A CORRESPONDENT
BOKAJAN: Shreya Bhattacharjee, a little girl with tiny hands in tabla, has made a remarkable history through her superlative Tabla playing skill, leading her to achieve the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rastriya Bal Puraskar, (PMRBP), 2023. She was born on January 20, 2010, to a middle class family, in a small town of Bokajan, in Karbi Anglong district. She is the only daughter of Rajib Bhattacharjee and Sumita Bhattacharjee. Both of her parents are closely associated with Indian classical music which fascinated her towards music from the very tender age of 3 years.
According to her father, Shreya's attraction towards tabla was first recognised by her father when she was three years of age. "I used to chant some of the tabla phrases in front of Shreya almost everyday and suddenly one afternoon when I was sitting ideally, she came from behind and much to our surprise, Shreya played one of those tabla phrases on my head which made me sense a rhythmic tabla playing instinct in her."
"Realizing her talent, I started her initial training (Talim) in tabla at the age of three years. As her training was in progress, she participated in many prestigious national and international competitions." Shreya's achievements includes 1st position at the age of 8 years in all North East Tabla Competition organized by XOBAD on July 29, 2018.
She secured the 3rd position at the age of 8 years in All India National Cultural competition held at Jharkhand on December 23, 2018. Shreya got the 3rd position at the age of 9 years in 15th All India Multilingual Cultural Forum Of performing arts held at Pune on May 2019.
She also secured Gold Medal in an UNESCO event at the age of 9 years in the 9th cultural olympiad of performing arts held at Singapore on December 29, 2019.
She got all these awards under the guidance of her father. Realizing the need for higher training, her father with the help of her school music teacher Sachin Jagtap, made her associated with Swapnil Bhise, disciple of the maestro Pt. Yogesh Samsi and her skills got more refined under his guidance.
The blessings of her guru and her consistent efforts led her to achieve the Ist position at Pt. Kanthe Maharaj All India Tabla competition, Aurangabad on August 1, 2021. Shreya got the Ist position at Ustad Jahangir Khan Tabla solo competition, Indore on August 25 2021. She secured 2nd position at Pt. Atul Desai foundation competition, Ahmedabad, January 21, 2022. She also engraved her name on the most prestigious 'The India Book Of Record' for playing Tabla for the longest duration on February 12 2022.
She got the Ist position in All India Tabla solo competition organized by Pt. Rupak Kulkarni Flute Academy, Mumbai, Ist position at the 2nd all india Ustad Jahangir Khan Saheb Tabla solo, Indore and Ist position in the most prestigious Baba Harivallabh Sangeet Pratiyogita, Jalandhar Punjab on December 21 and 22, 2022. She was also facilitated by the former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on November 27, 2020.
She has achieved these honours by surpassing the very challenging financial circumstances of her family. For every event in which she performed, her family had to go through many unavoidable financial liabilities; her parents have a very strong role in supporting her talent at the expense of many financial burdens and hardships.
With the combined effort of Shreya's relentless practice and her parents' indomitable spirit resulted in the achievement of the prestigious Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2023 conferred to her by the President of India.
After having all this achievements, Shreya and her family could feel the strong sense of responsibility to uplift the honour of their State, Assam and their country, India through whatever possible contribution in the field of Indian Classical Music. At the same time the family is also worried about the financial burden they already have and the financial challenges they would incur in the days to come.
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