Healing with music

Two years into this musical journey when these doctors took the stage for a musical evening,they were accompanied by a group of spastic children. “I can never forget that moment in my life as silent tears rolled down many of our eyes while singing Alok’er ei jhorna dharai,” recollects Dr Roychowdhury.

Today ‘Byarikromi’ stands tall in its own might in a city where Bengali rock bands have sprouted like mushrooms and the famed singers are endless. Started initially with a motto to relax after a hard day’s work,the group slowly realised that music gave them a platform to interact and mix with their patients as human beings rather than ‘doctors’ who were either looked upon as God or Evil.

“In 2005,there was huge criticism against doctors regarding their behaviour and ill treatment of patients. We felt bad and decided that we ought to do something that will bring us much closer to our patients and make everyone that we too are human beings,” says Roychowdhury whose apartment serves as the ‘ makeshift rehearsal room’.

Over the years,his neighbours have become habituated with the late-night songs and the rehearsals and rather than getting disturbed they now look forward to the untimely musicals.

But what makes this group different is the fact that for every show they perform,the remuneration is directly donated to several voluntary and charity organizations in the city.

“We generally ask for Rs 25000- 50000 per show and request the organizers to transfer the amount to organizations like Dignity Foundation,West Bengal Blind Association,Spastic Society of Eastern India and others,” says a happy Chowdhury. He recounts several of their performances where long-time patients turned up and reunions took place. For these busy medicos,some of these moments are unrivaled.

The group comprises five leading doctors in their respective fields as Dr Sibaji Basu,urologist,Dr Raja Roy,cardiologist,Dr Vivek Dutta,eye surgeon,Dr Pallav Banerjee,consulting physician and Dr Tapash Roychowhury,cardiologist. As of now,the doctors-turned singers prefer to sing Bengali modern songs sung by legends like Hemanta Mukherjee,Manna Dey,Salil Chowdhury and of course Rabindrasangeet and Nazrul Geeti.

They have already released three albums till date with the first one being a joint initiative between Bangladesh and West Bengal. Their second album was a compilation of memorable Rabindra Sangeet numbers while the third one released last year was ‘a tribute to Salil Chowdhury’.

“Till date we have performed based on close acquaintances and the word-of-mouth publicity. We hope to coordinate a concert in the coming days with the members of the organisations that receive the donations and several other underprivileged groups,” says Roychowdhury adding that a likewise initiative was taken at the Narendrapur Ramkrishna Mission a year ago where they sang heart-rendering number “Aguner poroshmoni chowan prane” with 2000 other inmates of the Mission.

The emotions behind the doctor’s voice surely fails to get concealed though he tries hard to maintain his calm. It is hard to believe that these busy doctors after performing 4-5 critical operations in a day settle down daily for a 2-3 hour jamming session post-dinner. But then with Dr Sibaji Bose strumming the chords of Hawaiian Guitar and the other four readying themselves with the music tracks ,it’s just another ‘team work’ for them. Like a successful operation completed they rehearse for their next show hoping to bring smiles to those who are not privileged to probably attend the concerts in person. For them it’s just been a start to the much longer and ambitious journey that they want to pursue.