Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Bichitra and Rabindranath (contd-1)

Rabindranath inaugurated the meeting of Bichitra  Club on 12th July. Rathindranath got it on visiting the works of the students and Abanindranath and Gaganendranath. He wrote;
" After some time it came to my mind that every attempt would be of no value if they were not bound up by an organisation. The result came out of it was Bichitra Club and  Gagandas helped me a lot in this matter." he wrote  in the minutes of the inaugural meeting;
" The meeting of the club took place in the Red Building.Many renowned persons were present on that day. Acharya Brajendranath Sil took the chair. Surenda prepared the Rules and Regulations of the club. Since there was no fixed subscription for the members, the rules and regulations were not so rigid. The Logo of the club was drawn nicely by Nandalal Basu. At the end of this meeting, my father read from his unpublished work. After the end of the session the members assembled in the dinning hall at the ground floor and there was good arrangements for the dinner.  The room was decorated with red and golden coloured materials like the Chinese. So long as the Club was active the rooms were nicely decorated and different types of dishes for the dinner."
Describing this incident Dr. Dwijendranath Moitra wrote to Andrews on 14th July.and it was known from this letter that the meeting was held in the house of Gaganendranath;
" We had a most interesting meeting  -- boys and girls - Gagan Babu's house where we laid the foundation  of a Saturday Club at Jorasanko where the select few, members of one intellectual orchestra will meet, talk, discuss but not fight. The poet read out to us ( it was then 9.30 pm) one of his finest productions a short introductary essay on Art with special reference to painting - taking a sanskrit sloka as his text. I was pressed to stay back when all had left at 10. 00 & the Poet, Rathi, his wife & i had dinner togetherand talked about his going to Japan."