prof. Uday Narayan Singh made very valuable contribution to this meeting by enhancing the thoughts of Tagore and the ideas of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India to further this initiative. What emerged from the meeting was : Into-Bangladesh collaborations Individual concepts and ideas and collaborations between the dance traditions and choreographers. Since so much has been achieved, the personalities present wish to know the specifics of the schemes offered by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India towards the implementation of the choreographic works which include not just the funding but avenues to present these works in India, Bangladesh and the rest of the world.