| Told by | Ms Mita Nag |
| Obtained by | Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee |
| Date | 27th October,2016 |
| Place | S.A.P. Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University, B.T. Road Campus. |
| About the speaker | Renowned Sitar Player and Torchbearer of Bishnupur Gharana. |
| Tags | House Concerts, Manilal Nag, 1960, 1970, 1980, Musicians, Performance, Bagbazar, Naina Devi, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Keramatullah Khan, Meera Bandopadhyay, Prasun Bandopadhyay, Gokul Nag, V.G. Jog |
| Language | English |
Ms Mita Nag Speaks:
Text Version:
When I was growing up in my family, I remember in my childhood, I have seen many house concerts taking place and at that time, my baba Pt Manilal Nag, it was his prime time, that was in sixties, and seventies, into late seventies and even in late eighties and I used to see once or twice in a year, like when there were major concerts, in winter,in or around Kolkata, many musicians from the city and from other cities, they used to come over to the town for their performances, and with such musicians with whom my baba had very cordial relations, because he got familiar with them while travelling everywhere around the countries for many years, so they just used to you know, gossip together, and they used to go to concerts together, and sometimes travelling together so, like it was a kind of a kind of ‘Adda’, musical ‘Adda’.
My baba just asked some senior musicians and junior musicians and they used to come to our home at Bagbazar, and rendered their performances, so in my childhood like in seventies I remember, Smt Naina Devi ji, I also remember buddhajethu, that Pt. Buddhadeb Dasgupta, but that was off course much later, early eighties. even remember Ustad Keramatullah Khan, and they all came to our houses, I mean our home and the adjacent home where there was a big hall, or hall room on the first floor, so the concerts, when like there was some very very renowned musicians coming, then we used to shift the concerts to that place so that more people can be accommodated, so they came and I also remember that I used to call her ‘Pishima’ meere pishima, that is Bidushi Meera Banerjee, and Pt Prasun Banerjee, Prasun Pishemoshai, like they all had used to have a very cordial and friendly relation with my grand father and my father, and beside that we also used to have house concerts, sometimes the concerts were nightlong concerts, Pt V.G.Jog performed duet in our house concert with baba. So these were really interesting time, may be I don’t remember the music with that in details, because I was too young to remember, but I can recall the atmosphere in the house, and my mom used to be in the kitchen, she was cooking with the other women at the house, and sometimes our lady students, like they were cooking dinner for these artists, sometimes they were arranging, like for their rest, like some artists after concerts used to come to the concerts and relax in one of our bedrooms,
so this was the atmosphere which I have seen in my family and I grew up like this, Other thing that I should mention that these musicians like they really built a ‘Adda’ that was that when they came, they didn’t take any honorarium for their performances. They came as a sort of friendly gesture and off course they had a great respect for my ‘Dadu’ Sangeetacharya Gokul Nag, and they knew my father so well, at most they just had dinner in our house, or we arranged for their transport, so those were really good times and we enjoyed a lot.
Verbatim by: Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Picture Courtesy: Google
http://www.mitanag.com/adver/106803foundation.html
Edited & Designed: Ms. Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.