ANS : Chandan Studio, Dhanbad hosted the sixth annual “Dol Utsav” at Rajendra Sarovar Park, a vibrant celebration reminiscent of Shantiniketan’s Holi traditions on Sunday. The event, aimed to preserve and promote Bengali cultural heritage through the colorful Dol festival.
The festival, known as ‘Dol Purnima’ or ‘Dol Jatra’ in Bengal, Odisha, and Assam, holds significant cultural importance for Bengalis. It witnessed enthusiastic participation from the local community, highlighting the community’s strong connection to its cultural roots.
The event was graced by esteemed guests, including former Director of CIMFR and President of the Lindsay Club, Amalendu Sinha, and his wife, Sharmila Sinha, along with Mayor Chandra Shekhar Agrawal and his wife, Veena Agrawal. Prof. Sharmila Banerjee, Prof. Tapti Chakravarti, Kanchan Dey, Gopal Bhattacharya, Priya Ranjan, Poet Tapan Ray, Barnali Sengupta, Reena Mandal, Hemant Mandal, and others were also present.
The festivities commenced with women and children, adorned in floral and herbal colors, dancing to the beats of Dol around the Rajendra Sarovar Park premises. Around 500 participants from various areas joined in the cultural celebrations, playing Holi with yellow sarees, Palash flowers, marigolds, and herbal gulal.
The program featured captivating performances by students from different dance academies, presenting renditions inspired by the essence of Basant. A special highlight was the Lucky Draw ceremony, where participants, retired teachers from Nitya Vidyalaya, and Chandan Studio members were honored by the distinguished guests.
Noteworthy dance institutions from Dhanbad, including Sanskritik Shikshan Kendra-Saraidhela, Somapa Mukherjee Dance Academy-Hirapur, Guru Sur Nritya Sangam Dhanbad, Saswati Sen Dance Academy-Jharia, Bouthan Group, Nritya Malika Dance Academy, and Anuradha Dance Academy-Manaitand, actively participated in the event.
The event was skillfully hosted by Subarna Banerjee and concluded with a collective dance to Rabindra Sangeet’s “Rangie Diye Jao,” choreographed by Kushan Sengupta. The success of the program was attributed to the coordination efforts of Aarti Saw, Sanpa Sarkar, Sanjay Sengupta, Noopur, Deepa, Santosh Seal, Gaurav Modak, Pampa Pal, Santosh Das, Abhijeet Ray, Dilip, Kakuli Sengupta, Subrata Day, Ananya, Saniya, and Srungini, along with the crucial roles played by Chandan Studio’s production team: Rajkumar Singh, Subhojit Ghoshal, Chotu Saw, Vinod, Devvrat, and Ramesh Gandhi.