Past is cast in haze. It is the nature of past. So I cannot exactly recall the year. But it should be at the fag- end of nineties. The occasion is the ‘Social’ of Vivekananda College. The performer is Srikanto Acharya.
I went. Parked my cycle at the heap of cycles in an enclosed area, supposed to be a cycle stand. After a few songs and dance items by the college students, Srikanto came. Took the dais. The initial adjustments with the sound system followed. “Ma go chinmoyee rup dhore aye” – he sang the first song. Nazrulgeeti.
I was a bit taken aback as he started an open-air jalsa with a devotional song. Since the days of Hemanta Mukherjee, it became a standard norm for the popular artists of Bengal to begin their programme with Rabindrasangeet; and then switched to their hits later (as I have come to know). Srikanto struck me as an exception. He was possessed of his notes right from the beginning. The young artist, clad in bluish punjabi and white fitting pyjamas, dug out melody after melody. The open college ground, swarming with humanity, cared less about which song the artist started with. They were already sozzled with melodic spell.
I came out after the very first song. What could I do? It was 9.15 p.m. That meant I had to cover more than eight kilometer of distance to reach home within next ten minutes! It was my father’s order to be present at the dinner table by 9.30 on the dot. So I hot-pedalled. When I came to the turn of the college road to direct my handle left, the mute November sky sang out: O akash prodip Jwelo na. I stopped. The whole western horizon seemed to implore: O batas ankhi melona/ Amar priya lojja pete pare….
I dropped both my legs on the road, sitting on the cycle-seat. Wave after wave the romantic voice immobilised me with a surge of melody. I surrendered. I got down from the cycle.
I could not come back home in time. I reached almost an hour late for dinner. Father did not say anything. He simply kept on looking into my eyes. There must have been something there. It only happened to an audience when an artiste went on song.