Radio Masti Turns Four and Swings with Musical Performances
Shyamal Bhattacharya, producer Radio Masti on the tabla and Smt. Mandira Lahiri vocalist.
By Sanchali Basu
HOUSTON: Radio Masti, Houston’s oldest Bengali radio station held its 4th annual event at the Houston Durgabari’s Sur auditorium on Saturday, June 1. The evening was packed with one good program after the other. Sutanuka Sinha and Jaya Ghosh, two of its radio jockeys very eloquently fulfilled the role of emcees. Jaya Ghosh who has been with the program almost since its inception, reminisced about how excited she was to hear Bengali on the radio for the first time 4 years back while surfing the radio dial.
The evening started with a presentation of Ganesh Bandana in the Bharatanatyam style by the Piyal dance school. There was participation from the Kalaangan School of dance in the Odissi style. The senior students performed a pure Odissi number while the junior students performed to a rendition of the patriotic song Jai Bharati. There were also two beautifully choreographed dance presentations by the students of the Nritya Pallavi Academy of Dance. Their first dance was set to a Bengali folk song and the second was a medley of popular Hindi film songs, both equally loved by the audience. A semi classical dance was also presented by three young dancers of the Nupur Dance School.
Deepayan Bhattacharya, the local Houston favorite entertained the audience with some Karaoke renditions of popular Bengali and Hindi film songs. The featured guest artist of the evening, Mandira Lahiri, a gifted classical vocalist kept the audience captivated with her fine woven laykaaris, taankaris and sargams. She sang a Meera and Durga Bhajan, a ghazal, a Nazrul Geeti, an Assamese song, etc and all of them with great depth and emotion. She was ably accompanied by Radio Masti producer, Shyamal Bhattacharya on the tabla and Khalid Zulfikar Khan on the percussion.
The evening ended with a very colorful Bhangra presentation by Texas Bhangra the young energetic students from UT Austin. Miss Dee from Houston also joined them on stage with her dholki and got the crowd going. Members of the audience joined them on stage and danced along.
There were raffle draws interspersed throughout the program and certificates with flowers were presented to the artistes.
The event was well organized by Shyamal Bhattacharya and his group of 16 core volunteers which included his biggest supporter and better half Mita Bhattacharya. Several stalls brought their wares and did brisk business, the food stall being the most popular selling samosas, biryani, kababs, rasogollas, hot tea and bottled water.
Well-wishers of Radio Masti came to the event to show their support and encouragement. Nirvana Indian Restaurant, Khalid Zulfikar Khan, Dilip and Sukti Dutta, Proshanta and Sharmila Mitra and Ajay and Daksha Nagar were co-sponsors of the event.
Zulfi bhai, another radio jockey, spoke about his great experience with the radio station and the humanitarian efforts of producer Shyamal. A music lover through and through, Shyamal with his dedication to the radio station has thought not only about the Bengali community, but all music lovers. He has also promoted several new artistes, trained radio jockeys, and interviewed several celebrities without any remuneration.