Emotions pour in as Assam celebrates first Rongali Bihu without Zubeen Garg

The All Assam Students' Union urges government to take steps for recognition to Bihu as Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage like Garba of Gujarat and Ram Leela of North India.

Guwahati: Garima Garg was inconsolable on Tuesday as she offered Bihu jolpan (traditional delicacies) at Zubeen Khetra at Sonapur, situated on the outskirts of Guwahati, where cultural icon Zubeen Garg was cremated on September 23, four days after his sudden death in Singapore.

Garima, Zubeen's wife, prepared the delicacies with own hands like she had been doing during Rongali Bihu every year.

"On the Bihu day dada liked doi-chira (curd-pounded rice) with the pithas (snacks) together," Garg's sister Palmee told reporters as Assam paid tributes to Zubeen Garg on the first day of Rongali Bihu, the state's biggest cultural festival celebrated every spring.

For nearly four decades, Rongali Bihu and Zubeen Garg's performance became synonymous and this will be the first Bihu without the cultural icon's presence. "Zubeen Garg may not be amidst us but his ideals, his creations will remain with us forever. We want people to propagate the values for which he stood for, his music and songs in such way that people from outside realise that they are in Zubeen's place when they visit Assam," Palmee further said.

Many committees cut-short the Bihu functions while most paid tributes to Zubeen Garg before playing the drums or dancing to the tunes of Bihu songs. The first day of the Rongali Bihu is called cow's Bihu when the cattle are bathed and worshipped.

"People of Assam are today very emotional as we are celebrating Bihu without Zubeen Garg today. None of us ever imagined that this day would come so soon and so suddenly," said Utpal Sarma, the president of All Assam Students' Union (AASU) as he addressed the mukoli Bihu (open air Bihu performance) at the historic Zudges' Field in Guwahati, on Tuesday. "But life has to go on and so the lifeline of the Assamese people, Bihu."

The Northeast Frontier Railway named a Bihu function field as Zubeen Garg Railway Bihutoli at Maligaon, its headquarters.

The Bihu stage named after Zubeen Garg by Northeast Frontier Railway at Maligaon in Guwahati.

Justice for Zubeen

"We all are eagerly waiting for justice to Zubeen Garg and his family," Sarma said while referring to the case, on which daily trial is underway in a fast-track court in Guwahati.

Seven accused including Shyamkanu Mahanta, the organiser of the Northeast India Festival at Singapore have been in judicial custody in connecting with the alleged murder of the singer. Garg was in Singapore to take part in the festival as a cultural ambassador but died on September 19 while swimming in a sea with his friends and associates.

Amid the outrage and emotional outpouring over Garg's death, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the cultural icon was murdered.

Unesco status to Bihu

The AASU president Sarma demanded that Bihu being the lifeline of the Assamese people and becoming integral part of Assamese culture, the annual cultural festival be accorded the status of Unesco Intangible Cultiral Heritage, like the Garba of Gujarat and Ram Leela of North India. "The government should take steps in this regard," Sarma said.