An evening of Baul songs to ring in Bengali New Year

Baul songs of celebrated Sufi poet Lalon Shah Fakir were soulfully rendered by a leading exponent of his music, Farida Parveen of Bangladesh, as the High Commission of the neighbouring country rung in the Bengali New Year at a function here last evening.
Parveen's singing enthralled the audience during the nearly-two hour function which was a tribute to Lalon Fakir, the 19th century poet who has influenced the likes of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam with his message of religious tolerance.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali set the mood for the Bengali New Year function when he said that as the advent of spring is celebrated with much fanfare in Bangladesh, "we will try to share some of that joy with you this evening" in Delhi.

Parveen, who had been flown in along with her troupe from Dhaka especially for the function, belted out Baul songs like 'Eai Padma, Eai Meghna, Eai Jumuna, 'O-hey dayaban' and 'Barir kache aarshee nagar'.
Parveen said she feels that in order to become a true Lalon singer, one has to imbibe his philosophy and Sufism.
"I am in the process of translating the songs of Lalon Fakir and singing them in Hindi. Will be releasing the album soon in Delhi," she said.
Gazi Abdul Hakim performed bangla folk songs on the flute while the other members of the troupe were ASM Reza (dholak), Debendranath Chatterjee (tabla player, music director and rhythm composer) and Delwar Hossain (dotara).

No celebration of Bengali New Year is complete without food and a spread of rural culinary delights of khichdi, hilsa fry and brinjal fry followed by payesh was laid out by the High Commission on the occasion.