Limtex Dhak Mahotsav 2014

21 September, 2014: Today turned out to be a very eventful day as there was no let up in the rains which started day before yesterday and as a result it became impossible to organize our annual Puja event Dhak Mahotsav ceremony at the Chaltabagan Durga Puja mandap.

All arrangements were made with the Governor of West Bengal, His Excellency, Keshari Nath Tripathi, having graciously agreed to inaugurate the Dhak Utsav.

Many dignitaries and celebs from the social, cultural, diplomatic, industry, sports and glamorous world had confirmed their time for the event that was scheduled at 4 pm.

The incessant rains made it impossible to arrange for the seating arrangements at the venue and I was almost planning to call it off. But it struck me if I could shift the venue to some place that could make arrangements on a Sunday for the programme. I thought it over and only one name came to my mind – The Taj Bengal.

I knew, being a Sunday, most hotels and organisations in the city would not dare to take up any program of such a scale on a few hours’ notice.

I made one last ditch attempt and around 10 am. I contacted The Taj Bengal General Manager, K Mohanchandran and Mr Vindo Pandey, Food & Beverages Manager of the hotel, who agreed to do it at 7 pm. This sparked off a flurry of activities and the Governor too very kindly agreed to the new venue. All the celebrities, including the Chief Guest, Prosenjit Chatterjee, were informed and many of them did manage to confirm to the changed timings. The media too was informed about the new venue with the message that the show would go on.

I must say that The Taj Bengal did a wonderful job on a Sunday evening and the Limtex Dhak Mahotsav 2014 was a major success with guests, celebrities and the media turning up in a big way. The sponsors donated Rs 1 lac to the Governor’s Relief Fund and the Governor formally flagged off the event. The first such official event, for the pujas by playing the traditional dhak.

Among those who attended were Rituparna, Pt Tejendra Narayan, Debojyoti Mishra, Koneenika, Esha, Anandi, Usha Uthup, Rimjhim, Chaiti Ghoshal, Arunima Dhosh, Monami Ghosh, Ananya Ghosh, P K Banerjee, Kunal Basu, DJ Akash, Abhishek Datta, Utsav Parekh, Gunjan Poddar of Limtex, Italian Consul Cesare Bielliere, Wang Xuefeng, Chinese Consul, Anand Sahay of Vodafone, Industrialist, H M Bangur, Commodore Ravi Ahluwalia and his wife, and many others. Arindam Sil moderated the event.

Later, I came to know that many of the other pujas had called off their events due to the rains. I must thank the Taj Bengal staff for pulling off an event of this scale on few hours’ notice.

As they say – where there is a will, there is a way.

ess bee