To pay tribute to the first Asian Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore, art and literature aficionados of the port city thronged the auditorium of Alliance Franchise de Chittagong on Tuesday evening.

Alliance Fran^aise de Chittagong arranged a programme to mark the 150th birth anniversary ofTagore.

The event is the precursor of year long celebrations to honour the poet.

On the occasion Alliance Fran^aise de Chittagong, in association with Alain Danielou Centre, arranged a musical soiree and a photo exhibition on Rabindranath at its auditorium. A discussion on Rabindrik art and philosophy was also held on the occasion. The programme was

supported by UNESCO.

Mizarul Quayes, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke on the occasion as the chief guest. Poet Abul Momen and Alliance Fran^aise de Chittagong Director Dr. Samuel Berthet, among others, spoke at the event.

Noted Rabindra Sangeet artiste Sheela Momen presented moving renditions of the bard's songs at the programme.

Mizarul Quayes said that Tagore's philosophy teaches us "Debey aar nebey, melabey milibey" (give and take, and assimilate).

Poet Abul Momen said that Tagore did not agree with the typical method of education, instead his basic philosophy was that "children should be close to nature."

The programme began with a speech by Dr. Samuel Berthet, Director of Alliance Fran^aise de Chittagong, who achieved his fellowship from

Visva Bharti.

In his speech, Dr. Berthet explained how the rare and unpublished photos of Rabindranath and Shantiniketan were discovered.

Berthet said that these photos were taken by Alain Danielou and Raymond Burnier which were discovered by him from photo archives of Danielou (a French scholar), near Rome in Italy last year. This was also the subject matter of his research, he asserted.

The second session of the programme started with the Tagore's song "Hridaya Nandana Bon-e", performed by Shila Momen.

She went on to perform several Tagore songs that went down exceedingly well with the audi-

The photo exhibition will remain open to the public from today and later the exhibition will travel to Dhaka, India, Spain, Italy and France.