Bengal celebrates New Year 'Poila Baisakh' with traditional enthusiasm, gaiety across state

Kolkata: The Bengali New Year (Poila Baisakh) was celebrated with traditional enthusiasm and gaiety across West Bengal on Tuesday as people offered pujas in temples, visited shops to open new ledger account books and savoured specially curated cuisine at fine dining restaurants.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee greeted people of the state on the occasion of Bengali New Year.

Since early morning thousands of people visited temples - including the Dakshineswar and Kalighat in the city - to seek divine blessings with a new accounts ledger book called 'Haal Khata'.

Colourful processions were taken out in different localities as men and women joined the 'Prabhat Pheri' (cultural procession in the morning) singing Tagore's 'Hey Notun Dekha Dik Arbar' (let the new dawn greet us with new hope) with colourful pageants showcasing the rural life of Bengal.

Shopping malls were choc a bloc with shoppers in both Kolkata as well as in districts while houseful shows were recorded in single screens and multiplexes particularly those screening new Bengali movies.

Many fine-dining Bengali restaurants recorded 100 per cent occupancy for hours as patrons - wearing traditional attire - waited outside the establishments for hours.

The restaurants dished out elaborate specially curated Bengali cuisine.

Special musical soirees and theatre shows were organised in different neighbourhoods projecting Bengali heritage and culture.

However, the communal violence in parts of Murshidabad cast a shadow on the 'Noboborsho' celebrations in Dhulian, Shamsherganj, Suti and Jangipur towns of the district as most traders were yet to open their establishments and called off the festivities.

The usual hustle and bustle in marketplaces and the buzz was missing as an eerie silence still prevailed in the localities where many people had left their ancestral homes in the wake of violence and central forces continued to patrol.

Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari extended his wishes on the occasion. "In this Bengali new year, let's start with the fresh hope that Bengal will witness changes. We will change," Adhikari said attaching a video of his rally from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu temple to Maa Bargabhima Temple in Tamluk.