The Basu Thakur family, spread across 2 continents on the opposite sides of the globe, came together to celebrate Mother's day in their inimitable way. The talented sisters and their inspiring father Mr. Bidyut Basu Thakur made the night of Sunday, 10 May memorable for all the audience of DI members. Leslie as our anchor, introduced the talented DI family.

Bidyut, the doting father of the 3 daughters is a retired engineer and harmonica player since childhood and a member of DI for over 30 years.

Chandreyee, had been teaching in Modern High School for over 14 years before moving to USA. Dance has been her passion since childhood and she has performed across the globe and had been invited to choreograph the North American Bengali Conference.

Poulami, a trained Indian classical singer and now a researcher at the Emory University works on Virology at the CDC, USA.

Sohini, picked up the harmonica with her father few years back and now she loves it like she enjoys being a Marcomm professional.

The whole family came together to celebrate this special day with DI.

Sohini introduced the mother, who was the binding force in the family. Sohini reminisced how her mother nurtured their talent, taking the 3 sisters for their various classes. Sohini recalled fond memories of ‘Pagal Pani’ and other DI specials.

It was time for the first performance of the evening. Sohini took up the harmonica and played ‘Mother of Mine’ as the ode to Mothers, hers and ours.

Chandrayee performed her ode to mothers from Minnesota, US with her graceful dance performance on ‘Gun Gawata Nachungi’.

Poulomi in her beautiful voice sang the popular song ‘Bhaage re mann’ from Chameli. Her tuneful performance was a treat for the audience. Poulomi left India in early 2005 and recalled she became a member when she was about 7 yrs old. She recounted her fond memories of the DI swimming camps, children Christmas Tea parties. Poulami declared DI served the best chicken sandwiches!

As the Basu Thakur family blew us away with their performances, a Nor ’wester brewed in Kolkata bringing the hot soaring temperature down, leaving us with a cool evening.  

Leslie introduced Bidyut and shared that he had turned 79 the previous Sunday. Bidyut reminisced about his times in DI with his friends and family.  We hope he will celebrate his 80th birthday at the DI. We all looked on in amazement and wonder as he took up the harmonica and played ‘Yeh dil na hote Bechara’. His energetic performance was inspiring.

The three Basu Thakur sisters performed one after the other with, Chandrayee dancing to 'Dhono dhanne pushpe bhora amader ei boshundhora',  the anthem for our beautiful Bengal. Next Sohini performed on her harmonica the famous Beatles number, ‘Love me do’. Poulami sang the ever popular and melodious 'Takhon Tomar Ekush Bachhar' on a live track. 

Up next was a special treat with the father-daughter duo performing a duet on harmonica with the beautiful 'Haal kaisa hai janab ka' .

Poulami sang, 'Ai Zindagi gale lagale'. She held up boards conveying messages for her mother and all mothers-  'I love you Mom, Courage, compassion, Kindness, one word for all 'Mom' before she sang her last song for the evening, 'You raise me up'

The last performance for the evening was another duet beautifully performed by the very talented father daughter duo 'Jamaican farewell'. This time the duo played the harmonica and sang along. 

The evening of music and fantastic performances to celebrate Mothers’ day came to an end. It was an evening to remember. Thank you DI and the Basu Thakur family for the wonderful evening.

[Note: This was the second of our Online@DI performances.  Online@DI will bring music, quiz, celebrity talks, zumba, children's events, book reviews and play reading to its members and guests over the next few weeks.  Stay home, stay safe, stay sane!]