the pandemic has severed a severe blow to the music and entertainment industry just like many other segments braving the covid19 scenario hindustan art and music society stepped into its 13th year of festival and organised a 12day event celebrating indian art and culture the programme was arranged in bardhaman and kolkata it took place in bardhaman from december 18 to 20 and at the iccr auditorium in kolkata from december 21 to 30 pandit prosenjit poddar the secretary of the bharat sanskriti utsab said that it was a great feeling to see that even during this time of crisis the festival was successful i request the industry to gradually initiate offline events instead of organising only online ones this will help the artistes who have been financially affected to recover it is also important to come forward to keep alive the indian art and culture through them he said aided by the government and the iccr authority the festival witnessed eminent personalities such as ageyananda maharaj of ramkrishna mission ministers like soumen mahapatra and sobhondeb chattopadhyay the regional director of iccr goutam deb singer haimanti sukla debashis kumar personas from the music and dance industry like guru khagen barman guru sujata ramlingam kathak dancer srilekha mukherjee madhumita roy santoor player pandit tarun bhattacharya tabla player pandit sameer chatterjee pandit subhankar bannerjee among others while i did do concerts online during the lockdown i was raring to go on stage again after the lockdown lifted so i thought what better platform than this its a place where maestros seasoned artistes and young talents share the stage but in between i lost my mother and only inspiration for dance on december 20 the deep gnawing pain left me in two minds finally with my fathers encouragement i decided to perform and rise above personal grief said guru sanchita bhattacharya