Missed out on Momasar's folk festival

Kolkata October 10, 2013: Today I was scheduled to be in Momasar - a 500-year-old village in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan 260 kms north-west of Jaipur and some 40 kilometres from Sardarshahar - having a population of about 10,000.

I had planned to stay overnight in Sardarshahar, at the Kuber Hotel, to attend this festival at Momasar but I had to stay on in Kolkata for some reason and could not fly out.

A night-long folk festival, Shekhawati Utsav – 2013, would be on on October 10, organized by Virasat Foundation of Jaipur in collaboration with Prabha Khaitan Foundation, Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Academy and Gram Panchayat- Momasar. The event, which is expected to provide a platform to over 200 folk artists form across Rajasthan to showcase their art forms.

The festival is expected to draw 30,000 visitors and art lovers from all over India. The folk artistes from across Rajasthan would perform Pabuji ke Bhope, Deru Nritya, Chang Nritya, Jhumma Mewati songs, Langa – Magniyar Songs, Agni – Bhawai Dance, Gogaji ke Dhol-Thali Nritya, Pabu Ji ke Maante and many more Rajasthan’s own art and culture performances. Also, the locals get a chance to exhibit their prodigious skills. 

Surajit Purkayastha, Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, flagging off Puja Darshan for the Pronam members

Famed artists and craftsmen from every corner of Rajasthan make use of this festival as an opportunity to display their talent to the world.
Yesterday, in the morning I went to the Tollygunge Police Station with the Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, Mr Surijit Purkayastha, to flag off “Puja Darshan” buses as part of Pronam's annual Puja Parikrama programme for the elderly citizens of Kolkata. The buses carried 400 elderlies to various puja pandals in north and south Kolkata and Salt Lake. 

The Puja Parikrama event is an effort of Pronam to ensure that the elderlies get an opportunity to participate in the Puja festivities.In the afternoon I, and a few members of The Bengal – Jogen Chowdhury, Bickram Ghosh, Usha Uthup, Arindam Sil - had an informal adda session on various aspects of past and present city life at the The Conclave along with few others at The Conclave. 

With Bickram Ghosh, Usha Uthup, Jogen Chowdhury, Arindam Sil and Ekavali at an adda session at The Conclave

The discussion moved on from one topic to another, mostly about the traditions that came into being from the 60s and 70s, the night long musical soirees and the other trivias and names from the yester years that was a part of that tradition which Kolkata seems to have failed to hold on to.

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