Remembering Swami Vivekananda

Cultural milieu

On the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Impressario India - a socio-cultural organisation is organising a string of programmes to remember India’s great spiritual leader. The events will include traditional Bengali devotional song and dance programmes besides plays and talks on Swamiji’s life.

These events are slated to be held at different venues in the NCR area with the opening programme to be held at the India International Centre (IIC) on June 10.

Instituted in 1993, Impresario India is an NGO aimed at promoting and propagating India’s traditional art and culture in both its folk and classical forms. Its endeavour is to retain the cultural roots of India in all its diverse forms and disseminate its knowledge and appreciation equally among the connoisseurs and the uninitiated.

The president Impressario India, Bijan Mukherjee says, “One of the primary objectives of the institution is to keep alive and propagate among the new generation values and deeds left behind by the celebrated genius of our country in the field of art and culture. A great spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, Swami Vivekananda was instrumental in exhorting the nation to spiritual greatness and a new national consciousness.

In a very short span of life (January 12, 1863 to July 4, 1902) he took the country to
a greater height through his propagation of Vedanta philosophy and religion in the Western world.

“The 150th Birth Anniversary of this mystic philosopher is being celebrated all over the world with all solemnity and great fervour. Impresario India has also drawn up a series of programmes to pay tribute to this celebrated son of the country.”

The opening programme in the series will be held on June 10 at 6:30 pm in IIC. It will comprise dance choreography in Manipuri style on the favourite songs of Swamiji - the age-old devotional tradition of Bengal – Padabali Kirtan which is on the verge of extinction. The programme will be inaugurated by the Governor of Chhattisgarh Shekhar Dutt. The two eminent artistes of the evening are Shima Acharya Chaudhuri in Kirtan and Pavitra Soram in Manipuri dance.

While Shima Chaudhuri has been dedicatedly propag­a­ting the legacy of legendary Kirtania, the late Chhabi Bandopadhyay, Pavitra Soram is an accomplished disciple of Guru Bipin Singh and Kalavati Devi and carrying forward Manipuri Nartan­alaya tradition among young boys and girls in the capital.

Many more programmes are lined-up for the year-long celebration. These, slated for later months, include ‘Noti Binodini’ - a play on Thakur Ramakrishna, ‘Bilay’ - a play on Swami Vivekananda by the Lokkrishti Theatre Group of Kolkata with renowned actor Shri Debshankar Halder playing Swamiji, devotional songs of Rabindranath as a tribute to Swami Vivekananda, a musical mono acting in Hindi on the life and work of Swamiji by actor-singer of international fame Shri Shekhar Sen of Mumbai etc..

Mukherjee adds, “A lot has been done in the memory of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. However, Swamiji’s writings stand almost forgotten today. We wish to bring Swamiji’s life and work into focus again and hope to see good participation from people which shall eventually lead to success of our endeavour.”