A Memorial event for Late Prof Badal Das

On 1st December 2012, a small memorial event was organized by the disciples and students of Late Prof Badal Das, who passed away on 16th August 2012, at his home in Manoharpukur Road. Denner Milan Basu , who was one of his students, was actively involved in organizing the event. As a tribute to him, Milan says:

Prof Badal Das was a Sitarist of yesteryear. He was trained under the famous Surbahar and Sitar maestro Pandit Laxman Bhattacharya.

As a true artist and creative person, he was not only an accomplished Sitar player but was also proficient in painting, playing flute and singing Kali Kirtan and has passed on his legacy to a number of disciples and students he has left behind. He was also an excellent cook and not many people know that he used to spend a lot of time in kitchen experimenting with different recipes.

He was well known as a very kind hearted man and despite being a multifaceted talent, he had shunned popularity all his life and was very averse to self promotions.

He was also very fond of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, while at the same time Pandit Nikhil Banerjee was also an admirer of Prof. Das’s music. It was a relation of elder and younger brothers between them.

Between the period 1970 to 1985, Prof Das was a regular performer in a number of classical music concerts. The last time he performed publicly was at Surya Sen Manch in Calcutta in the year 2003 for the “All India Music Festival”, where he played a brilliant raaga Bhimpalasi, accompanied by today’s famous Tabla player Sri Biplab Bhattacharya.

He left for his heavenly abode at a ripe age of 93 years on 16th August 2012. May his soul rest in peace.

Here is the photo album for the event if you are interested.