A classic afternoon

Usha Utthup, Rekha Surya, Sujoy Prosad, Mamta Shankar

Today afternoon I hosted a lunch in honour of Rekha Surya, an exponent of Hindustani Light Classical who has trained under legendary Begum Akhtar and Girija Devi. She is in city and will perform at the ICCR tomorrow. I thought why not host a lunch and invite some of city's classical musicians and performing artistes.

I arranged for a barbeque at the Taj Bengal poolside and nearly 95 per cent of the invitees turned up. It wasn't like any of the cocktail evenings involving diplomats, the celebs from Tollywood and partygoers. It was a relaxed lazy afternoon where the city's top classical performers got together. I'd call it a classic afternoon.

Among those who graced the occasion were Bickram and Jaya Ghosh, Dona Ganguly, Mamta Shankar, Preeti Patel, Radhika Singh, Tanusree Shankar, Tanmoy Bose, Pt Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Partho Desikan, Suuchanndra, Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee, Usha Utthup and others (picture). The Taj Bengal poolside provided a perfect ambience for a relaxed time out for the guests who otherwise have a busy schedule for their own performances and rehearsals.
Besides classical performers, I did invite a couple of my friends who patronize classical music and dance like Jayshree Mohta, Madhu Neotia and Satyam Roy Chowdhury.

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