This year's celebration of the Bengali New Year s Day had an ominous start. People were bewildered as to the actual day it fell on. The 13th or the 14th April? The Bengali calendar had been with us for at least three centuries and a half — one theory puts it at four times as much — and has all the time been called the Bangabda. In the last four or five decades’ time this eastern subcontinental calendar has fallen into disuse, specially in the urban areas. When a national resurgence shaped a sovereign state in the region it also revived interest in the calendar. That led to a calendar reform. The resulting reform, open to question as it is. was miscomprehended and we had that confusion. We had asked in this column that both government and Bangla Academy clear the confusion in time. Thanks to them the confusion was ended, hopefully, for good. From now on Pahela Baisakh will always correspond to April 14 — without an exception.

Tile bad start was more than made up by an all pervading atmosphere of festivity. More than rushing to the musical invocation of the day at the Ramna Botomul, this year Pahela Baisakh seemed to have invaded the homes. A surfeit of bonhomie informed the day with the families coming out in their best attire and treating guests with the best of Bengali cuisine.

The Pahela Baisakh festival is yet to be picked up by the government organisations although the day has long been declared a national holiday. The Dhaka Municipal Corporation can have a very fitting role in this. They can pioneer representative bodies response to the national event by organising at different city points melas and music and shows at different hours of the day, leaving the mornings to events, which have now become a proud tradition.