Poila Baisakh is arriving and Bengalis worldwide are busy celebrating it in vivid ways. The festival in West Bengal witnesses early morning cultural processions called Prabhat Pheri where dance troupes and children dressed up with floats, display their performance arts to songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore.
The festival which falls on 14 or 15 April every year marks the beginning of New Year as per Bengali Calendar. This also marks new year in several other regional calendars and is known by other names such as Vaisakhi in central and north India, Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Bikram Samwat in Nepal, Vishuva Sankranti in Odisha, Aluth Avuruthu in Sri Lanka, Songkran in Thailand, Chol Chnam Thmey in Cambodia, Songkan / Pi Mai Lao in Laos and Thingyan in Burma.
Bengalis worldwide celebrate this festival in unique ways and it often gets amalgamated with local culture. In a recent even in United States, a group of 200 people from India celebrated this festival at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The event witnessed Bengali ambience including Bengali songs, dance and cuisine. Women donned classic saris, or sharees draped the Bengali style, flowers in their hair and huge, round bindis on their foreheads, not forgetting the glittering ornaments, while men wore kurtas (long shirts).
In continuation with this spirit Soumita Saha, a teenage Internet Sensation from Kolkata has come up with a musical album titled Nisarga Madhuri, which blends perfectly with the essence of New Year. The teaser of Nisarga Madhuri was launched on April 10 and the music would be launched on April 15th.
Nisarga Madhuri takes you on a journey through various seasons of the year. It has the rendition of Rabindranath Tagore’s Riturongo combined with Indian classical music, in an attempt to create a musical portrait of various seasons.