The Kolkata Book Fair is - or at least was, before the venue was shifted to a smaller area - the most important event in the city's packed cultural calendar. But something special took place there in 1995. That was the year that Moheener Ghoraguli, arguably the greatest ever independent Bengali band, released their seminal album, Abar Bochhor Kuri Pore. It was intended as a soft launch. The plan was to sell copies of the record at a bookstall with the band members and a few friends sitting right outside surrounded by a throng of bibliophiles, singing songs to introduce the music to the public. The people included the legendary Gautam Chattopadhyay, founder of Moheener Ghoraguli, and Neil Mukherjee and Bonnie Chakraborty of Krosswindz, another local act. There was also a group of pre-teens, who Chattopadhyay had bunched together as an outfit called Lakkhichhara since he wanted children to play a particular track in the album, a heart-warming ditty called Porashonay Jolanjoli. So all these people performed an acoustic set for an entire evening, and the audience numbers picked up so significantly by the end of it that when the musicians got up and started the long walk towards the exit gate while playing their biggest hit, Prithibita Naki, a whole procession of people started following them and singing along. So much so, that it seemed as if the Left Front government of the time had organised yet another one of their innumerable political rallies.

Abar Bochhor Kuri Pore eventually became one of the most loved Bengali albums of all time. But Chattopadhyay, unfortunately, passed away four years later. The sort of legacy he left behind, however, has fuelled the musical pursuits of generations of Bengalis after his demise. Take Lakkhichhara as an example. The band was formed in Chattopadhyay's living room under his tutelage and comprised his son, Gaurab Chatterjee, and five other children who were all friends. He even inadvertently gave the outfit its name, since he'd lovingly refer to the kids as "lakkhichhara", meaning "naughty". And such was their progress that by 1999, the teenagers were ready to make their stage debut as a band playing an original set of music, though it's a tragedy that Chattopadhyay missed this gig since he died days before the performance.