TO mark the 62nd death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, Bangla Academy arranged a solo recital of economist, and Tagore specialist and singer Professor Anisur Rahman. To the delight of a house full audience, the performer sang many songs of Tagore, both spiritual and Barsha (monsoon) songs.

Before starting Anisur Rahman said, 'You people may be amazed to see that there is no tabla on stage. Tagore himself used to sing without tabla. He wanted to free his songs from the bindings of Tabla. He wanted it only to keep the rhythm of the song.'

The performer sang many songs like Pratidin tabo gantha gabo ami shumadhur, Ogo pather shathi nami baramber, Bajao amare bajao, Amar betha jakhan aney amay

tomar darey, Bojre tomar bajey banshi, Ami chanchal hey etc.

Earlier a duet recital from Raktokarabi was performed by Khayrul Alam Shabuj as Bishu and Shirin Bakul as Nandini. Rupa Chakrovarty recited a poem Mukti from Tagore's Palatoka.

The chief guest of the programme, Land Minister M Shamsul Islam said, ' Rabindranath is the poet of the people, our own poet. We all love to listen to his songs. The singers and instruments have changed over the years but the melody of the music has not changed and we will never change either.'

Special guest State Minister for the Cultural Affairs, Selima Rahman said in her speech, 'If Tagore's creations were not there, there would be a vacuum in the history of literature.'

The Director General of Bangla Academy, Mansur Musa said, 'Although we mourn Tagore's death but Tagore himself preached to turn grief into strength. So, to honour his words we must celebrate this day.'