<p>One had to&nbsp;travel&nbsp;through rural Assam&rsquo;s greenery and at that very instant listened to Bhupen Hazarika singing somewhere around to appreciate what Gulzar meant when he said Assam&rsquo;s nature oozes through Bhupenda&rsquo;s voice. A particular combination of opulent tenderness, seductive nasality and inexhaustible vocal melody, not uncommon among Assamese folk singers, assumed a different proportion in Bhupen Hazarika through his specific style of singing. What factors contributed to acquiring that style will require a different space for fuller discussion, but certainly, his years of training as an activist/singer/composer in the IPTA was one of the most important ones among them.</p>

<p>Sudakshina Sharma - Queen as she is lovingly called - Bhupen&rsquo;s sister and a veteran singer gave me an interview in which she reminisced about his initial years as an IPTA activist: &quot;When Bhupenda returned from America &ndash; that was way back in 1953 - Hemango-da (Hemango Biswas) brought him into the fold of the IPTA. Hemango--da was by then one of the chief organisers of Assam IPTA and he was quite close to our family which has always been a family of singers and musicians.</p>

<p>We used to live in Kharghuli - up in the hills - where Hemango-da was a regular visitor. Bhupenda and Hemango-da travelled together to distant places in Assam for organisational work. I remember once while returning from such a place halfway through they realised they had not a single anna left.&nbsp;The evening was descending, at a corner of a street they started singing impromptu, you can understand the effect of these two voices singing together. After they finished, people from the crowd started giving money to them thinking they were a group of itinerant street musicians. Whatever they gave was sufficient for the team to get back to Guwahati.&quot;</p>

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<p>It was much before that that Bhupen came into contact with Jyotiprasad Agarwal and Bishnuprasad Rava, doyens of Assamese culture and the two most important names of the Assam IPTA. Jyotiprasad made him sing in his film Indramalati (1939) when he was just 12 years of age.&nbsp;When Bhupen Hazarika returned from America, upon finishing his Ph.D., Jyotiprasad had passed away. But IPTA by that time went from strength to strength in Assam, after its first and second conference in Silchar (1947) and Dibrugarh (1949) respectively.</p>

<p>IPTA was the first organisation that spoke about the need of highlighting the syncretic nature of its culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state like Assam. In the first conference in Silchar, the two hundred odd representatives who participated consisted of artists from Tripura hill tracts, Jayantiya, Bodo, Manipuri, Dimasa - Kachhari, Miri and other ethnic communities along with Bengalis, Assamese and tea- plantation labourers.</p>

<p>IPTA in Assam held on to this tradition and to the spirit of the draft proposal that declared that it is meant to be a platform where every ethnicity is part of a larger collective in which it contributes voluntarily, knowing that its own cultural distinctiveness will not be compromised or co-opted in the process.</p>

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<p>Many people have discussed at length how Bhupen Hazarika was influenced by Paul Robeson whose acquaintance he made during his stay in the USA as well as by Pete Seeger&rsquo;s protest songs. The initial years when Bhupen started composing songs for the IPTA, certain signs of their influence were undoubtedly pronounced. And yet, the&nbsp;way he used Assamese traditional music (Bihu, bangeet, borgeet or jhumur) at that point and throughout his later life was something extremely unique.</p>

<p>He could pull off a melodic structure with major notes and a strong rhythmic pattern like &lsquo;Nami Axa&rsquo; and another with predominantly minor notes and zero or soft rhythm like &lsquo;Haradhon Rongmon katha&rsquo; (co-composed with Hemango Biswas) with equal ease and elegance. Even when one keeps in mind the rich oeuvre of Jyotiprasad, Bishnu Rava, Parbatiprasad Barua or Anandiram Das whose pioneering creations influenced IPTA artists in composing their own, it is not difficult to see why Bhupen Hazarika&rsquo;s place in Assamese modern music is still singular on many counts.</p>

<p>As Hemango Biswas writes, &lsquo; In the musical milieu of Assam, IPTA ushered in a new legion of songs about life and revolution.&nbsp;In this work, the musical tradition of the revered Jyotiprasad was our chief inspiration. Works of our folk composer Anandiram Das, the late Hemen Thakur and later those of Abdul Malik helped us. But the true architect of this genre was Dr&nbsp;Bhupen Hazrika. The ordinary lives of Assam like that of the lumberjacks, the stone breakers, the train drivers, tea-plantation worker Jagnu, farmer Rongmon, weaver girl Rodoi and palanquin bearer Dolabhari - these characters succeeded in sweeping aside the impersonal genre of music devoid of social consciousness that had been prevalent thus far.</p>

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<p>Newer expressions and styles made their presence felt in the creation of the tunes. The local musical form remained intact, but its narrow structures were broken down in a fresh attempt to showcase a new reality. Numerous songs of the IPTA spread to various cities and villages. This metamorphosis in Assamese music is a widely acknowledged fact today&rsquo;.</p>

<p>Nothing perhaps better describes how in Bhupen Hazarika such diverse musical styles had found their easeful co-existence beyond the usual divides of traditional, modern, eastern or western forms. As a singer, his internalisation of this was so complete that anything that he performed: From kamrupi folk to bangeet, from &lsquo;sa banuar geet&rsquo; (tea- plantation songs) to Bihu, from lullabies to protest songs &ndash; he seemed to be a natural denizen of all the territories he travelled.</p>

<p>It is true that Bhupen Hazarika&rsquo;s political views took a significant turn in his later life and in many ways he became the cynosure of conservative politicians of different hues. We should add to it our collective misfortune that there is no dearth of politicians in this country who can appropriate a cultural capital towards a political end and turn it to material/ military/ electoral gain- a very recent example would be the inauguration by the political who&rsquo;s who of the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge in Assam which is supposed to be the longest bridge in India (not undisputedly, though).</p>

<p>But because of this very reason, it seems all the more necessary to document Bhupen&rsquo;s immense contribution to the leftist cultural movement in India &ndash; his long and hard creative years in Assam, Bengal and outside of those before he finally moved to Bombay. Perhaps we got to remind ourselves now that that period also coincided with the genesis of many of his greatest creations the history of which needs to be written urgently.</p>


Through his musical composition, Bhupen Hazarika played a key role in sweeping aside the impersonal genre of music devoid of social consciousness that had been prevalent before the formation of IPTA.

One had to travel through rural Assam’s greenery and at that very instant listened to Bhupen Hazarika singing somewhere around to appreciate what Gulzar meant when he said Assam’s nature oozes through Bhupenda’s voice. A particular combination of opulent tenderness, seductive nasality and inexhaustible vocal melody, not uncommon among Assamese folk singers, assumed a different proportion in Bhupen Hazarika through his specific style of singing. What factors contributed to acquiring that style will require a different space for fuller discussion, but certainly, his years of training as an activist/singer/composer in the IPTA was one of the most important ones among them. Sudakshina Sharma - Queen as she is lovingly called - Bhupen’s sister and a veteran singer gave me an interview in which she reminisced about his initial years as an IPTA activist: "When Bhupenda returned from America – that was way back in 1953 - Hemango-da (Hemango Biswas) brought him into the fold of the IPTA. Hemango--da was by then one of the chief organisers of Assam IPTA and he was quite close to our family which has always been a family of singers and musicians. We used to live in Kharghuli - up in the hills - where Hemango-da was a regular visitor. Bhupenda and Hemango-da travelled together to distant places in Assam for organisational work. I remember once while returning from such a place halfway through they realised they had not a single anna left. The evening was descending, at a corner of a street they started singing impromptu, you can understand the effect of these two voices singing together. After they finished, people from the crowd started giving money to them thinking they were a group of itinerant street musicians. Whatever they gave was sufficient for the team to get back to Guwahati." IPTA was the first organisation that spoke about the need of highlighting the syncretic nature of its culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state like Assam. × It was much before that that Bhupen came into contact with Jyotiprasad Agarwal and Bishnuprasad Rava, doyens of Assamese culture and the two most important names of the Assam IPTA. Jyotiprasad made him sing in his film Indramalati (1939) when he was just 12 years of age. When Bhupen Hazarika returned from America, upon finishing his Ph.D., Jyotiprasad had passed away. But IPTA by that time went from strength to strength in Assam, after its first and second conference in Silchar (1947) and Dibrugarh (1949) respectively. IPTA was the first organisation that spoke about the need of highlighting the syncretic nature of its culture in a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual state like Assam. In the first conference in Silchar, the two hundred odd representatives who participated consisted of artists from Tripura hill tracts, Jayantiya, Bodo, Manipuri, Dimasa - Kachhari, Miri and other ethnic communities along with Bengalis, Assamese and tea- plantation labourers. IPTA in Assam held on to this tradition and to the spirit of the draft proposal that declared that it is meant to be a platform where every ethnicity is part of a larger collective in which it contributes voluntarily, knowing that its own cultural distinctiveness will not be compromised or co-opted in the process. Many people have discussed at length how Bhupen Hazarika was influenced by Paul Robeson whose acquaintance he made during his stay in the USA as well as by Pete Seeger’s protest songs. × Many people have discussed at length how Bhupen Hazarika was influenced by Paul Robeson whose acquaintance he made during his stay in the USA as well as by Pete Seeger’s protest songs. The initial years when Bhupen started composing songs for the IPTA, certain signs of their influence were undoubtedly pronounced. And yet, the way he used Assamese traditional music (Bihu, bangeet, borgeet or jhumur) at that point and throughout his later life was something extremely unique. He could pull off a melodic structure with major notes and a strong rhythmic pattern like ‘Nami Axa’ and another with predominantly minor notes and zero or soft rhythm like ‘Haradhon Rongmon katha’ (co-composed with Hemango Biswas) with equal ease and elegance. Even when one keeps in mind the rich oeuvre of Jyotiprasad, Bishnu Rava, Parbatiprasad Barua or Anandiram Das whose pioneering creations influenced IPTA artists in composing their own, it is not difficult to see why Bhupen Hazarika’s place in Assamese modern music is still singular on many counts. As Hemango Biswas writes, ‘ In the musical milieu of Assam, IPTA ushered in a new legion of songs about life and revolution. In this work, the musical tradition of the revered Jyotiprasad was our chief inspiration. Works of our folk composer Anandiram Das, the late Hemen Thakur and later those of Abdul Malik helped us. But the true architect of this genre was Dr Bhupen Hazrika. The ordinary lives of Assam like that of the lumberjacks, the stone breakers, the train drivers, tea-plantation worker Jagnu, farmer Rongmon, weaver girl Rodoi and palanquin bearer Dolabhari - these characters succeeded in sweeping aside the impersonal genre of music devoid of social consciousness that had been prevalent thus far. Nothing perhaps better describes how in Bhupen Hazarika such diverse musical styles had found their easeful co-existence beyond the usual divides of traditional, modern, eastern or western forms. × Newer expressions and styles made their presence felt in the creation of the tunes. The local musical form remained intact, but its narrow structures were broken down in a fresh attempt to showcase a new reality. Numerous songs of the IPTA spread to various cities and villages. This metamorphosis in Assamese music is a widely acknowledged fact today’. Nothing perhaps better describes how in Bhupen Hazarika such diverse musical styles had found their easeful co-existence beyond the usual divides of traditional, modern, eastern or western forms. As a singer, his internalisation of this was so complete that anything that he performed: From kamrupi folk to bangeet, from ‘sa banuar geet’ (tea- plantation songs) to Bihu, from lullabies to protest songs – he seemed to be a natural denizen of all the territories he travelled. It is true that Bhupen Hazarika’s political views took a significant turn in his later life and in many ways he became the cynosure of conservative politicians of different hues. We should add to it our collective misfortune that there is no dearth of politicians in this country who can appropriate a cultural capital towards a political end and turn it to material/ military/ electoral gain- a very recent example would be the inauguration by the political who’s who of the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge in Assam which is supposed to be the longest bridge in India (not undisputedly, though). But because of this very reason, it seems all the more necessary to document Bhupen’s immense contribution to the leftist cultural movement in India – his long and hard creative years in Assam, Bengal and outside of those before he finally moved to Bombay. Perhaps we got to remind ourselves now that that period also coincided with the genesis of many of his greatest creations the history of which needs to be written urgently.

Bhupen Hazarika's political melody

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>I let Kalika Prasad&rsquo;s ancestral house in Silchar slowly take over my visual space. Partly, because I want to escape the television channels flooded with uncouth images, but also because that house never stopped haunting me since I visited it in January 2016, and it resurfaces all too intensely now. At the precise moment, someone calls up to say, &quot;this is probably not the best time to tell you this, but would you please write about Kalika Prasad for us?&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p>I am too dazed to say anything but realised I just said, &quot;yes&quot;. &quot;Whichever aspect you are comfortable with, Rongili di&quot;, the voice disappears. The overwhelming green doors and windows in the house in Silchar reclaim their space in my vision.</p>

<p>Back in 1997, I first heard Kalika sing a song from the <em>chorok</em> festival which became phenomenally popular later - &quot;ganjar chirol chirol pat&quot;&nbsp;(the finely diced leaves of the hemp) at our professor Sibaji Bandyopadhyay&rsquo;s house in Kolkata. While other friends present there were quite taken up by the beautiful tune and fresh style of presentation, something else struck me &ndash; Kalika&rsquo;s Sylheti accent was so genuine and befitting that it resonated in the air for the rest of the evening along with Lalan Fakir&rsquo;s &quot;ekdin o na dekhilam tare&quot;&nbsp;(I have not seen him, not even once) rendered by another friend, Uttam Das, in a haunting chuadanga fakiri style. Here are two people, I told myself, who have distinguished provenances.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I have already known Kalika for years by then, but it was only at that point that he told me specifically which house in Silchar he belonged to, &quot;Of course, Rongili di, I am Ananta Bhattacharya&rsquo;s nephew, you must be knowing how close Hemango Biswas was with our family during his Assam IPTA days.&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;You mean with Mukunda Bhattacharya?&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;Yes, with Mukunda -kaka but also with Ananta-Kaka, my youngest uncle, he has four to five thousand songs in his collection and he is trying to make a library of folk music out of those now. Ananta kaka is one of your father&rsquo;s closest followers along with two of my aunts.&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;An archive, a repertoire of five thousand folk songs &ndash; a household replete with Silchar&rsquo;s IPTA history - when will I go to your house?&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;Anytime that suits you.&quot;</p>

<p>No time suited me till 20 years after this conversation. Ananta Bhattacharya passed away in 1998, and I remember a visibly distraught Kalika giving me the news with a lot of remorse: &quot;He could not finish what he wanted to &ndash; I mean the library in its fullest form, and we could not help him much either staying here in Kolkata.&quot;</p>

<p>Kalika called up soon again to say he was going to perform with a newly formed group at Students&rsquo; Hall, Kolkata as a tribute to Ananta Bhattacharya and wanted to learn a few north-eastern songs from Hemango Biswas&rsquo;s personal collection. Among the couple of songs that he quickly picked up from me was a Jayantiya one - Haitu Mmo- that depicts the story of a hunter, who one day targets a fawn and discovering how beautiful it is, fails to throw his arrow, smitten in particular by its ravishing eyes.</p>

<p>It is a well-known story now, how from that one-time tribute-performance, Kalika Prasad&rsquo;s group &lsquo;Dohar&rsquo; evolved to be one of the most popular ones in West Bengal&rsquo;s contemporary musical scenario over the past nineteen years.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This is not the space to engage critically with his musical performance or, for that matter, research areas which certainly were vast and varied. What captivated the urban audience was Kalika&#39;s combination of background storytelling, elaborate narration on the genres and a certain mode of performance. On rare occasions, when we happened to talk about his performances, I would insist that he sings certain core Sylheti folk forms &ndash; other than bhatiyali, bichhedi or dhamail - that were much less known to the people. Sylheti folk songs often border on the gibberish but a theme emerges when one hears them intently, for instance, certain forms within gajir geet focuses on winter harvest. In one of his shows at Gyan manch, Kolkata, a couple of years back, Kalika did sing from one such genre and for me, that was the best part of his performance, again, because of his impeccable Sylheti diction and a certain amount of vivacity that always came with it.</p>

<p>As I mentioned before, it took me 20 years to go to Kalika&rsquo;s ancestral house in Silchar. I was doing a project on Hemango Biswas&#39;s involvement with Indian People&#39;s Theatre Association (IPTA) in Assam. My project was looking into the history of IPTA and, in general, the leftist cultural movement in Assam in the decades from the 1940s through mid-60s.&nbsp; The focus was on the peasant struggles of Tebhaga and Telangana as well as the days of the language riots in Assam.&nbsp;</p>

<p>At Kalika&rsquo;s ancestral home. Anadamayee Bhattacharya, his paternal aunt whom he often talked about, was in tears when she reminisced how deep my father&rsquo;s connection was with the family. &quot;Niranjan Sen and Hemango-da would often come to Silchar in the formative years of Assam IPTA, stay at our house till very late in the night for rehearsals. Along with Kailka&rsquo;s uncle Mukunda-da who was one of the most famous dancers as well as organisers of Assam IPTA and later the Founder-Professor of the Department of Folk dance in Bhatkhande Music Institute University, Lucknow, they would talk about organisational things that I was unable to comprehend at that age. It was the late 1940s. They would stay in a small room across the street that has become a cloth merchant&rsquo;s shop now.&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p>In that windy, chilly night in Silchar, Anadamayee crooned a few lines from a song that she learned from Hemango Biswas in those years. Her voice is still beautiful, laden with profound emotion for those historic days.</p>

<p>&quot;You know we have a family business and, once or twice, Prasad did try to carry out certain orders about that from the elders, but it was clear he did not like it.&quot; She then started talking affectionately about Kalikaprasad: &quot;He came to me at one point and said, &#39;I do not think I wanted to do this in life. I want to go study literature, do something else.&#39; I saw the conviction on his face. So, I said, yes, do it, and see, did he not do well?&quot; Anandamayee&rsquo;s face finally beamed up.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&quot;Do we call him now, would be a nice surprise, I did not tell him I was coming here because it was all so unplanned,&quot; I said. &quot;No, he is in Dhaka now, left today morning, we spoke before he left&quot;,&nbsp; Anandamayee stopped me. I began to realise how deep Kalika&rsquo;s connection was with his family. He made it a point to communicate almost every detail of his complicated itinerary to his aunt and others in Silchar before he left for a place. And certainly, it did not stop there. Relatives from Silchar would constantly come to Kolkata for medical attention or other purposes, and he gave time to them. Explaining his strong attachment, he once said, &quot;Well, Rongili-di, we still have the connection with our roots, you know. My daughter does not even ask her mother if I am gone for two/three days. Good for her. When I kick the bucket, she will not suffer much&quot;.</p>

<p>&quot;That is not true. Not even a true lie, a false one&quot;,&nbsp; I said and we laughed.</p>

<p>Today while writing this, it does not escape my memory how he came repeatedly to our house whenever I needed him &ndash; for music, for medical attention, even for handling a familial crisis after the death of a beloved person. My heart goes out to his family members, and I know I will go back to the house in Silchar, one with overwhelming green doors and windows, to reconstruct the history of IPTA in the 1940s and 50s. This is the least I could do to honour the memory of Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya and to celebrate his contribution.</p>


A tribute, up, close and personal from a fellow music archivist and singer

I let Kalika Prasad’s ancestral house in Silchar slowly take over my visual space. Partly, because I want to escape the television channels flooded with uncouth images, but also because that house never stopped haunting me since I visited it in January 2016, and it resurfaces all too intensely now. At the precise moment, someone calls up to say, "this is probably not the best time to tell you this, but would you please write about Kalika Prasad for us?" I am too dazed to say anything but realised I just said, "yes". "Whichever aspect you are comfortable with, Rongili di", the voice disappears. The overwhelming green doors and windows in the house in Silchar reclaim their space in my vision. Back in 1997, I first heard Kalika sing a song from the chorok festival which became phenomenally popular later - "ganjar chirol chirol pat" (the finely diced leaves of the hemp) at our professor Sibaji Bandyopadhyay’s house in Kolkata. While other friends present there were quite taken up by the beautiful tune and fresh style of presentation, something else struck me – Kalika’s Sylheti accent was so genuine and befitting that it resonated in the air for the rest of the evening along with Lalan Fakir’s "ekdin o na dekhilam tare" (I have not seen him, not even once) rendered by another friend, Uttam Das, in a haunting chuadanga fakiri style. Here are two people, I told myself, who have distinguished provenances. I have already known Kalika for years by then, but it was only at that point that he told me specifically which house in Silchar he belonged to, "Of course, Rongili di, I am Ananta Bhattacharya’s nephew, you must be knowing how close Hemango Biswas was with our family during his Assam IPTA days." "You mean with Mukunda Bhattacharya?" "Yes, with Mukunda -kaka but also with Ananta-Kaka, my youngest uncle, he has four to five thousand songs in his collection and he is trying to make a library of folk music out of those now. Ananta kaka is one of your father’s closest followers along with two of my aunts." "An archive, a repertoire of five thousand folk songs – a household replete with Silchar’s IPTA history - when will I go to your house?" "Anytime that suits you." No time suited me till 20 years after this conversation. Ananta Bhattacharya passed away in 1998, and I remember a visibly distraught Kalika giving me the news with a lot of remorse: "He could not finish what he wanted to – I mean the library in its fullest form, and we could not help him much either staying here in Kolkata." Kalika called up soon again to say he was going to perform with a newly formed group at Students’ Hall, Kolkata as a tribute to Ananta Bhattacharya and wanted to learn a few north-eastern songs from Hemango Biswas’s personal collection. Among the couple of songs that he quickly picked up from me was a Jayantiya one - Haitu Mmo- that depicts the story of a hunter, who one day targets a fawn and discovering how beautiful it is, fails to throw his arrow, smitten in particular by its ravishing eyes. It is a well-known story now, how from that one-time tribute-performance, Kalika Prasad’s group ‘Dohar’ evolved to be one of the most popular ones in West Bengal’s contemporary musical scenario over the past nineteen years. This is not the space to engage critically with his musical performance or, for that matter, research areas which certainly were vast and varied. What captivated the urban audience was Kalika's combination of background storytelling, elaborate narration on the genres and a certain mode of performance. On rare occasions, when we happened to talk about his performances, I would insist that he sings certain core Sylheti folk forms – other than bhatiyali, bichhedi or dhamail - that were much less known to the people. Sylheti folk songs often border on the gibberish but a theme emerges when one hears them intently, for instance, certain forms within gajir geet focuses on winter harvest. In one of his shows at Gyan manch, Kolkata, a couple of years back, Kalika did sing from one such genre and for me, that was the best part of his performance, again, because of his impeccable Sylheti diction and a certain amount of vivacity that always came with it. As I mentioned before, it took me 20 years to go to Kalika’s ancestral house in Silchar. I was doing a project on Hemango Biswas's involvement with Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA) in Assam. My project was looking into the history of IPTA and, in general, the leftist cultural movement in Assam in the decades from the 1940s through mid-60s. The focus was on the peasant struggles of Tebhaga and Telangana as well as the days of the language riots in Assam. At Kalika’s ancestral home. Anadamayee Bhattacharya, his paternal aunt whom he often talked about, was in tears when she reminisced how deep my father’s connection was with the family. "Niranjan Sen and Hemango-da would often come to Silchar in the formative years of Assam IPTA, stay at our house till very late in the night for rehearsals. Along with Kailka’s uncle Mukunda-da who was one of the most famous dancers as well as organisers of Assam IPTA and later the Founder-Professor of the Department of Folk dance in Bhatkhande Music Institute University, Lucknow, they would talk about organisational things that I was unable to comprehend at that age. It was the late 1940s. They would stay in a small room across the street that has become a cloth merchant’s shop now." In that windy, chilly night in Silchar, Anadamayee crooned a few lines from a song that she learned from Hemango Biswas in those years. Her voice is still beautiful, laden with profound emotion for those historic days. "You know we have a family business and, once or twice, Prasad did try to carry out certain orders about that from the elders, but it was clear he did not like it." She then started talking affectionately about Kalikaprasad: "He came to me at one point and said, 'I do not think I wanted to do this in life. I want to go study literature, do something else.' I saw the conviction on his face. So, I said, yes, do it, and see, did he not do well?" Anandamayee’s face finally beamed up. "Do we call him now, would be a nice surprise, I did not tell him I was coming here because it was all so unplanned," I said. "No, he is in Dhaka now, left today morning, we spoke before he left", Anandamayee stopped me. I began to realise how deep Kalika’s connection was with his family. He made it a point to communicate almost every detail of his complicated itinerary to his aunt and others in Silchar before he left for a place. And certainly, it did not stop there. Relatives from Silchar would constantly come to Kolkata for medical attention or other purposes, and he gave time to them. Explaining his strong attachment, he once said, "Well, Rongili-di, we still have the connection with our roots, you know. My daughter does not even ask her mother if I am gone for two/three days. Good for her. When I kick the bucket, she will not suffer much". "That is not true. Not even a true lie, a false one", I said and we laughed. Today while writing this, it does not escape my memory how he came repeatedly to our house whenever I needed him – for music, for medical attention, even for handling a familial crisis after the death of a beloved person. My heart goes out to his family members, and I know I will go back to the house in Silchar, one with overwhelming green doors and windows, to reconstruct the history of IPTA in the 1940s and 50s. This is the least I could do to honour the memory of Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya and to celebrate his contribution.

Kalika Prasad Bhattacharya: Songs from Silchar, with love

Author

Zee News Rajasthan

Editor

Rongili Biswas

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