Return to tradition

From a cultural festival, Basanta Utsav has become a merry making weekend jaunt hugely aided and abetted by the innumerable hotels and lodges selling weekend packages

In recent years, the residents of Santiniketan await the festival of Hoili or Basanta Utsav with great trepidation. As the Visva Bharati University celebrates the coming of spring in the tradition of Rabindranath Tagore, hordes of lovers of Bengali culture descend on this small town to participate in the festivities.

The programme, held by Visva Bharati, comprises singing of and dancing to Tagore’s songs of spring by the students of the school, college and university. The university has always welcomed outsiders to participate. Held in the open with no restrictions on admission, this programme has probably been one of the