Kolkata: May 2 marks the birth anniversary of the auteur Satyajit Ray. He would have been 99-year-old this year, only if he survived a few more years. Every year on his birthday, several programs are conducted across the city and this year too wasn't meant to be an exception. His birth anniversary was supposed to be celebrated with great sincerity. But, in an exclusive interaction with ETV Bharat, his son and director Sandip Ray told that all programs have been called off, owing to the lockdown this year.
Not being able to celebrate his father's birth anniversary obviously made Sandip regret a little. However, on the occasion, the filmmaker shared a few moments from the early days of his father's birthday celebrations.
Sandip began saying that all the scheduled events including remembrance meetings and book releases at ICCR have been called off due to coronavirus pandemic.
Recalling days when Ray's birthday was celebrated at home, Sandip said that in the beginning, friends, relatives and unit members used to be a part of the celebration at home. Eventually, fans thronged outside his house and it used to be difficult to manage them.
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After his health condition deteriorated, his interaction with the sea of people got restricted under strict instructions by the doctor. The following birthdays would be like going to a relative's place or flying out of Kolkata while Ray's parents spent the day staying up at a hotel room.
After his demise, the crowd increased in large numbers. They thronged outside the house all day. People would come from 06:30 in the morning and would leave until it's 12 o'clock at night.
When asked about the special food cooked on Ray's birthday, Sandip shared that the menu would consist of all homemade Bengali food including lentils, gram pulses, potato dumplings, polao, chops and fish fry. Meat and sweet yogurt were a must for him. However, due to physical conditions, the consumption of meat was reduced to a minimum.
On asking what kind of gift he loved, Sandip exclaimed saying books used to be his favourite.
He recalled gifting his father a CD player which he used to play and listen to it all day.
