Bombay Durgabari Samiti organised a solo Bengali Music performance by Mumbai-based Ivy Roy. She is a reputed singer and her repertoire includes classical, folk and popular Bengali and Hindi music.
Saraswati Puja is an auspicious day not only for the Bengali community, but all over the country
Saraswati is worshipped as the goddess of Vidya (Education). Saraswati is also the Goddess of Kala Vidya (Art and Culture).
Bengalis flamboyantly worship the Goddess with flowers, garland with khichuri, vegetable preparation,chatni, sweets fruits which they call bhog or prasad. Puja is performed amidst chanting of the mantra by a Brahmin Pandit. On this auspicious day the ritual “Hathkhari” (education) is held with puja for the children.
Usually, after the Puja, there is a tradition of organising cultural programmes in the evening. This is mostly with music in an auditorium by Public Puja Committees.
Bombay Durgabari Samiti is the oldest Durga Puja organizers of Mumbai, and its heritage goes back to 1930. There were very few people who brought idols from Varanasi for the Puja.
Times have changed and members too have constantly increased. individuals have consistently worked for making the organisation a premier, non-sectarian, cultural and charitable organisation in Mumbai.
Ever since the growth of the organisation, the Samiti has been celebrating the Bengali New Year along with Kabiguru’s birth anniversary, followed by Durga Puja the great Sharad utsav, Kojagiri Lakshmi Puja, Diwali and Basant Utsav with a traditional fervour of Bengali Utsav.
The Samiti dedicated itself to carrying out various objectives of the Samiti by providing aid to different charitable works in social, educational and medical activities. Their motto is to reach out to the people in every possible means. This year Durgabari Puja Samiti decided to host the musical program of renowned mumbai based Bengali singer Ivy Roy who is a trained classical singer and who started as a performing artiste at the age of five. She was trained under the disciple of her Guru, Pandit Sudhindra Bhowmick. In the past, she was also. a pupil of Ustad Sagiruddin Khan Saheb, Ganasraswati Kishoritai Amonkar, Ajay and Anjali Pohankar.
Her spectrum of singing versatility spans genres from pure classical to Thumri, Ghazal, Bhajans, Hindi film music and Rabindra Sangeet.
She shares her love for music by training both children and adults through a number of classes conducted in Mumbai.
On 29th January 2020 evening at the Tejpal Hall a musical evening was organised by Bombay Durgabari where Ivy Roy sang to a packed auditorium.
With an introduction of the artist by anchor Poulami Chakravarty, anchor Jishu Mitra explained the Raag Bhairavi related to Durga and Saraswati rated as the other form of mother. Ivy started her journey with an enchanting classical Bhairavi Raag. She then enthralled the audience with different genres of Bengali music like Rabindra Sangeet, Najrul Geeti, Ragprodhan. She then switched over to popular folk songs of Bhatialy, Tusu. The programme was augmented by the skillful anchoring by Jishu Mitra. Poulomi Chakrabarty told the audience the historical background of songs. Flute was played by Bhuwan Dhakaal. Keyboard was played by Krishno Ghosh and tabla by mastreo Basudev Saha. The programme concluded with felicitation to Singer by the organiser.
Following the conclusion of the function, the audience had the puja’s sumptuous bhog consisting of khichuri, labra a mixed vegetables with chatni and payesh a Bengali sweet preparation. It was an evening to remember.
