I noticed today that Suchitra Mitra was a trending topic on twitter. And that is fairly interesting for me. In earlier days, the passing away of an exponent in the classical arts would have been accompanied with the obligatory quotes in newspapers (for fun, read the order of the quotes here - in other times the CM would have had priority in the article) along with a sudden serious tone of the voice which would be used to read that piece of news on television (especially Doordarshan). Now it is much more easy and convenient to indulge in conversational ice-breakers on social mediums and, see/read others talking along similar or even dissimilar lines. It was a fascinating experience reading the timeline about folks pulling out her albums and listening to her voice. Surreal wasn't the ideal term for that. For a moment it felt as if one was inside an auditorium with a couple of jukeboxes and folks were selecting their favorites and playing them. A very interesting social experience.

She wasn't one of my favorite singers though. As in, I wouldn't usually pick out one of her vinyls or, cassettes or, CDs to listen to when in the mood (barring her singing this - I had heard it earlier at a function and was hooked on to her rendition from that day on). And, even though Rabitirtha would need to pull off a feat of strength to come out of the stereotypical rendition of Rabindrasangeet, it would be of course pointless to deny the fact that Suchitra Mitra, along with her peers defined for a whole generation the strong and robust serenity of certain of Tagore's poems/songs.

A greater percentage of the recent generation of singers who also sing Rabindrasangeet are a bit uninspiring for me. Perhaps the diverse nature of their area of music and, the freewheeling experimentation that they undertake (at a different age, Viswa Bharati had a fiat on how the songs could be sung and, the accompanying instruments). Or perhaps, the ability to read and appreciate Tagore is somewhat diminishing because he isn't being read or, discussed as frequently as before. It isn't going to happen that his permanence would be impacted. His relevance has surely been.