Songs of humanity to usher in noboborsho

Chhayanaut, a leading cultural organisation of the country and the founder of ushering in Pahela Baishakh with a dawn time cultural programme at Ramna Botomul in the capital, is set to begin the celebrations this year with the theme "Humanity".

The programme will begin with a duet rendition of a morning raga Gunkeli at 6:15am on April 14.

A press conference was held yesterday announcing the programme at Chhayanaut building in Dhanmondi where its President Dr Sanjida Khatun, Vice-President Dr Sarwar Ali, and General Secretary Khairul Anam Shakil spoke.

"Pahela Baishakh appears this year with an urge of our true rejuvenation in unison as a nation. The country has progressed economically in many regards; but our good conscience and sense of humanity are on the wane. Such a state is mounting the picture of decay, destruction and violence against woman in our society. That's why we have chosen the theme 'Humanity' for hailing Noboborsho this year," said Khairul Anam.

"In the nation's journey towards self-discovery and taking pride in its cultural identity, Chhayanaut has been an inseparable partner. The bomb blast at Chhayanaut's Borshoboron programme, something what even we didn't face in the then uncongenial Pakistani era, is of deep-seeded pain to me. What we want is to diffuse the essence of Bangla culture through the presentation of melody and rhythm," said Sanjida Khatun.

This year's programme has been designed with 12 choral songs, 15 solo songs, three recitations, and a concluding speech by Sanjida Khatun. Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar air the  programme live. BTV will provide clean feed of the programme to the interested channels to air live. Besides, everyone can watch the event live logging onto chhayanaut.org and maatrik.tv.

Chhayanaut has been welcoming Pahela Baishakh at Ramna's Botomul since 1967.