Kabir Suman Coffee Mug

Kabir Suman (born as Suman Chattopadhyay; 16 March 1949) is an Indian singer-songwriter, music director and composer, writer, actor, politician, and former journalist. He shot to fame in the 1990s with Bengali albums such as Tomake Chai (I Want You) and Boshe Anko (Sit-and-Draw). Suman has won a National Film Award for Best Music Direction for his work in Jaatishwar (2014). From May 2009 to 2014, he was a Member of Parliament of India in the 15th Lok Sabha, having been elected from the Jadavpur constituency in West Bengal, on a Trinamool Congress ticket. Suman was born in a Bengali Hindu Brahmin family on 16 March 1949 to Sudhindranath and Uma Chattopadhyay at Cuttack, Odisha. He started his training in classical music at a very young age, under the tutelage of his father. He studied at St. Lawrence High School, Kolkata. He graduated with an honours in English Literature from Jadavpur University and did a diploma in the French language and the German language. Around 1968, while learning Himangshu Dutta compositions, he felt that in spite of their compositional strength, they did not represent the contemporary times, lyrically. Kabir Suman’s first studio recording was in 1972. It was released from Hindusthan Records. His second single vinyl record was published in 1973, from the same label. Both these records were commercially unsuccessful. After resigning from All India Radio he joined a clerical post at United Bank of India. Kabir Suman shifted to France temporarily to teach the basics of Indian Classical Music in 1973. It is said in one of his autobiographies, that in France he was first introduced to the songs of Bob Dylan and he claimed Dylan’s songs left a great impression and influence on him. Kabir Suman went to West Germany on 12 May 1975. At the end of 1975, Voice of Germany opened a Bengali department in Cologne, and he applied for a job there. They gave him some translation work, and he gradually became a regular freelancer for the Voice of Germany’s Bengali division. In May 1979, Suman returned to Kolkata and he started to work as a teacher of German at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, and the Max Mueller Bhavan. He started working in the Bengali daily Aajkal as a part-timer, and also contributed to the Desh until 1980. He joined a band called “Samatan”. However, this band was unsuccessful and the members broke up very soon. Some members of Samatan and some new members, all in their twenties and thirties joined him to establish a new band called ‘Nagarik : Anya Katha Anya Gan’. During this time Suman completed his first song (written in 1975) “E Kemon Akash Dekhale Tumi”. During this time Suman went to the US in to work for Voice of America. While working for Voice of America, Suman went to Nicaragua during Sandinista Revolution. He also wrote for Desh magazine under the pseudonym Manab Mitraduring this time and also started writing in the ‘Frontier’ magazine. Suman returned to Kolkata in early 1985. He bought many instruments, applicable for a complete recording studio, which were sent to Kolkata by ship. After returning to Kolkata, he rejoined with ‘Nagarik’ with some new vocalists and instrumentalists, and continued writing and composing songs, thinking mainly as group songs.