Sarsuna, Kolkata. 9 June 2016. Chandrakala Roy and others

1. Manasar gaan

Artist:
Chandrakala Roy and others
Composer:
Bijoy Gupta
Form:
Panchali
Song region:
Barisal

On 9 June 2016, we were invited to take part in a public arts event in Sarsuna, an area on the south-western end of Kolkata, around an artists’ residency project called Chander Haat (www.chanderhaat.org). This event was called ‘Sarsuna Theke Jana’ or ‘Derives from the Metropolis’ and it was curated by Sayantan Maitra Boka of Shelter Promotion Council (www.shelterpromotioncouncil.com).
As we began to explore the area, contemplating what we could do by way of taking our work to this event, we realized that this area was largely immigrant territory and that most of the people who had set up home here had arrived from Bangladesh over the past two decades or so. Hence these were new immigrants and were quite different from the old refugees of the time of Partition, or even 1971.

Women of Sarsuna singing Manasamangal

Many of the families were from Barisal in Bangladesh, we learned. One of the visual artists also taking part in the event, Mallika Das Sutar, was working around the Manasa Mandir, which is the temple of Manasa or the Snake Goddess. Mansa is of course big in Barisal and Bijoy Gupta’s Manasa Mangal or narrative in praise of Manasa, is read through the monsoon month of Sraban. In fact, in 2012 we went around different places in Bangladesh to record Manasa’s songs. Here Mallika’s installation involved the local women’s live performance of Manasa’s songs.
We entered into this space of Mallika’s installation and talked with the women who had gathered and recorded some of their songs and stories, as a prelude to a recording session we will have there later, in the month of Sraban (July-August). This was also for us an extension of our ongoing work on Manasa, and a direct continuation of our work in Barisal in 2012.

Mallika Das Sutar’s installation. Clay idols and models made by the women of Sarsuna

Here the women are singing that part of the story where Manasa makes a deal with Sanaka, when she begs for a child, after all her sons have been drowned by Manasa’s curse. ‘You may have a child, you may name him Lokkhindor, but I will snatch him away as soon as he is born,’ Manasa says. Sanaka says, ‘No, that is unacceptable.’ The deal-making goes on. Sanaka is adamant; she will have a child. Manasa relents and finally grants her a son who, she says, will be snatched away on his wedding night. This Sanaka accepts for she then thinks that she will not give her son in marriage and that will solve the problem for her. The story of course becomes far more complex and tangled up. Here they only sing a short extract from the long story. The women who are leading the song are Chandrakala Roy, Malati Majumdar, Parul Sheel and Parul Halder. There are many more who have gathered.

Written in 2016.