The four-day 18th International History and Heritage exhibition will be inaugurated on 11 February at Sabarna Sangrahasala in Barisha. Sabarna Roy Chowdhury was the owner of Kolkata and his descendents had given three villages, namely, Sutanuti, Gobindapur and Kolikata to the East India Comnay’s agent Charles Eyre, son in law of Job Charnock in 1698, four years after Charnock’s death.
Debarshi Roy Chowdhury, curator of the Sangrahasala said there will be an exhibition on the life and work of two great Bengali filmmakers, Tapan Sinha and Mrinal Sen on their centenary. Many items of daily use, poster of Sinha’s films and booklets will be on display. There will be a unique exhibition of stamps on Lord Ram and Ramayana from 28 countries across the globe. A story through philately, research and retold by Ms Briti Deb.
The theme country will be Italy. The long connection of India and Italy will be displayed through stamps, books coins and other items. There will be another exhibition on Kolkata’s tram from past and present. The collection of tram expert Souvik Roy, including tram tickets of 1937 will be on display. Different forms of goddess Saraswati will also be on display.
The collection of KJum Kum Hui, Siddhartha Chattoraj, Souvik Roy and Subhara Banerjee will be on display. Letters of important personalities like Rajendra Prasad, first Indian President, Hossain Sarawardi, Muzaffar Ahmed, Prafulla Ghosh, Siddhartha Shankar Roy, Prafulla Sen, Jyoti, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, which are prized possession of Arijit Moitra will be on display. In 1950, the Pakistan government had banned a song titled Praynayer Gan Gahite bolo na more (HMV record No. 31283) which was composed by Pranary Roy and sung by Satya Chowdhury.
The song will be played at the exhibition. Mr Roy Chowdhury said there will be a heritage walk, quiz, open house and seminar. The 34th edition of Saptarshi, the handwritten magazine of the family will be released at the exhibition