Aye mere watan ke logo... The Heritage of Nationalism

Thi khun se lath path kaaya, phir bhee banduk uthaake

 Das das ko ek ne maara, phir gir gaye hosh ganvaake

 Jab ant samay aaya toh - 2, kah gaye ke abb marate hain

 Khush rahana desh ke pyaaro - 2, (abb ham toh safar karate hain) - 2

 Kya log the woh diwaane, kya log the woh abhimaani

 Jo shahid huye hain unaki, jara yaad karo kurbaani

 Tum bhul naa jaao unako, iss liye kahee yeh kahaani

 Jo shahid huye hain unaki, jara yaad karo kurbaani

How many of us have tried to read about the making of India, the root of the thought process of one nation, which came through the Indian Freedom Movement. The words like Anushilan Samiti, Jugantar, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, Kotwal Dasta, Halagali, India House, Gadar Party and Berlin Committee hardly rings any bells in my ears. On this 100^th year of MARTYRDOM of Baghajatin, I feel guilty of not being a part of the same. The best part is that the 4th MCCS Gitanjali Mango Festival, which was held at Siliguri a few months back, was dedicated to this sacrifice of the legendary Jatindranath Mukherjee, popularly Baghajatin, for his sacrifice for Indian Freedom, where he said “Aamra Morbo, Jagat jagbey” translated means “as we die, the world will realize”, realize the importance of freedom of India from the then British rule. On the 9^th of September, 1915, he and his 04 companions were encountered at Chashakhand in Balasore District of Odisa. Baghajatin could not survive the fatal injuries which he received while fighting with the large contingent of Government forces and died on 10^th of September, 1915 at Balasore Hospital.

We all know the famous Siliguri Town Station incident of 1908, when he handled 03 British soldiers along with an officer for mishandling a poor old Indian lady, bare handed, he knocked them down. This station is a part of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the only World Heritage Site of the Sikkim and North Bengal. Many enlightened people still take pride in taking selfies here. Most of such enlightened citizens feel that this old station should be restored as a World Heritage Site dedicated to Baghajatin.

 We all are busy, we all have the freedom of work, speech and action under a free nation’s constitution. Many a times we forget to remember our great freedom fighters, who thought about one nation, one India or Bharat.

Aye mere vatan ke logon, jara aankh me bhar lo paani

Jo shahid huye hain unaki, jara yaad karo kurbaani

This action of starting the 100 Years of Baghajatin's Martyrdom from the Mango Festival at Siliguri was initiated by Institute of Social & Cultural Studies, who brought the soil (mati) from the places, where Baghajatin fought to death at Chasakhand, Odisa in India and his place of birth Kaya Gram, Kustia in present Bangladesh.

The inauguration was attended by several personalities from India and Bangladesh and a committee for North Bengal was formed, keeping in view Baghajatin's connection with Darjeeling and Siliguri.

2nd Gitanjali Mango Festival

2^nd Gitanjali Mango Festival

10^th to 12^th June, 2011. Utsav Complex. Uttorayon, Siliguri

Organized by

Modella Caretaker Centre & School (MCCS) and The Orchid Choicest Enterprises Ltd

As promised last year, this year again the Gitanjali Mango Festival is being held, almost around the same time and ofcourse the same venue. With all your cooperation, the event was a great success last year. There were about 30,000 footfalls, 2000 kilos mangoes handled, 200 mangoes in competition, 35 varieties on sale, 100 competitions and cultural programs organized, all in the three days. Even the tourism stalls received extraordinary response. And believe it, this was the only ‘Mega Mango Event’ for East and Northeast India.

As the festival was dedicated to the 150^th Birth Anniversary of Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore and 100 years of Gitanjali last year, the title Gitanjali was added to Mango Festival. The name every year will remain the same to remember the Kabiguru’s love for Mango Orchard (Amrakunja) and this year’s theme will also revolve around him and in a greater context will be ‘Epar Bangla-Opar Bangla’, the cultural ties between India’s West Bengal and Bangladesh based on Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore.

Taking into consideration, the response at the tourism stalls, this year a special travel mart will be organized, Rural Tourism Baazar, based on the theme ‘connecting heritage beyond boundaries’, which will be coordinated by Association for Conservation & Tourism (ACT). The Northeast part of India, which is connected to the country through the Siliguri Corridor or the Chicken’s Neck as it is often called shares about 98% of its borders with Tibet (China), Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, which amounts to about 4500 kms of International border and only 02% with the country. As per the ‘Look East Policy’ of India, the success of this region lies in trade and cultural ties with the neighbouring countries and we believe rural tourism can be a major tool to achieve it. As ACT has organized 02 major policy workshops based on cross-border tourism, the responsibility has been left to them.

The Mango Exhibition and Competition, Mango Eating Competition, Cookery Classes and Mango Recipe Competition, Seminars, Sit & Draw, Picture Postcard Art, Picture Story Writing, Mango Quiz, Ethnic Dress Competition, Face of the Day, Cultural Programs will continue like last year. The new activities which will be added would include Alpana Competitions (revival of a old domestic art form of Bengal), Poster Exhibition based on Heritage Sites of Bengal, A Trio of Films from Shekhar Das will be video projected by the Director himself who will be available for interaction, Ajoy Roy’s documentaries of Bengal and India’s Northeast will be projected by the maker himself and more surprises to come during the Festival.

We shall meet again on the 5^th of June, 2011 at 3PM (15:00 hrs) for the Reception Rituals of the Festival with plantation of Mango Trees at the venue, The Utsav, Uttorayon, Siliguri.

6^th May, 2011                          Abhaya Bose, Organizing Secretary