CELEBRATING BASANT WITH MUSIC & POETRY
An evening full of mesmerising performances was held in the state capital to celebrate Basant Utsav. Organised by Helping Heart Foundation, its president Dr Nakul Sinha along his wife Jyoti Sinha, foundation’s secretary and poetess, welcomed the guests during the programme held at their residence in Mahanagar.
The event started with Saraswati Vandana presented by Abha Srivastava and Shanta Mathur. This was followed by a kathak presentation by Pt Anuj Mishra and his students from the academy. Singer Brijendra Sivastava sang raga Basanti to welcome the season of spring.
Later, kathak performances were presented by Rudrakshi, Vanshika, Pritam, Ankita followed by a dance presentation by Dr Akansha Srivastava’s students including Shiza, Arohini, Priti, Sakshi and others. They were supported by Pt Vikas Mishra on tabla. Sitarist Pt Naveen Mishra along with his wife-singer Manjusha presented a beautiful collection of songs during the event. A session of poetry based on the festival was also presented by Jyoti Sinha.
The programme concluded with felicitation of eminent artistes. Basant Kokila was given away to Prof Kamla Srivastava, Basant Vedika went to Dr Vidya Bindu Singh for her Awadhi writings, known theatre and film personality Dr Anil Rastogi, along with Pt Anuj Mishra and others were also honoured on the occasion. Superintendent of Police, Sultanpur, Dr Arvind Chaturvedi also graced the celebrations as a special guest.
Talking about the vent Jyoti Sinha said, “The reason we came up with this event was to revive our lost traditions like Basant celebrations and make our young generation value our culture instead of blindly following West.”