Chhayanaut to ring in Bangla New Year with raga Ahir Bhairav

Chhayanaut will organise this year's programme to ring in the Bangla New Year on Pahela Baishakh with the call to “light the lamp within and do away with self-centredness”.

Launched in the 1960s resisting the Pakistani rule, the cultural organisation’s Baishakh programme at Ramna Batamul in Dhaka is the flagship event that kicks off the celebrations of the brand new year in the Bangla calendar.

“At dawn this New Year, we will sing the song of people’s victory, not consumerism, not selfishness,” its General Secretary Laisa Ahmed Lisa said at a press conference on Saturday, nine days before the celebrations.

“Chhaynaut’s call for people will be to aspire to achieve humanity, normality and harmony – 'Do away with self-centredness, light the lamp within'."

The programme will commence with raga Ahir Bhairav on flute at sunrise. Songs of nature, love of humanity and patriotism, and self-realisation will dominate the function.

Jayanta Roy, a joint secretary of Chhayanaut, said there will be 11 chouses, 15 solo performances and recitations.

Shaheen Samad, Khairul Anam Shakil, Chandana Mazumder, Lisa and many others will perform solo. Ramendu Majumdar and Jayanta Chattopadhyay will recite from poems.

More than 100 young and big artists started practising for the progrramme two and a half months ago.

Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar will broadcast this two-hour event live. It will also be available on Chhayanaut's YouTube channel (http://www.chhayanaut.com/digitalplatformchhayanaut).