Arunendu Das (1938 – 2 February 2019) was a Burmese born Bengali architect, singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the pioneers of late 20th-century alternative
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
songwriting. While
Moheener Ghoraguli is considered to be the first Bengali Band, Arunendu was the first person to compose Bengali lyrics for songs written specifically to be accompanied by guitar, a genus of Bengali music which has become increasingly popular over time.
Early life
Arunendu Das was born in 1938 at
Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
(now
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
) to Jodhulal Das – a medical doctor and Amiyabala Das – a housewife. The outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
led Dr. Das to move his family from Rangoon to Bajrayogini village in
Bikrampur
Bikrampur ("City of Courage") was a pargana situated south of Dhaka, the modern capital city of Bangladesh. In the present day, it is known as Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. It is a historic region in Bengal and was a part of the Bhawal Est ...
,
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
. Arunendu, one of six children of the Das family (four sisters and two brothers), spent his early years in Bangladesh.
Arunendu was a member of the scout group of Bhowanipur Mitra Institution (
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
), and traveled with them on a camping trip to
Puri
Puri () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is als ...
(
Orissa
Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of Sch ...
) in the summer of 1955. It was at that time, during a friendly singing competition between various other scout groups camping there, that he conceived the idea of composing his own lyrics. His song "Chanchal Ek Dal Scout Bhai" ("A Restless Group of Boy Scouts"), applying his own Bengali lyrics to the tune of the popular contemporary song "Ujjawl ek-jhank Paiera" ("A Cluster of Bright Pigeons").
Arunendu introduced to the formal rudiments of music and the techniques of playing the steel guitar by his school friend Prabir Kumar Das. He sought to exploit this newfound knowledge fully during his time at
Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (1956–1961), where he studied architecture. He continued his songwriting and composed parodies of various contemporary songs to amuse and entertain his fellow students. His songs and parodies were immensely popular and many of his friends continued to sing his songs to their friends in various places, even after leaving college.
During his time at Bengal Engineering (BE) College Arunendu was actually more established and appreciated as a
Hawaiian guitar
Hawaiian guitar may refer to:
*Lap steel guitar, a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap
*Ukulele
The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ...
player and by his own admission never dared to sing publicly. Though inspired by Bengali singers like Hemanta Mukhopadhyay, Pratima,
Sandhya Mukhopadhyay
Geetashree Sandhya Mukherjee (also spelled Mukhopadhyay; 4 October 1931 – 15 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and musician, specialising in Bengali music. She received Banga Bibhushan, the highest civilian honour of the Indian sta ...
, Manna De, Shyamal, Satinath and Manabendra, Dhananjay who were in their heyday, he never intended to make a career out of music, preferring to write his songs purely for his own enjoyment.
Most of his songs were personal in nature and were composed primarily to exercise his newly acquired knowledge about the chords on a steel guitar and to sing to his close circle of friends. He also gained substantial popularity for his numerous "parody"versions (with bengali lyrics) of western classics. At this time Arunendu also started to dabble in classical Spanish guitar, not then an easily available option in Kolkata with its usage restricted to the pubs of the Park Street area and certain members of the Anglo-Indian community.
In England
Arunendu moved to England in the late sixties. He was immediately struck by the lyrics and renderings of contemporary American and English popular songs. Joining the folk club of the market town of Bicester in Oxfordshire where he lived and was practicing as an architect, he picked up certain guitar techniques from the resident and guest artists who performed there. He felt that these techniques could be applied to Bengali songwriting and consequently started writing lyrics in Bengali to conform to those melodic and rhythmic ideas. His cousin Prasanta De (Habul), a student of Architecture at BE College at that time and an accomplished folk guitarist in his own right, popularised those songs within the college campus and beyond during the 1970s.
Moheener Ghoraguli
Arunendu's songs were never intended for a wider audience and this remained the case until one day
Gautam Chattopadhyay
Gautam Chattopadhyay (1 June 1949 – 20 June 1999) was an Indian Bengali singer, songwriter, bassist, and composer. In 1975, as a leader he founded the progressive rock band Moheener Ghoraguli with Tapas Das, Abraham Mazumdar, Pradip Chatt ...
paid a visit to his residence in Moore Avenue (Kolkata) in early 1987. One of Gautam's younger brothers
Pradip Chatterjee (Bula), a talented musician, abstract lyricist, and expressionist, had studied at BE College during the 1970s and had introduced a number of Arunendu's songs to Gautam. Gautam loved them so much that he included Arunendu's songs in all four of his collections of contemporary Bengali songs which he released in the name of his long-disbanded group
Mohiner Ghoraguli
Moheener Ghoraguli (, literally "Moheen's horses") was an Indian rock group from Kolkata, established in 1975. Their music drew from wide variety of influences, including Bengali folk, Baul, urban American folk, and jazz. They sometimes descri ...
edited. During the release of their first come-back album "
Aabaar Bochhor Kuri Pore" (1995), the accompanying brochure of the same name mentioned about Arunendu as a predecessor of Mohiner Ghoraguli. His songs are included in "
Jhora Somoyer Gaan" (1996), "
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
" (1997) and "
Khyapar Gaan" (1999). Many of Moheener Ghoraguli's timeless hits, including "Kisher Eto Tara", "Ke Ke Jabi Re", and "Shara Raat".
Later years
Arunendu always preferred referring to his songs as "Chhoy Taarer Gaan" (Songs for Six Strings), as the main inspiration behind writing them was to marry light Bengali songs with the strumming and picking of guitar strings to be in line with the popular songs of the 1960s and 1970s that were prevalent in the international market. In 2004, a CD of some of his songs ''Arundaar Gaan'' was released by Presto Studio at Kolkata. He appeared only in a live performance at Kolkata in 2013.
A short documentary "Le Pocha" by
Qaushiq Mukherjee
Qaushiq Mukherjee (born 1975), popularly known as Q, is an Indian film director known for his controversial cult film ''Gandu''. Mukherjee grew up in Kolkata and was educated at South Point High School. He completed his bachelor's degree from U ...
which talks about Bengali alternative music refers to Arunendu as a pioneer of alternative music in Bengali.
Arunendu died at the age of 81 on 3 February 2019 in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
.
Discography
*''Arundar Gaan'' (2004, Private album by Studio Presto)
Moheener Ghoraguli edited albums
* ''
Aabaar Bochhor Kuri Pore'' (1995)
** "Ganga" (writer)
* ''
Jhora Somoyer Gaan'' (1996)
** "Kisher Eto Tara" (lyrics & music)
** "Ke Ke Jabi Re" (lyrics & music)
** "Saara Raat" (lyrics & music)
* ''
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...
'' (1997)
** "Dishehara Je Mor Man" (lyrics & music)
** "Bhikhetei Jabo" (lyrics & music)
* ''
Khyapar Gaan'' (1999)
** "Tai Janai Gaaney" (lyrics & music)
Singles
* "Aaey Re Ghum Aai"
* "Aache Mor Kichu Sur"
* "Aage Jaanle Ki Habul"
* "Baar Baar Tumi"
* "Bon Pahadir"
* "Bolte Ja Chao"
* "Dheer Shamiran Aro Dheere Bohe Jao"
* "Gaan Hoye Jai Aaj"
* "Ghumaore Neela"
* "Kakhono Bosay bhabi"
* "Kamona Bashana Jato"
* "Klanti Jarano Akasher Chokhe"
* "Miche Kede"
* "Ore Aamar Man"
* "Purnima Chand"
* "Shiwli Phontar"
* "Somoy Ketechhay Moar Sudhu Abelaye"
* "Tabe Kemone Balo" (2006; Bengali version of
Ralph McTell
Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...
's 1969 song "
Streets of London")
Live
* ''Chhoy Taarer Gaan'' (2013; with
Prabir Das
Prabir Das ( bn, প্রবীর দাস; born 20 December 1993) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a right back for the Indian Super League club Kerala Blasters.
Club career Pailan Arrows
On 23 September 2012 Das scored hi ...
, Prasanta De, Ranjit Ganguly, and Subrata Ghosh)
** "Ki Labh Kende" (Based on
Richard Fariña
Richard George Fariña (Spanish IPA: ) (March 8, 1937 – April 30, 1966) was an American folksinger, songwriter, poet and novelist.
Early years and education
Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, the son of an Irish mother, T ...
's "Pack Up Your Sorrows")
References
Notes
# Transliteration from Bengali "Bangla Band ebong Arunendu Das" (Band singing mainly in Bengali and their relation with Arunendu Das)
# ''
Times of India
''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, t ...
'', ''
Calcutta Times
The ''Calcutta Times'' is a free supplement circulated with the ''Times of India'' published by the ''Times Group'' in Kolkata (formally Calcutta) region. Daily supplement focuses on city specific issues, in a very lucid manner, which generally ...
'' section, 23 August 2002 published an article on Arunendu Das written by Himadri Sekhar Chowdhury with title "The First Urban Minstrel" where he quoted words of late
Gautam Chattopadhyay
Gautam Chattopadhyay (1 June 1949 – 20 June 1999) was an Indian Bengali singer, songwriter, bassist, and composer. In 1975, as a leader he founded the progressive rock band Moheener Ghoraguli with Tapas Das, Abraham Mazumdar, Pradip Chatt ...
, "Arun-da is an urban minstrel whose songs blossomed before all of us, even before Mohiner Ghoraguli".
# In the booklet distributed along with their album
Aabaar Bochhor Kuri Pore Mohiner Ghoraguli founder member
Ranjon Ghoshal
Ranjon Ghoshal ( bn, রঞ্জন ঘোষাল; 7 June 1955 – 9 July 2020) was an Indian theatre director and musician. He was a member of the Bengali band Moheener Ghoraguli, and ran an advertising agency, Mareech Advertising in Ban ...
refers Arunendu Das as the predecessor to them. Also, in the booklet distributed along with their concert "Aabar Bochhor Tirish Pore" (Once again, after 30 years) held in Nicco Park, Kolkata 2008, Moheener Ghoraguli founder member
Pradip Chatterjee remembers Arunendu Das as one of their inspirations.
# ''Ekak Matra'' (''Single beat''), a popular magazine published from
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, featured an interview with Arunendu Das in their 2004 November issue where he spoke about his life and introduction to guitar playing.
# ''The Telegraph'' (UK), 3 January 2003, featured an article by Sudeshna Banerjee where Arunendu Das jammed with former members of Mohiner Ghoraguli for an Indian popular chatshow "Addachakra" (circle of chit-chat).
# Collaboration with Kolkata's Bluegrass Band, No Strings Attached lead by Diptanshu Roy. Selected songs to be arranged and recorded in Bluegrass Style. The EP to be called Bongrass. https://bluegrasstoday.com/bluegrass-beyond-borders-no-strings-attached-bridge-appalachia-and-india/
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Das, Arunendu
1938 births
2019 deaths
Bengali musicians
Indian male singer-songwriters
Indian singer-songwriters
Indian male singers
Indian male songwriters
Indian songwriters
Indian male composers
Indian male musicians
Indian architects
20th-century Indian architects
Musicians from Kolkata
Moheener Ghoraguli