BUMBRO BUMBRO
Bumbro is a delightful little folk song from the valley of Kashmir. The original composition is from the first Kashmiri opera ever written, Bombur ta Yemberzal...In Kashmir, the night of Mehndi is a big affair. It is the night when, in a way to beautify the bride to be, mehndi (heena) is put on her hands. All the other women in the household also put mehndi and many songs are sung to praise the beauty of the bride. The song bumbro belongs to this occasion. It is calling out to the bumbro, Kashmiri for bumblebee, an insect that hovers over flowers of the valley, and thanking him for bringing all the beauty and colours of flowers with him.

The bumblebee is shyam coloured- the colour of Krishna. Krishna is depicted in various art forms as having a peculiar body colour. While some represent it with a shade of blue, some with a smoky grey, some with a dark black. The reason is that Krishna was born at midnight and so is said to have taken on the colour of the night. The word for evening in hindi is shyam, and since Krishna was evening coloured, he is also known as Shyam. Hence the word shyam is widely used in Indian poetry. It means the colour of Krishna, which in turn means the colour of one’s male lover.

So the reason for saying shyam coloured bumbro is that the bumbro seems to be coming from the garden of the groom, and has thus brought with him all his love and affection. Darker the colour of mehndi gets on the bride’s hand, the more the groom would love her- or so the saying goes.

It is a song of celebration, of love and of childlike innocence. It is a song of the beautiful Kashmiri people.
DANCERS:
MALE: SAYAN MONDAL, ,ARUNAVA SEN,DIPAYAN BISWAS
FEMALE:SOMASREE SAHA, RACHITA GHOSH,URJASHI
26 th reunion
GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT JADAVPUR