BANI BANDANA: SALUTATION TO GODDESS SARASWATI BY ANANDA MANDIR CHILDREN

By Sudipta Choudhury (New Jersey)

Ananda Mandir serves the religious, spiritual and cultural needs of its members. In India, Goddess Saraswati is widely worshipped in schools and colleges till today, and the students enjoy the entire day with friends and family. Being in the US, this privilege is often not available to them. To maintain this tradition, Ananda Mandir planned Bani Bandana to be held on a Sunday, so that no one is left behind to cherish this beautiful celebration. Like every year, there were Pushpanjali, Hatey Khori, and a cultural program presented by the community children.

The program, held on Sunday, January 29, was opened by Arun Bhowmik, the General Secretary of Ananda Mandir. It was then followed by a dance on Devi Stuti by elementary school children. The participants were: Alina Bhakta Ghosh, Riyanshi Bhattacharya, Kavya Sarkar, Charulata Sengupta, Anooshka Sen and Ritika Sarkar. Winter was greeted with a Tagore song “Shiuli Phota Phurolo Jei Phurolo”, and the dance was performed by Auroni Sen, Aishi Chell, Anisha Bag and Ritika De. The dance school under Ananda Mandir School of Arts presented two Odissi dances under the guidance of Smt. Mitra Purakayastha. The theme was ‘ya kundendu tushar haar dhabala “and the participants were Roma Das, Aditi Pattanaik, Siyona Satpathy and Anisha Mitra. The Bangla and the Recitation school under Ananda Mandir School of Arts under the guidance of Rituparna Das Dutta presented a series of poems written by different Bengali poets. Adrija Bhattacharya, a 5th grader trained in Hindustani vocal, spontaneously performed a Saraswati bandana on Raga Bairagi.

Among the other participants, there were a few instrumentalists who played as soloists on eastern and western tunes. Eshani Goswami and Sharanya Mukherjee were on keyboard. Eshani played a very popular Indian tune from the film “Parineeta” whereas Sharanya played a western piece composed by Bach. Anooshka Sen, an elementary student, played violin on two beautiful music pieces: Gavotte and Musette.

We had two exceptional dancers: Ishaana Banerjee and Anuron Chakraborty. Ishaana danced on a Saraswati Bandana and Anuron, who has been learning Kathak for quite a few years now, presented his own composition.

The kids’ drama on Sukumar Ray’s Abol-Tabol directed by Nairita Banerjee and Joba Konar was very enjoyable. Each character from the book had come to life through their acting.

The last performance was by our popular Youth Band. They played two nostalgic Bengali songs under the direction of Shreya Bhanja Choudhury. The participants were: Soumyanil Jana (violin), Sayanshuvra Chakraborty(saxophone), Dev Mitra (drums), Priyanshu Dasgupta (Guitar) and Shreya Bhanja Choudhury (Keyboard).

The two emcees were Soujattyo Dey and Ayushmaan Mukherjee. Both did an excellent job in presenting the entire program.

It is great to see how over the past few years, some of the kids have matured through their performances while the new group of children just joined and enjoyed their experience of being on such a big platform.