For ages, the father-son duo of SD and RD Barman has enchanted music aficionados with their versatile creations. Even years after their deaths, they live in our hearts through their music. But how much have we done to restore their legacy?
Tears roll down your cheeks when you are a witness to their dilapidated house at 36/1, South End Park in the southern part of Kolkata. Tall promises to renovate it and turn it into a museum have come a cropper.
With little help from the authorities to resuscitate the building, parts of which are teetering on the brink of collapse, fans of the Burmans have taken it upon themselves to run a campaign on social media to save the house from starvation.
The signature campaign titled Save the Legacy of SD & RD Burman has already garnered close to 1000 signatures, with many more on the cards. The idea is to launch a movement to draw the attention of the powers that be to wake up from their slumber and save the house.
It is to our utter dismay that no dispensation has ever thought seriously of saving the house from ruination. Merely naming the street Sangeet Sarani is just a miniscule aspect of the treatment the iconic building deserves.
SD Burman had purchased the plot in 1945 and moved the next year. They stayed in the house till 1952 before the family shifted to Bombay, now Mumbai. They were earlier staying at a rented property at Hindusthan Park. In fact, RD has spent a sizeable part of his childhood in the South End Park mansion.
The celebrated house was a haven for several legendary singers, composers and music buffs spending hours talking and only talking music.
This is, however, not the first time that admirers of the Burmans have taken the initiative to restore the building. But there has hardly been any headway.
But no giving up – as hopes persist that the Burmans’ house will be pulled off from the brink of ‘passing away.’
