Sandhya Mukherjee cremated with full state honors

Kolkata, Feb 16 (UNI) Bengal’s melody queen Sandhya Mukherjee, who died on Tuesday following a massive cardiac arrest at a private hospital here, was cremated with full state honors amidst a large number of teary-eyed mourners at the Keoratala crematorium on Wednesday evening. Mukherjee, 90, who had been hospitalized since January end after testing positive for the Coronavirus infection, had tested negative a few days back. However, she had to undergo a surgery, and there was a sudden deterioration in her health due to a chronic gastritis problem. Her final journey began from the mortuary Peace World in East Kolkata’s Topsia on Wednesday morning. From there, the cottage moved to the Rajya Sangeet Academy. The next stop was the cultural complex Rabindra Sadan, where her body was kept for public viewing on a platform bedecked with flowers. For the next five hours, hundreds of grief-stricken music lovers filed past the legendary Bengali singer to offer their last respects. Carrying wreaths and floral offerings, people from all sections of society converged, waiting patiently for the last glimpse of the singer. The who’s who of Bengal’s cultural world – singers, actors, dancers, painters – rubbed shoulders with the hoi pollio at the site, mourning the loss of one of the brightest stars of Bengali music whose performance had enthralled people for eight decades West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who returned to Kolkata by cutting short her tour to North Bengal, paid floral tributes and draped a shawl around the singer’s body Around 5 pm, the funeral procession began, as a large number of people accompanied Mukherjee on her last journey to the crematorium, three kilometers away from Rabindra Sadan. The chief minister and hundreds of others walked behind the hearse that carried the veteran singer, as her songs were played throughout the route. On the sidewalks stood a huge number of people hoping to get a last look at Mukherjee. Around 6 pm, at Keoratala, she was given a gun salute by a police contingent after a slow march, as the bugle played the last post. Mukherjee’s last rites began soon after, with her daughter lighting the funeral pyre. Famous actor from yesteryears, Biswajit Chatterjee, who was known in the Mumbai film industry as Biswajit, told a television channel on Tuesday that Mukherjee and Lata Mangeshkar, who died on February 6, were Saraswatis (Goddess of music).