Some people do not die. After leaving the mortal world, they continue to live in the hearts of the people through their work. Sikander Alam is one of those immortal souls who have left behind a legacy of thier own. Hence, it was apt that the just-launched Sikandar Alam Foundation decided to celebrate the late legend’s birthday every year and not his death anniversary.Blessed was the veteran artiste to have a family of artistes – better half and gifted singer of yesteryears Naima Alam, elder daughter and actress Sophia and the younger one, singer Nazia, the worthy daughter and successor to a worthy father. The trio came together to set up the Foundation to keep the legacy of Sikander alive. The launching ceremony was hosted at Rabindra Mandap on Wednesday coinciding with his 71st birth anniversary.Sapanara Pathepathe – a line from a very popular song sung by Sikander – was the befitting title of the event hosted in memory of a man who always dreamt of music.Several singers – both the veterans and the promising – offered their tribute to the musician by singing the songs he sang or composed.The artistes included Sikander’s intimate friend Pranab Patnaik, Ira Mohanty, Sourav Nayak, Laxmikant Palit, Sailabhama, Keshab Rout, Mahaprasad Kar, Karunakar, Susant Panda, Lata Ghosh, Sandeep Palit, Randeep Palit, Sura Sarita Rout and daughter Nazia Alam who opened the concert with the immensely popular devotional number from the film Laxmi – arata sure bare kare minatire – that was Sikander’s debut in film music half a century ago.The songs – selected from the films, songs he sang for the All India Radio and from his albums – were compositions of great masters like Balakrushna Dash (arata sure), Hariprasad Chaurasia (sagare adhira), Bhubaneswar Mishra (bane pakshi jhure), Upendra Kumar (sapanara pathepathe), Prafulla Kar (aa re mita aa sangata), Akshaya Mohanty (mayabinee bana jochana) and Shantanu Mohapatra (jenayana rangahara). And there were songs that the singer composed for himself too.There were a number of emotive moments during the evening when the people – large number of fans of the singer who had assembled at the auditorium even without any publicity about the event - were in tears. One such moment was when Sikander’s friend sang a number on friendship – aa re mita aa sangata – and concluded with “Happy birthday to you, Alam. We love you”. The other moment was the legend’s wife and the Foundation chairperson breaking down while addressing the gathering. “Whereever he is today, he must be happy for this evening,” – is all that she could speak.Among others Governor MC Bhandare joined the celebration besides Culture Minister Prafulla Samal, eminent poet Ramakant Rath, noted filmmaker-lyricist Sarada Prasanna Nayak and well-known media personality Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. A documentary on the musical journey of Sikander made by Bapu Lenka was screened on the occasion.
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