Foreigners hit the web with centenary edition

Birth centenary celebrations of Sachin Dev Burman have turned into a global affair with fans across the globe paying him e-tribute, Ratnadeep Choudhury reports…

Standing on the birth centenary year of Sachin Dev Burman, the late singer-composer who charmed the Indian sub-continent for more than four decades by thoughtfully mixing folk strains and Hindustani classical music, the entire nation is celebrating the event, may be sporadically. Though the great maestro has passed away in 1975, on his birth centenary year, his legacy still thrives. Here, in him homeland of Tripura, people are not only celebrating the birth centenary Sachin Karta, they are actually showcasing a verdant display of the legacy that Tripura has inherited from the maestro. From small entrepreneur to the State Government, every one has chipped in with a series of events to mark the birth centenary year. But his ardent fans have a grumble that the legend has not been ‘remembered’ with great ‘hype’. Well, perhaps the opinion may be true but three foreigners have again proved the fact that Sachin Dev Burman was a global figure. H.Q Chowdhury, Maajid Maqbool and Ritu Chandra, all residing in foreign soil, gave their ‘Burman Da’ a tribute by launching a website in his memory in 2003, and now, these foreigners have hit the web with centenary edition of their website www.sdburman.net.
It was on October 31,2003, the 28th death anniversary, that three, of his millions of fan across the world, came together to float a website in his reminiscence, perhaps on the best way to remember the legend in this age of Nanotechnology. www.sdburman.net is an online reservoir of life and work the mystic musician. The credit behind the creation of this website goes to H.Q Chowdhury of Dhaka, Maajid Maqbool of Rawalpindi in Pakistan and a NRI Ritu Chanda who now stays in New Jersey, US. To commemorate the centenary celebrations a special ‘Centenary Celebration Edition’ of the website has been hosted, it has now become a must log on for Sachin maniacs. The Centenary edition has nearly every thing, from Banshi Sune Kaaj Nai Re to Piya to se Naina Lage Re, all the everlasting tracks that one can relate to Sachin Karta. The website has a complete listing of S.D Burman’s film songs by Firoze Rangoonwalla. The site has database of the creation of Sachin Karta that has been name as Burman Da Ka Pitara. The site has photo album that showcases some of the lighter moments of maestro’s life. The ‘tribute’ section of the website is also worth a visit.
“ From his birth place Commilla (in Bangladesh) to Mumbai, Sachin Karta traveled a long distance to attain such a global acclaim, and it hearty to see that people from distant places not only love him like us, but in the website they have given such varied information which even we Indians don’t know.” Says S.M Sen, an octogenarian. The centenary Edition offers to even download SD’s early works. One can listen online to various sound tracks created by him. “ The youths will find it interesting to know more about Sachin Karta in this form”, reacts Subham chakraborty, a Tripura University Student.
In 1906, when Sachin was born it was personal moment of joy for the Royal family, today in 2006, the entire world has ‘webbed’ to log an e-tribute to the legend on his birth centenary.