Holi celebrated across West Bengal, special programmes in Shantiniketan to mark Basanta Utsav

Holi was celebrated with great enthusiasm throughout West Bengal today, with special programmes to mark Basanta Utsav at Shantiniketan and Guru Purnima in Mayapur.

People of all ages and background celebrated the festival, known in the state as Dolyatra, by smearing each other with gulal in the city and the districts. Children played with sprayers (pichkaris) frolicking on neighbourhood streets while the elderly visited neighbours with sweets. In Shantiniketan, thousands, including students of Visva-Bharati University, attended the Basanta Utsav held at 'Amrakunja' at Ashram Complex where songs of the national poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore were sung along with dance dramas and his poetries.

A student celebrating Holi in Kolkata (AFP)

Tourists from different parts of the world attended the programme which is a major attraction in Shantiniketan's annual calender of events. Gour Purnima in Mayapur witnessed a gathering of more than a lakh devotees and pilgrims from across the world, dressed in traditional dhoti-kurta and ghagra-choli, singing, dancing and chanting ecstatically to celebrate the 531st birth Anniversary of Lord Sri Chaitanya MahaPrabhu. A discordant note was struck in the peaceful Holi celebration when a 36-year-old person drowned while bathing in a pond in south Kolkata's Basdroni.

Picnic Garden-resident Radheshyam Poddar (36) drowned in a pond while bathing after playing Holi at a friend's place in Basdroni this afternoon, a senior official of Kolkata Police said. "It seems to be a drowning case but we are looking into the matter and waiting for the post mortem report," he said. Around 125 people were arrested for 'disorderly conduct', while 127 motorcyclists were booked from different corners of the city, the officer said.