Ananda Sangbad 2023 Q3

Ananda Mandir

269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873

Ananda Sangbad A Quarterly Publication of Ananda Mandir, New Jersey

REMEMBERING GURU CHAKRAVARTY

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uru Prasanna Chakravarty, beloved community member, died from brain cancer at his home on March 28, 2023. He is survived by his wife, Anita Chakravarty, his children and their spouses (Arijit and Poonam Chakravarty, Shubha Chakravarty, and Chris Wagner), and four grandchildren (Amrik Chakravarty, Meera Chakravarty, Sonya Aheli Wagner, and Aurav August Wagner).

Guru was born in Jamshedpur on June 14, 1940, in the state of Bihar (now Jharkhand) in India. He was the youngest of four sons of Ram Narayan Chakravarty (1903-1989) and Pramila Chakravarty (1908-1998).

Although he grew up in Jamshedpur because of his father’s job with Tata Steel, their ancestral home was in the village of Shaltora in the district of Bankura in West Bengal. During his childhood he spent school holidays in the village. Some of his earliest memories were of people standing in ration lines during the Bengal famine of the early 1940s. The Chakravarty clan still owns that home in Shaltora, with many extended family members residing in the surrounding areas.

Guru continued to enjoy his visits to the village home, which grew more frequent after his retirement until his last visit in 2019.

Guru proved to be an excellent student from early on, gaining top marks in secondary school class, completing a Bachelor of Science at Jadavpur University in Kolkata in 1960and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharag-

By Subha Chakravarty (New Delhi) Editor’s Note: Guru Chakravarty, a founding member of Ananda Mandir, was widely known within the Bengali community in New Jersey for his extensive spiritual knowledge and multitude of volunteer activities. He was a past member of the Ananda Mandir Board of Trustees and played leadership roles in many activities of the organization, most notably as the Executive Editor of Ananda Sangbad, for almost a decade. He was also a member of the fourperson team that worked closely with artisans in Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Kolkata (West Bengal) for the main deities in our temple. Last but not the least, he was always ready to perform religious rites at Ananda Mandir when requested. We will miss Guru and his calm and wise presence and always-ready-to-help attitude. pur in 1963. Following in his older brother’s footsteps, and those of so many welleducated Indians in the late 60s, he set his sights on the United States. With sponsorship from his brother and his engineering qualifications, he was eligible for a visa and came to live with his brother in Elizabeth, New Jersey. After a short stint as a clerk at the Two Guys department store, he landed an engineering job with CM Furnace and started to save up. Within a couple of years, he secured a job with the pharmaceutical firm Merck. Around this time, he sent word home to India that he was ready for the next step, marriage. One of his older brothers back in India started the search for a Bengali bride who would be willing to move to the US. It didn’t take long before they found Anita Coari, a young woman from Jhargram, India who happened to be fluent in English due to her convent education. She was a perfect match, and Guru flew back to India for the wedding on February 12, 1972.

After settling down with Anita in the US in 1972, Guru worked as a pharmaceutical

DONATE BLOOD FOR RED CROSS! Ananda Mandir will hold a blood donation drive to benefit American Red Cross on Monday, August 14, from 2 pm to 7 pm. The event will be held in Tagore Hall, and plenty of parking will be available. Walk-ins are welcome.

However, pre-registration is preferred. Please contact Utpal Sengupta (usengupta2@gmail. com) for further information.

engineer for the next 60 years.

In his early career he and the family moved around a lot, from New Jersey to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, and then back to New Jersey, all within a six-year period. His longest stint was at Merck & Co. from December 1982 until he was nudged into retirement in November 2003 at the age of 63. He continued to work for the next 19 years, developing a post-retirement expertise in validation consultancy for a range of companies including Johnson& Johnson, McNeil Healthcare, Skanksa USA, Core Pharma, QSP, RCM Technologies. In January 2022 at the age of 81 he accepted an offer of a full-time job with New Age Systems, but he had to quit a few months later when he fell ill. Unlike my generation’s obsession with fulfillment and meaning, I have no idea whether Guru even liked being an engineer or not. I doubt he knew, either. The question just had no relevance for him.

It was a respectable profession, a stable career, the best he could do, and those were the only things that mattered to him.

Guru had learned early in life that the only route to success was by doing whatever it took to achieve and then achieve more. As the head of the family, it was his duty to set an example of that and to hold everyone else to the same high standard. He was a traditionalist who could never abide nonconformity of almost any sort. He had no use for the unconventional.

He raised his children with

NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ PERMIT NO. 1215

July 2023 Ananda Mandir Calendar of Events (Dates are subject to Change) Please check our website frequently www.anandamandir.org Tel: 732-873-9821 NOTE: For Puja time please contact temple or visit our website: anandamandir.org

AUGUST 2023 Shyama Puja Tuesday, 15 Satyanarayan Puja & Rakhi Purnima Wednesday, 30 (1940 to 2023) an iron rule and hot temper, earning him the nickname of “G-man” from his children and their friends. But as he aged, G-man mellowed out. He told more jokes and learned to let things go. He openly expressed his pride in his children’s professional accomplishments and developed a close relationship with his daughter-in-law. To everyone’s astonishment he was a rather doting and gentle grandfather, always ready to offer up treats from his secret stash of candy and clapping heartily at every imperfect cartwheel. He attended every grandparent’s day and tennis match of his older grandson when he lived within driving distance. And when both of his children and their families moved out of driving distance in 2017 to pursue jobs in Tennessee and in New Delhi, I believe he really missed being an everyday part of his grandchildren’s lives.

A few years after his family settled in Hillsborough, NJ, he connected with other Bengal families in central New Jersey, and gradually ensconced himself within several Bengali-American organizations in New Jersey.

He was active in three organizations in particular: Garden State Cultural Association, Bharat Sevashram, and was a founding member of Ananda Mandir. After retirement, he gradually devoted more of his energy and time to these organizations. He went on two once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimages with Swacontinue to page 2 }

SEPTEMBER 2023 Janmashtomi Wednesday, 6 Shyama Puja Thursday, 14 Biswakarma Puja Monday, 18 Ganesh Chaturthi Tuesday, 19 Satyanarayan Puja Sunday, 24 OCTOBER 2023 Mahishashura Mardini Sunday, 8 Durga Puja Shoshti Friday, 20 Maha Saptami Saturday, 21 Maha Ashtomi Sunday, 22 Maha Nabami Monday, 23 Bijaya Dashami Tuesday, 24 Kojagori Laxmi Puja & Satyanarayan Puja Saturday, 28 NOVEMBER 2023 Maha Kalika Puja Sunday, 12 Jagadhatri Puja Tuesday, 21 Ras Jatra & Satyanarayan Puja Sunday, 26 (*) See www.anandamandir.org or Call Mandir for details

Special Religious Services: Upon request, the priest of Ananda Mandir offers services such as in-house Shraddhas, Rituals associated with Cremations (Antyesti Kriya), Shraddha Anniversaries, Pre-wedding rituals (Naandimukh, Ashirwad, etc.), Upanayan (Paitey), Annaprasan, Wedding Ceremonies & Wedding Anniversaries, Griha Prabesh (Bhumi Puja), Consecrations of new cars (New Car Pujas) and others. If you have needs for any of the above or more, please feel free to contact Biswabhai @ 732-873-9821

2 July 2023 Ananda Sangbad A Periodical Newsletter Published By

ANANDA MANDIR (A Tax-Exempt, Non-Profit Organization) 269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873 Phone: 732-873-9821 Website: www.anandamandir.0rg

Ananda Sangbad

PROF. DIPAK SARKAR

Honored by the International Union of Physiological Sciences Academy

PROF. KAMALESH SIRKAR Honored as Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Illinois

***

Debajyoti Chatterji

Executive Editor (Acting) All queries, articles, news reports and letters should be directed to debsmees572@gmail.com

Phone: 908-507-9640 ***

For general information, please contact the following executives of Ananda Mandir: Jai Prakash Biswas President Debajyoti Chatterji Vice President Anjan Lahiri Vice President Ashok Rakhit Vice President Arun Bhowmik General Secretary Chanu Das Treasurer Pradip Majumdar Assistant Treasurer

BECOME A MEMBER OF ANANDA MANDIR AND PARTICIPATE IN THE COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES TO ENRICH YOUR FAMILY

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ccording to a press release from Rutgers University, New Jersey, “Prof Dipak Sarkar, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, was recently elected as a 2023 Fellow in the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Academy.

The IUPS Academy represents the diversity and excellence of worldwide physiology. It celebrates and publicizes the important contributions made by physiologists globally to science and health. As an international non-political organization, IUPS is a body that represents the entire community of physiological researchers, teachers, and students.

Its mission is to advance physiological research and teaching and its translation into benefits for health and society. The vision for the Academy is that it will be a resource for physiologists. In addition, it will be a source of information and contacts for journalists, funders, charities, politicians, allied health professionals, or members of the public.

The criteria for the fellowship requite that the candidates will have made exceptional contributions to physiological sciences, in the form of significant original discoveries, sustained contributions to scholarship, or rendered service to physiology internationally.

Dipak Sarkar has a long career within Neuroendocrinology. His research is centered around understanding how hypothalamic neurohormones regulate reproduction, stress responses, and immune function, and how this neuroendocrine control mechanism is disrupted by developmental alcohol exposures.

Recently, his group has uncovered that fetal alcohol induces epigenetic modifications of the hypothalamic proopiomelanocortin hormone gene which passes via the male germline for at least four subsequent generations via a transgenerational mechanism. This is a key discovery requiring re-interpretation of genetics studies on alcoholism. His group also pioneered the use of stem cells derived proopiomelanocortin neurons in stress control, immune activation, and cancer growth prevention.”

Prof Sarkar has been associated with Ananda Mandir for many years. He is a Past President of the organization and is currently serving on our Board of Trustees. Ananda Mandir is proud of his many achievements and recognitions and congratulates him on this latest honor.

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hemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, has named Prof Kamalesh Sirkar as one of the recipients of the 2022 Distinguished Alumnus Awards. We are proud that Prof Sirkar has been so honored by one of the most admired departments of one of the highly regarded universities in America.

In the award announcement, the university noted the following: “Kamalesh Sirkar is an internationally renowned expert in membrane separation technologies. He is the inventor of a commercialized membrane-based solvent extraction technology. He also pioneered the notion of microporous membranes as membrane contactors of two immiscible fluid phases as well as the contained liquid membrane. Previously, he was a professor of chemical engineering at IIT, Kanpur, and at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Kamalesh has authored 180 refereed publications, 19 book chapters, 29 U.S. patents, and over 335 presentations. He has received a number of honorary degrees and awards including AIChE’s Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology and the Clarence Gerhold Award. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, and has served on several editorial boards. He is a former president of the North American Membrane Society, director of AIChE’s Separations Division, and executive director of the Membrane Science, Engineering, and Technology Center.”

Prof Sirkar is currently Distinguished Professor and Foundation Professor on Membrane Separations at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He earned his BTech degree from IIT-Kharagpur and his MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2020) and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (2017).

REMEMBERING GURU CHAKRAVARTY

| continue from page 1 mi Amanarthananda from Bharat Sevashram -- in 2010 to Kedarnath and Badrinath in Uttarkhand, India, and in 2011 to Bali, Indonesia. Quite preoccupied by the marriage of his daughter, he returned from the Kedarnath pilgrimage with a blessed “Maduli”, or locket, after consulting with an astrologer. Predict-

ably, his daughter scoffed.

And although she only wore the locket for a few days, she did indeed meet her future husband later that year. Another win for Dad. Guru’s devotion to the Bengali community extended back to his homeland and home district of Bankura, West Bengal. Together with his brothers, helped to es-

tablish the first girls’ secondary school in the village of Shaltora, named after their father, and eventually integrated within the government school system. He was also active in the non-profit organization Basona, which is dedicated to helping the people of Bankura district.

Through Basona and informally through his strong

connections to family and friends, Guru had sponsored and helped to award scholarships to scores of young people from Bankura to pursue their dreams of higher education. Through these activities, he has instilled in his children a deep sense of generosity, philanthropy, and a duty to help those less fortunate.

July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

3

PAYING RESPECT TO MY FRIEND, SUJAN DASGUPTA

By Amitabha Bagchi (California) I have reached an age when the news that one of my contemporaries or nearcontemporaries has passed away no longer comes as a total surprise. Even so, some deaths are so sudden and unexpected that they can still rattle and stun me. Such was the case with the unanticipated and unfortunate death of my very dear friend, Sujan Dasgupta, this past January in his Kolkata residence.

After the initial shock came sorrow combined with the realization once more of the fragility of life and the inevitability of its end.

Sujan, of course, was much more than a friend of mine.

He was an acclaimed Bengali writer and a respected intellectual whose good humor, sharp wit, and a penchant for pithy comments endeared him to millions of people. In these reminiscences, I will narrate stories of our friendship and describe areas where they intersected with his public activities. The aim is to ensure that our private intimacy does not obscure his public persona and myriad achievements.

It was in Columbus, Ohio, that I first met Sujan Dasgupta. It was in the fall of 1973, and I had gone there as a research physicist hired by the Battelle Memorial Institute.

Sujan was already there with his wife Shamita and infant daughter Tumku (Sayantani). He was working for the venerable Bell Laboratories – a fact that (oddly enough) I did not know until much later. I do not remember how we were first introduced, but Columbus was a small town with only a handful of Bengalis who naturally gravitated to each other for cultural nostalgia and companionship.

He and I also had a common friend in his college classmate, Santanu Das (later the founder of TranSwitch), whom I had met a couple of times during his graduate student days in St Louis.

Our friendship became stronger after my marriage in the winter of 1974. When my wife (Dhriti) arrived on these shores, she was welcomed

by Shamita and a few other friends to her new domicile in a foreign land. We had the usual family get-togethers on weekends, and it was fun to watch Tumku -- the lone child in our midst -- grow up.

This phase of our interaction ended after just one year, because I left Columbus to teach at a university. Sujan

and I lost track of each other for an entire decade until we got reconnected in New Jersey in 1984 as colleagues, albeit in different locations, at the AT&T Bell Laboratories. (The modified name was necessary because of the court-ordered break-up of Baby Bells from Ma Bell.) He worked in offices in northern Jersey – in Parsippany and Whippany – whereas I was based in central Jersey, specifically Holmdel (and later Middletown).

It was in his Fletcher Drive residence that I learnt of Sujan’s deep love for the Bengali language and literature.

He was one of the editors of a local Bengali literary magazine called Antorik. He tried to persuade me to write for the magazine. I have no great confidence in my Bengali writing, but his persistence finally broke down my resistance. I was a bit dubious about his follow-up praise for my contribution, but at least my self-confidence was not destroyed, and I wrote later for his other publications.

At this time, Sujan was very interested in Bengali puzzles, commonly known as dh(n)adha, and wrote several books on them. Puzzles have never been my forte, and I have striven to steer clear of them to avoid embarrassment in front of family and friends. Small wonder I did not get any of his books, but I learnt quite a bit from him about the world of Bengali publications, especially the outsize importance of Ananda Publishers.

Sujan had an impressive library of Bengali books in the basement of his home. He would also get books from India for his friends upon request. That is how I got my copy of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita by Sri Maw after Sanjib Chattopadhyay, one of my favorite Bengali authors, claimed emphatically that it was the greatest Bengali book ever written. (His opinion, not mine, I hasten to add.)

In the late 1990s or early 2000s, there was a hiatus in my interaction with Sujan when he temporarily relocated as an expat in the New Delhi area to act as the point person for AT&T’s foray into the cellular service market in India. Not long after his return to the States, he took early retirement from AT&T and chose to devote full time

to his twin passions of creating Bengali contents for the world wide web and pursuing his career as a published author in Bengali.

His first passion led to activities in at least two areas.

First, Sujan maintained for many years a Bengali web site that carried information and detailed explanation about important characters and key events in the Mahabharata. Second, he started a Bengali web magazine or webzine called abasar.net that aimed to combine serious knowledge-and-information sharing with entertainment and leisurely relaxation.

Once again, his power of persuasion proved irresistible, and I occasionally contributed travelogues and commentaries for it. I am pleased to note that the webzine has continued to publish even after Sujan’s death, largely because he had the foresight to transition to younger folks the responsibility for its management.

Sujan’s second passion was for writing and publishing books in Bengali, and that is what led to his fame and popularity in the cultural world of Bengal. It is worth exploring this aspect of his personality in greater detail.

I mentioned earlier that Sujan had begun to publish books on puzzles and brain teasers around the time he and I reconnected in New Jersey in 1984. His genius lay in taking a leap from there to detective stories, and his greatest achievement was the creation of the fictional character of Goenda Eken Babu (Detective Eken Babu) as the protagonist of those stories.

The history of detective stories and heroes in Bengali literature is distinctly mixed.

Iconic figures like Byomkesh Bakshi (Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay) and Feluda (Satyajit Ray) jostle with less well-drawn characters – from Kiriti Ray (Nihar Ranjan Gupta) to Jayanta-Manik (Hemendra Kumar Roy) and Dipak Chatterjee-Ratanlal (Swapankumar).

After the death of Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (1970) and Satyajit Ray (1992), the field of the (Bengali detective) genre was wide open, and into the space entered Eken Babu with his distinct traits that included low-brow humor and a tendency toward malapropism. I gather

from a posting on abasar.net that Sujan’s detective made his first appearance in print in 1994. Many stories followed as Sujan became more prolific as a storyteller in the 2010s. These stories began to get published as collected volumes, beginning in 2017.

Next came a new development as someone approached Sujan for movie rights to make TV serials based on the Eken Babu character. The serials, which began to be broadcast in 2018, gave Sujan wider publicity and a greater fan following. This effort culminated in the first fulllength movie, The Eken, that premiered in 2022. It is my understanding that a second movie is in the works.

It is indeed heart-breaking that death came to snatch away Sujan Dasgupta when he was at the pinnacle of his career as a writer. Death came stealthily – without any warning. His daughter’s family had just left India after visiting him in Kolkata.

His wife, Shamita, had gone to their Santiniketan home briefly for personal business. All alone in his Kolkata residence, Sujan suffered an acute case of pulmonary embolism. The maid who came next morning found the door locked. She had to call for assistance to break down

the door and all present witnessed a terrible tragedy.

Sujan died just days before I was to leave for India. Dhriti was in India, and she called to give me the sad news. Sujan’s demise was widely reported on television and in print.

On my flight to India, I accidentally discovered that the movie, The Eken, was available for viewing. I watched it for my first real exposure to Eken Babu. In India, Dhriti and I visited Shamita and Tumku to offer condolences and share our grief. A few days later, we went to Kolkata’s Boi Mela (Book Fair) and visited the stall for Sujan’s publisher (The Café Table).

Prominently displayed in the stall were six volumes of the collected stories of Eken Babu. The original plan was for Sujan to be present there and sign copies for interested buyers. I bought a volume of his stories as a small token of respect for my dear, departed friend.

4 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

The “First Days” Project by SAADA: Preserving South Asians’ First Moments in the United States

By Emmett Haq, Archival Coordinator, SAADA (Pennsylvania) Editor’s Note: South Asian Digital Archive (SAADA) was launched in 2008 in order to document, share, and preserve the stories of South Asians living in the United States. As the largest (and only) digital archive of South Asian American history, SAADA contains nearly 5,000 unique photos, documents, letters, videos, oral history interviews, and more. SAADA also manages a wide array of other initiatives, including the First Days Project (described in this article), the Road Trips project (which collects travel stories from South Asian Americans), Revolution Remix (a walking tour of Old City in Philadelphia that shares stories of South Asian Americans dating back to the 1700s), the Archival Creators Fellowship Program (a paid fellowship opportunity that highlights marginalized groups within the South Asian American community), TIDES (SAADA’s digital magazine, which features over 150 essays related to South Asian America), and Our Stories (a book published in 2021, intended as a “primer” to South Asian American history, which has been adapted into a number of lesson plans for high school and college-level classrooms)—as well as presentations, workshops, merchandise, artistic collaborations, and more. SAADA is based in Philadelphia, but as a digital archive, its materials are all available online. You can keep up with the archive’s activities by following SAADA on Instagram (@ saadaorg), Twitter (@saadaonline), and Facebook (@saadaorg), or by subscribing to their mailing list at www.saada.org.

(Photos from the SAADA’s First Days project archive)

“I

remember getting in the car, and thinking that it was such a big car, even though it was just a Honda Civic. I didn’t know how to roll down the windows, because they were automatic. … When I got to the apartment, I was struck by the silence everywhere -no people shouting or cars honking like back home. My husband … showed me how to load the dishwasher, but I accidentally put the hand soap into the dishwasher, so I had to call maintenance when the soap started overflowing!”

This anecdote -- taken from an interview with Priya Mani about her first day living in Detroit after immigrating from Mumbai -- might contain some recognizable elements for many readers.

After decades of being left out of mainstream narratives, the “immigrant experience” is now a familiar theme, with immigrant families and journeys regularly (though still not frequently) depicted

in American media. But of course, there’s no such thing as one unifying “immigrant experience”—everyone’s experience is unique. For the last ten years, the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) has been celebrating those unique experiences and preserving them for future generations as part of an initiative called the First Days Project.

Despite the vast diversity of immigrant stories, it would be difficult to find one who has no memory of their first day in the country. After all, as SAADA describes, “the first day in a new country is so much more than just one day.” An immigrant brings their entire past life to their new home on this day, and it can define one’s future as well. In collecting these memories, SAADA employs a wide range of techniques.

Stories are preserved in video, audio, or text format; they can be self-submitted or recorded as part of an interview process.

Over the years, SAADA has assembled a team of volunteers to help conduct these interviews.This group of volunteer reporters includes middle and high school students, college students, journalists, researchers, and more. And through their efforts, stories of all kinds can be included.

For example, the archive includes a handful of tales from those who arrived before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (no easy task, particularly for those coming from Asia, who were heavily restricted by the immigration regulations of the era). Professor C.M. Naim, who flew from Kolkata to San Francisco in September of 1957, gave one such account.

“Jostled around by the crowd I somehow managed to find my heavy, unwieldy suitcase, but could not locate the equally stuffed Pan Am airbag [which] contained my degrees and passport, the instructions from my professor, and all my American money,

a grand sum of twenty-five dollars… I didn’t know what to do. I had no experience with telephones, nor did I know anyone’s phone number to call. All such information was in that bag. As the hall emptied and it became clear that my bag was nowhere in sight, I sat down on a bench and quietly cried.

Then the elderly black man whom I had seen helping passengers with their bags and taxis came over and spoke to me. At first I didn’t understand him—I had never heard anyone talk that way— but gradually some sense of what he was saying came through to me. He wanted to know why I was crying. He asked me if I needed some help. Somehow, I managed to explain my situation—my loss and my not knowing what to do. Neither my accent nor my dilemma seemed to him insurmountable.”

After this stranger sent out a radio call to local cabdrivers and a driver took Naim to retrieve his bag from the woman who had accidentally taken it, he felt renewed -- and able to actually take in the sights and sensory experiences of his new home. “The new world held no terror for me anymore,” he explains.

“I had witnessed a miracle, wrought by a total stranger who had helped me when I had no one to turn to and lost all hope. I gained that day a kind of confidence and feeling of trust that has come to my rescue many a time since then. Not that I have not despaired since that day… I have been lonely and angry and terrified, and worse. I have experienced exploitation and racial prejudice. But thanks to that day I have always managed not to blame some anonymous America for my troubles.”

The project also provides space for immigrants to talk about the more difficult experiences they’ve faced in this country—discrimination, homesickness, and disappointment all surface regularly in these accounts. Fawzia Afzal-Khan, for example, journeyed from Lahore to Boston in 1979, and encapsulated some of these feelings in her First Days story: “But that first night I looked forward to embarking on a grad school experience away from the con-

straints back home and felt deliriously happy -- not yet aware of the many challenges of discrimination I’d face or the many successes I’d enjoy as I became a hyphenated American in the decades to come, settled into my career as a university professor and scholar, and became a mother. I also didn’t realize how much I’d miss my native land, my parents, my friends, my music, as I carved out a life so far away. And it wasn’t until 9/11 that I turned into a ‘Muslim woman’ for public consumption in a way I’d never imagined I’d be.”

Though SAADA’s overall work is focused on South Asian American stories, the First Days Project accepts stories from all immigrants, regardless of their countries of origin. Many contributors have spoken about their experiences traveling to the United States from East Asian, Southeast Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Australian, or European points of origin. Jae Kim—who flew from Seoul to Syracuse in 2012 at the age of 14—detailed his struggle to master the English language upon arrival: “I had gone through every possible means that I could to improve my English … in addition to memorizing [an] enormous amount of vocabulary and [memorizing] parts of books in order to figure out how to write better sentences and talk to myself in English. However, even that was not enough for me to understand classwork and homework. I once called my science teacher in Korea at 3:00 in the morning crying and asked her to explain Newton’s Law in Korean. I watched American television shows without subtitles.

Over and over, I turned my computer on and [set] out to watch The Devil Wears Prada, [putting] my notebook in hand to take notes. I avidly wrote everything that I could hear and read in the book to ensure that I understood it.

Tears welled up in my eyes.”

The First Days Project fits into SAADA’s larger work rather neatly -- the organization collects similar histories under various other initiatives, including the Road Trips Project (which compiles stories of South Asian Americontinue to page 10 }

July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

5

MY FIRST CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA

By Debajyoti Chatterji (New Jersey)

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few days before December 25, 1967, Keskar asked me, “What are you doing on Christmas Day?” Without hesitation, I answered, “Nothing in particular. Why?” About six months back, Keskar, my labmate at Purdue University, had bought his first car, a 1964 Rambler, made by American Motors. He was always planning short trips with his friends to hone his highway driving skills.

Keskar had a good friend from his IITBombay days living in Indianapolis, about sixty-five miles away from the Purdue campus. The friend had invited Keskar to spend Christmas with him and had encouraged him to bring a friend or two. So, Keskar extended an invitation to me to join him in his proposed day-trip to Indianapolis.

Keskar had arrived at Purdue one year before me and had become familiar with the basics of American student life and societal norms.

He had happily become my friend, guide and mentor. He was the one who took me around the university campus and pointed out important buildings and resources.

In time he also demystified many terms I would hear around the campus like Halloween, Homecoming, Thanksgiving, Prelims, etc.

Arvind Keskar was a Maharashtrian, a vegetarian (I used to jokingly call him a grassitarian) and an unpretentious but smart fellow. I used to call him by his last name, and he used to call me by my last name.

He and I had quickly developed very good chemistry, so I was happy to go with him to Indianapolis.

The night before Christmas we had light rain and snow. When Keskar picked me up on Christmas morning,

much of the snow had melted on blacktop surfaces but thin coatings of ice and snow were lingering on grassy lawns.

We started around ten o’clock and after about ten minutes, got on I-65 South, heading towards Indianapolis.

Driving was easy, although we occasionally drove over patches of packed snow.

Keskar and I made good use of the time, chatting about all kinds of topics. Two single grad students, cruising on the interstate, with no particular worries on their minds.

With about twenty miles left to reach our destination, we were approaching an overpass. Keskar drew my attention to the sign on the side of the highway: “Bridge Freezes Before Road Surface”.

“Why should that happen, Chatterji?”, Keskar asked. I started to answer as our car entered the overpass when disaster struck.

The car encountered a patch of black ice and started skidding. Being an inexperienced driver, Keskar hit the brakes hard and the car went into an uncontrolled spin. Keskar tried his best to get the vehicle under control but could not. As this was taking place, I could see out of the corner of my eye that a car behind us was closing in. So, I thought I should send some kind of a signal to that driver to slow down or stop. I slid close to the passenger-side window, rolled it down and started waving madly to the other driver. As our car completed a 270 degree turn, it found itself crosswise on the road, straddling two southbound lanes.

The other driver tried to stop but skidded – and directly hit the mid-part of our passenger door.

In a fraction of a second, the door buckled and the armrest forcefully hit the right side of my chest. Like two billiard

balls in collision, our car got pushed to the median strip and the other car found itself on the right-side emergency lane. The whole thing took place in less than five seconds.

I found myself in some pain and gasping for air.

The car had stalled and Keskar could not start the engine. Later on, he would learn that his car had been totaled. At that moment, he was deeply concerned about the hit I had taken. He repeatedly asked me how I was doing. I assured him that I was in some discomfort, not seriously hurt. Fortunately, the driver of the other car was not injured, and his car suffered minor damages.

In a matter of minutes, several cars stopped to help. I was in no position to notice all that went on for a while.

Somebody said that an ambulance should be called, and somebody else volunteered to drive to the nearest exit and look for a pay phone. There were no mobile phones in those days, so one had to find a pay phone to make calls from the road, even to the police or for other emergencies.

After about twenty or thirty minutes, a police car arrived. The ambulance came soon thereafter. I was put on a stretcher and loaded on the ambulance, and the driver took off toward a hospital. Poor Keskar was being interviewed by the police when the ambulance left the accident scene. I had no idea if or when I would connect with Keskar again or how I would get back to Purdue. To make matters worse, I did not know the name, the address or the phone number of Keskar’s friend in Indianapolis.

Soon the ambulance arrived at a hospital.

My stretcher was gently lowered from the ambulance and then pushed through a pair of double doors into a long hall in the Emergency Depart-

ment of the hospital. The driver and the paramedic spoke briefly with the Emergency Department receptionist, completed some paperwork, said “Good Luck” to me, and took off.

I was left on the hallway for what seemed like an eternity. No nurse or doctor came to see or examine me. A constant stream of hospital staff and visitors passed by my stretcher, all seemingly in good mood. Several happy souls stopped by and told me “Merry Christmas” or “Good time to go home” or “Bet you will be partying soon”.

I was totally baffled. I had never been inside a hospital as a patient or a visitor. My bladder was full and I needed to get to a bathroom but I did not know how to draw anyone’s attention. A couple of hours went by this way, and I was getting increasingly restless.

Finally, relief arrived in the form of a black, burly janitor. He had gone past me several times with a mop and bucket or a broom in hand. He must have noticed that I had been laying in my stretcher for a long time with no one in attendance. Being a foreigner, I was easily noticed among mostly white folks.

This gentleman stood by my stretcher and asked me with a big smile, “Are you coming or going?”. “What?”, I replied. I had difficulty cutting through his heavy accent. Also, I simply did not understand what he meant.

“Are you here for admission or have you been released? Are you going home or getting admitted?”, he made himself clear this time.

“I am here because I was in an accident, and an ambulance brought me here”, was my meek reply.

“So, no one has seen you yet? No nurse, no doctor?”

“No! I have been waiting here for a very long

time” “But your head is pointed toward the exit door! That means you have been discharged and ready to go home,” he paused. “The ambulance guys should have known better.

They should have placed the bed with your head pointed that way.” He pointed a finger to the double door on the other side of the hallway, marked “Emergency Entrance”.

I didn’t know what to say or do.

The gentleman trotted off to the reception desk, had a brief chat with the lady at the counter, and within minutes, a nurse and an attendant appeared by my stretcher and rolled me towards the “Emergency Entrance”. I did not even get a chance to thank my savior.

Soon I was taken to the Radiology Department for chest Xray. A doctor reviewed the report and declared that my rib cage was not damaged but I had “torn cartilages” in my right chest. “You are lucky that you did not break any of the ribs. You will have some pain – and breathing difficulty -for a while but the torn cartilage will heal in a few weeks. Take Anacin to relieve pain as necessary. You can go home after I sign the discharge papers. Have a good Christmas!”, the doctor said cheerfully.

Epilogue: I had no place to go and no way to get back to Purdue!

I was left on the hallway again, this time with my head correctly pointed towards to the exit doors. After about an hour, Keskar appeared with his friend.

His friend had called various hospitals in the Indianapolis area and tracked me to the correct hospital. I hopped into his car, with some discomfort, and he drove Keskar and me back to Purdue.

6 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

LAND OF THE INCAS: PART 1 – AMAZON DISTRICT OF PERU

By Prabir Biswas (New Jersey)

I

n my childhood, I read about Maya and Aztec civilizations, probably in Suktaramagazine. Later I learned about the Inca Civilization.

Mayas settled in southern part of Mexico. Aztec civilization flourished in parts of central America. Incas settled and prospered in north western part of South American continent which is now known as Peru and also some adjacent areas, high up on the Andes Mountain.

When I visited Mexico in 2015, I took a trip to Chichen Itza to see Maya ruins. That was a fascinating experience.

I always wanted to explore Aztec and Inca civilizations.

Last September we made a plan to go to Peru. The main purpose was to see and learn about the Incas.

Peru is a country of thirty million people. They were under Spanish rule for three hundred years starting around 1520. It is not a wealthy or prosperous country by any measure. Corruption is not uncommon.

However, I found that people, in general, are courteous and humble. Peruvians are mostly physically strong and hardworking. Men women alike.

Peru’s capital Lima is not too far from our East coast cities, little over seven hours

Macaws feeding on clay Picture taken thru a telescope flight from New York. I was wondering why we did not take this trip earlier when we were young.

Anyway, we hired a tour company of Lima, Inca Travel, and together we sorted out a tour plan to include several important attractions. It was a twelve-day trip, centered on Machu Picchu, the crown jewel of the Inca Civilization.

This was our summary of the

itinerary: Lima one day, Amazon Rain Forest two days, Cuzco two days, Machu Picchu and surroundings two days, back to Cuzco one day, Lake Titikaka two days and one day at Lima again before taking a red-eye flight back to New York. Latam Airlines is an airline from Peru. They offer many convenient flights to Lima from both NYC and Miami. Most of the domestic flights inside Peru arealso dominated by this airline.

Our travel company booked all our flights, both international and domestic, by Latam Airlines. It is a good airline; I will rate them an A. All together we were a party of three:my wife Susmita, our daughter Indira and I. We took a night flight from New York JFK to Lima and landed inLima very early in the morning. At the airport we were greeted by a young Peruvian lady, representative of Inca Travel. She greeted us with a bottle of water and a huge smile. Our journey started with a sweet positive feeling. We were escorted to our hotel and left that day free for us to explore Lima.

Lima is a bustling city of eleven million, right on the Pacific coast. We spent the first day there and explored a few attractions within walking distance from our hotel.

the following day we boarded a morning flight to fly to a town name Puerto Maldonado. At the airport we were received by the tour guides of the Rain Forest Exploration Company. The guides were all male stockilybuilt and short. Typical Inca descents, quite humble and eager to help. Though it was the last few weeks of winter, the weather was bright and sunny, and we started feeling the scorching sun on our skin.

Since Peru is below the equator, the winter season there is from June to September and weather in general supposed to be cold, cloudy, and rainy.

On our arrival date the air was not humid at all. So, the feeling was not exhausting, though sun was scorching.

The tour guides helped us loading our luggage into a waiting bus. This bus was from the Rain Forest exploration company. It is a very basic type of bus with open air windows. It reminded me of the buses we had in our childhood days in Cooch Behar. The destination was a jetty on the Tambapota River.

We drove through Puerto Maldonado for about an hour. It is a village like small town. Red colored dry soil and large trees on both sides of the road. All these trees looked unfamiliar to me.

After an hour’s ride we arrivedat the jetty. It is in the middle of nowhere. Dense

open airreliefon a land below the equator. Seeing me, a few others followed. Oh, I forgot to mention how many tourists we were travelling with to the forest lodge. We were ten people, a couple from Singapore came to celebrate their twenty-fifth anniversary. One couple from the US and a Bengali family of three from the London area.

Approaching the edge of the road, I was able to see the boat that wassupposed to take us to the Lodge. The water level was about thirty feet below the road. Access from the street was by a set of timber stairs of doubtful condition. Anyway, we all boarded the boat safely. First thing before sitting down, we were instructed to wear life vests.

After settling down the boat started. The boat was a long dinghy type retrofitted with a gasoline motor with propeller. A few minutes later they served us lunch. The lunch was interesting. A rice preparation together with fish, wrapped with some kind of flat leaves. One of the guides gave us a short informative speech about the forest, what to expect during our stay and how to treat the forest. The boat ride was very pleasant.

Dense forest on both banks of the river. It was a humbling experience.

After about hour and a half boat ride, we reached our destination. A mile-long

Our room at the lodge (completely open to The Rain Forest Lodge entrance the forest at the back) Nothing special to mention except for a beautiful park, where the local artists bring their paintings to sell.

It is very colorful. We set aside exploration of the City Square area for the last day of our tour, before taking our late-night flight back to New York.

After the first night at Lima, our next destination was Amazon Rain Forest. On

forest on both sides and Tambapota river in the front. The road abruptly ended there.

One of our guides was very humorous. He spread his hands towards the forest and said here it is a large open-air toilet. You may relieve here comfortably because our boat ride will be over an hour. I spared no time to avail me of the opportunity. This was my life time experience of

walk through the forest trail took us to the lodge. From a distance, the view of the lodge was spectacular! It is a timber structure. We were told that all the building materials were harvested from the surrounding forest. We approached the large common area leaving our shoes at a lower level. This common area consisted of a sitting area with a few couches, a small

bar and a fifty-people dining area. All under a thatched roof. The beautiful part is that, all sides werecompletely open to nature. Our rooms were also equally interesting. Walls weremade with thin bamboos, not completely opaque. Same for the attached toilet. But the innovative part wasthat, one side of the room wascompletely open to the forest in the back.

Yes, both the bed room and the toilet.

After dinner, a guided night walking tour through the forest trail was arranged.

Pitch dark night, dense forest, star studded clear sky and sound of night creatures was a thrilling experience. After returning to the lodge and before retiring to our rooms, we were told to be ready the next dayat four in the morning. Returning to our room was a very pleasant experience. Beds were neatly made and adorned with milky white mosquito nets. Indira was quite thrilled seeing the mosquito net. We went to bed in the midst of the surrounding forest immersed in the sounds of moving leaves and of nocturnal creatures and occasional loud howling of Howling-Monkeys. Tired, we all fell asleep quickly.

The next early morning’s tour was to see Amazon Macao birds. As planned, we woke up at four the next morning. A mile-long walk through the dark trail took us to the boat. After an hour’s boat ride, we reached a very tiny island in the middle of the river. By the time we reached the island, the sun had started rising. In the soft early morning light and with the loud noise of birds, we were greeted by a heavenly sight. Hundreds of brightly colored Macao birds, sometimes flying and mostly clutching to hanging roots from adjacent trees on the river bank. We were told, these birds come here every morning to feed on the clay for their nutrition, mainly for minerals. The river bank there is about fifty feet above the water level. Vertical solid clay wall. Magnificently colored birds against this grey wall wasa view I cannot describe in words. The guides brought powerful telescopes for every group of three or four people. We easily spent continue to page 10 }

July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

BORDER MANAGEMENT: FRIENDS, ENEMIES AND FRENEMIES OF INDIA “ক

7

কল্কি অবতার বিশ্বভাই

ল্কি অবতার” কলির শেষে অবতরণ করে সত্যযু গ প্রতিষ্ঠা করবেন। শ্রীরামচন্দ্র ত্রেতা যু গে যেমন দশরথের পুত্ররূপ গ্রহণ করে আবির্ ভূত হন, কল্কি অবতার কি রূপে পৃ থিবীতে আবির্ ভূত হবেন? মন্দিরে এই ধরণের আল�োচনা অনেক সময় হয়ে থাকে। কল্কিপুরাণ এ সম্পর্কে আল�োচনা করেছেন।

By Tathagata Ghosh (New Jersey) কল্কি সম্মন্ধে আল�োচনা করতে গেলে কলি যু গের কথা এসে যায়। আমরা প্রথমে ndia shares land borders with seven countries and maritime borders with a few কলির সূ চনা আল�োচনা করে কল্কি অবতারের আবির্ভাব সম্পর্কিত ভবিষ্যৎ কথা বিবৃ ত more. The countries that have the highest number of neighbors are China and করব�ো। then Russia. The relationship of India with its neighbors is very consequential and প্রলয় শেষে ব্রম্ভা নিজ পৃ ষ্ঠ হতে অধর্ম বা পাপের সৃ ষ্টি করেছিলেন, এই অধর্মের প্রিয়া the future of India will be determined by the nature of these relationships. ছিলেন মার্জার নয়না “মিথ্যা”। মিথ্যা ও অধর্মের পুত্র ও কন্যা হলেন দম্ভ ও মায়া। দম্ভ For India, many of its neighbors are friendly but some are not. The unfriendly ও মায়ার মিলনে ল�োভ ও নিকৃতি নামের পুত্রও কন্যা জন্মে। ল�োভ ও নিকৃতির মিলনে ones are a problem and exhausting to deal with. They take up resources, manক্রোধ নামক পুত্র হিংসা নামক কন্যার জন্ম হয়। ক্রোধ ও হিংসার মিলনে “কলির” power and money better spent on real development rather that have to spend on militarization. জন্ম। এই কলি ঘ�োর কৃষ্ণ বর্ণের, করাল বদন, জিহ্বা লক লক করছে এবং তাহার It is true that many of these borders are artificial and some can be ascribed to দেহ পূতি গন্ধেপূর্ণ। কলি তার ভগিনী দু রুক্তির গর্ভে ভয় নামক পুত্র ও মৃ ত্যু নামক the quirks of politics, colonization and ancient wars. In the days of yore, a conকন্যার জন্ম। ভয় ও মৃ ত্যুর মিলনে নিরয় নামের পুত্র ও যাতনা নাম্নী কন্যার জন্ম হয়। queror could set out to conquer territories far beyond his borders and integrate এই ভাবে অযু তঅযু ত সংখ্যায় কলির বংশে ধর্মনিন্দাকারী বৃ দ্ধি পাচ্ছে, কলির conquered territories as part of his country. Sometimes that unfortunate legacy is নির্দেশে এরা ল�োকনাশ করছে ও নানান দু রাচার করছে। কলিতে মেঘ অনিয়মিত বর্ষণ part of the current equation about national borders. It is just not the British who করবে, রাজাগণ প্রজাদের উৎপীড়ণ করবেন, ধরিত্রী অল্পশস্য উৎপন্ন করবেন এবং as colonizers carved out the Indian subcontinent but dynasties even before their আর�ো নানান মন্দ সকল ঘটবে। time. ধরিত্রী কলির অত্যাচারে যখন পরিপূর্ণ হবেন তখন ভগবান বিষ্ণু আপন প্রতিশ্রুতি Summary of relations: “সম্ভবামি যু গেযু গে” পালন করতেএবং সাধু জনের রক্ষার্থে সত্য যু গ প্তিষ্ঠা করতে পুনরায় আবির্ ভূত হবেন। সেই অবতারের নাম হবে “কল্কি অবতার”। Country Neighbor War Relations Trade – (India is) শ্রীবিষ্ণু ব্রম্ভাকে জানালেন যে শম্ভল নামক জনপদে বিষ্ণু যশা নামের ব্রাম্ভণ ও India Bhutan No Friend Major exporter বিষ্ণু যশার পত্নী সু মতির গর্ভে তিনি কল্কি অবতার রূপে জন্মগ্রহণ করবেন এবং India Myanmar No Friend Medium importer তাঁ হ ার প্রিয়া লক্ষীদেবী সিংহলরাজ্ বৃ হদ্রথের পত্নী ক�ৌমুদীর গর্ভে পদ্মা নামে জন্মগ্রহণ India Bangladesh No Friendly.

High exporter করবেন এবং অপর দেবগণ সত্যযু গ স্থাপনের নিমিত্ত বিভিন্ন চরিত্র ধারণ করে ধরাধামে Recently deteriorating আবির্ ভূত হয়ে কলির বিনাশ সাধন করবেন। India Nepal No Friend Major trading partner কল্কিপুরাণ এই ভবিষ্যৎ আখ্যান বিবৃ ত করেছেন। মহর্ষি সূ ত কতৃক কল্কির আবির্ভাব India Pakistan Yes Hostile Medium exporter ওকলির বিনাশ এই পুরাণে বিবৃ ত করছেন। কল্কির আবির্ভাবের এই বৃ ত্তান্ত কথন ও India China Yes Unfriendly High importer শ্রবণ কল্যাণ প্রদান করেন। India Afghanistan No Neutral Medium importer শ্রী বিষ্ণু দেবতাদের মর্ত্যে গমনকরতে নির্দেশ দিলেন এবং জানালেন যে তিনি মধু ও দেবাপি নামেরদু ই রাজাকে পৃ থিবীর ভার ন্যস্ত করে কল্কি অবতার হয়ে তিনি There are territorial disputes with Pakistan, since Kashmir was divided between the two countries and a small portion went to China. India and Pakistan ধরাধামে পুনরায় সত্যযু গ প্রতিষ্ঠা করবেন। each claim the entirety of Kashmir. India holds about 55% of Kashmir territory বৈশাখ মাসের শুক্লা দ্বাদশীর দিন বিষ্ণু সু মতির গর্ভ হতে ভূমিষ্ঠ হলেন। মহাষষ্ঠী and Pakistan about 30% of the territory. China controls about 15% of the area. ধাত্রী মাতা ও অম্বিকা কল্কির নাভিচ্ছেদ করলেন। শ্রীবিষ্ণু চতুর্ ভূজ ধারণ করে ভুমিষ্ঠ Hence the traditional map of Kashmir, like a boxer’s mitten, as shown in Indian হলে ব্রম্ভা পবন দেব কে দূ ত নিযু ক্ত করে কল্কিকে দ্বিভুজ ধারণ করতে নির্দেশ দিলেন। maps, is actually a disputed territory. In the east, India shares a long boundary কল্কি সেই দ্বিভুজ কলেবর ধারণ করলেন। with Bangladesh and fortunately has mainly friendly relations with Bangladesh. কল্কির জন্মের পূর্বে কবি, প্রাজ্ঞ ও সু মন্ত্র নামে তিন ভ্রাতা জন্মগ্রহণ করেছিলেন। Unfortunately, in the west, the borders with Pakistan are highly militarized. কল্কির এই তিন ভ্রাতা দের প্রতিপালন করেন রাজা বিশাখযূ প। কিছু দিন পর কল্কি China had annexed the peaceful nation of Tibet based on some historical reasoning when it was a part of China. They have territorial design on parts of India গুরু পরশুরামের নিকট শাস্ত্র, যু দ্ধবিদ্যা, বেদ বিদ্যা লাভ করলেন ও গুরুর নির্দেশে too. In 1962, they overran part of Ladakh and now call it Aksai Chin. There are মহাদেবের কাছ হতে ‘করবাল’ নামক এক মহান অস্ত্র লাভ করলেন। border skirmishes between India and China in that region and nearby areas ever দৈব কার্য সকল সময়ই পূর্ব নির্ধারিত থাকে এক্ষেত্রেও অনু রূপ ঘটনা হল, সর্বশাস্ত্র since. They have also started claiming other areas in India, recently in Arunachal বিশারদ শুক পক্ষী কল্কিকে জানালেন যে সিংহলের রাজা বৃ হদ্রথের গৃ হে রাণী ক�ৌমুদীর Pradesh, to be theirs, claiming some historical records. Hence militarization on গর্ভে পদ্মার জন্ম হয়েছে। কল্কি নিশ্চিত হলেন যে তাঁর প্রিয়া লক্ষী পদ্মা নামে পৃ থিবীতে the border is inevitable. Himalayas provide some element of deterrence in ancient জন্ম নিয়েছেন। times but in modern times it may not be so. কল্কি যথাসময়ে শুকপক্ষীকে দূ ত নিযু ক্ত করে গ�োপনে পদ্মার সাথে বার্তা বিনিময় North East India and the Chicken’s Neck শুরু করলেন। পদ্মা কল্কিকে পতি রূপে পেতে ইচ্ছু ক হলেন। নানান নাটকীয় ঘটনার মধ্যে দিয়ে কল্কি ও পদ্মার বিবাহ সু সম্পন্ন হয়। কল্কিপুরাণে বিশদ ভাবে সে সকল India is extremely vulnerable in an area known as the Chickens neck. This is an লিপিবদ্ধ আছে। area between Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. A narrow strip of land connects কল্কি পদ্মাকে বিবাহ করে শম্ভলে বসবাস করেন।পদ্মার গর্ভে কল্কির জয় ও বিজয় of about 22 miles known as the Siliguri corridor connects mainland India to the নামে মহাবীর ও পরাক্রমশালী দু ই পুত্রের জন্ম হয়। জয় ও বিজয় তাঁদের কীর্তি দ্বারা NorthEast. There has been repeated Chinese encroachment pressure on this vulসর্বল�োক প্রসিদ্ধ। nerable area. This will continue to be of extreme strategic importance in the comকল্কি যখন প্রবল পরাক্রমে দু রাচারীদের একের পর এক পরাস্ত করছেন সেই ing century for India. The people of the NorthEast already have traditional cultural allegiances with other border countries and it is very important for the integrity সময় বিষ্ণু র পরম ভক্ত শশিধ্বজের সহিত কল্কির যু দ্ধ হয়। শশীধ্বজ কল্কিকে বিষ্ণু র of India that this area is well-taken care of. The Land of the Seven Sisters, Assam, অবতার জেনে শুধু মাত্র বিষ্ণু দর্শনে এবং রাজকার্য পালনে কল্কির সাথে যু দ্ধে অবতীর্ণ Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikহন। শশীধ্বজ মহাবীর ছিলেন, যু দ্ধে কল্কি মূর্চ্ছিত হলে পরমভক্ত শশীধ্বজ কল্কিকে kim is very important to India as is Kashmir. The rest of India has very little conবক্ষে ধারণ করে প্রাসাদে ফিরে এসে দেখেন যে রাণী সু শান্তা হরিমন্দিরে পূ জাতে মগ্ন, nection with these states and hence many are not aware of their different culture শশিধ্বজ গদগদ ভক্তিতে তাঁর স্ত্রীর উদ্দেশ্যে বললেন, পাষণ্ড ওপাপীগণের হাত হতে and their strategic importance. যিনি পৃ থিবী উদ্ধার করবেন, ভক্তের হৃদয়ে যিনি অবস্থান করেন। দেখ, সেই শ্রীহরি আমার বক্ষে অবস্থা করছেন। আমরা কৃতার্থ ও ধন্য। ত�োমরা শ্রীহরির স্তব কর। Ties with Sri Lanka সু শান্তর স্তবের শেষে কল্কি সন্তুষ্ট হন এবং সু শান্ত কন্যা রমার সহিত কল্কির বিবাহ Though India does not share a land border with Sri Lanka, it has been closely সু সম্পন্ন হন। tied to that island nation. Mythical Lanka has featured in the Ramayana but the পুরাণে উল্লেখ আছে যে ঘ�োড়া বা অশ্ব কল্কি অবতারের বাহন থাকবেন এবং কল্কি real connection with Lanka may be centuries old with the South Indian kingdoms এই অশ্ববাহনে কলির বিরুদ্ধে উন্মুক্ত তরবারি হস্তে যু দ্ধে আগুয়াণ হবেন। ছ�োটবেলাতে probably having trade relations and also being at war with them. Ashoka’s son শুনেছি বা বিভিন্ন রচনাতে জেনেছি যে পাঠান বা ম�োগলরা যখন ঘ�োড়া ছু টিয়ে তরবারি introduced Buddhism to that island nation and that has a strong foothold there. হস্তে আক্রমণ করতেন, তখন বাসিন্দারা তাদের কল্কি আসছেন এই ভ্রম করতেন। Since then, Sri Lanka shares close cultural ties with India. India even intervened

I

militarily during the Sri Lankan civil war and that did not end well. see page 10 >

8 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

PUJA ACTIVITIES FOR APRIL-JUNE, 2023 Reported by Mita Sinha, Chair, Puja Committee

T

he year 2023 is going strong for Ananda Mandir. After a mild winter, spring is here now, and lot of activities are keeping all of us busy. Attendance at the temple has gone up substantially in recent months.

The month of April started with Noboborsho (Bengali New Year Day). The Mandir was open from 9:00 am to 8:30 pm. People visited the temple all day long for Darshan. It is customary for us to start the new year by visiting the temple and offering puja. On this day, in the evening, we had Devimahatyam Path at the temple. We also had our thakurer bostro (saree) sale on this day. Lots of devotees visited the temple on this day.

On April 19, we had our monthly Shyama Puja in the evening.

The Mandir was packed with devotees. After the Arati we had our dinner.

The last puja for the month of April was on 23rd This was a very special day. We had Akshya Tritiya puja in the morning.

Akshya Tritiya is one of the most auspicious days of our Hindu Calendar. In the evening we had Ramthakur Smaran Utsav and our monthly Satyanarayan Puja.

The evening started with Kirtan. The word Kirtan is from a Sanskrit root, it means to praise the Devine. We had kirtanias, who came from Geeta Sangha, New York. They did kirtan for about two hours. The Temple was full of devotees, all of us enjoyed it very much. At Ananda Mandir we do Kirtan every year to celebrate Ram Thakur. After the Kirtan, we had our monthly Satyanarayan Puja and Arati. This was a busy day for all of us.

The next celebration was Rabindra Jayanti, the 159th birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Thakur, on May 7 at our Tagore Hall.

Little kids from our community performed beautiful dances. After the dance performance we also had classical music by one of our very own young talented musicians from Ananda Mandir family, accompanied by an accomplished table player. Rabindra Jayanti celebration provided an excellent cultural enrichment for all of us.

Our main puja for the month of May was the Phaloharini Kali Puja performed on May 19 from 6 pm to 8 pm. This puja is dedicated to Goddess Kali, observed on an Amavasya day in the month of Jaishto (Bengali calendar). The Temple was busy this day. After Puja and Arati, we all had dinner.

The month of June started with our monthly Satyanarayan Puja on June 3rd. Lot of devotees visited the temple for the Puja this day and we had special dinner after the puja.

On June 20th we had Jagannath Mahaprabhu’s RathaJatra. This is one of the most significant festivals for Hindus in India. On this day Lord Jagannath, Balram and their sister Subhadra were placed in a chariot and all devotees pull the chariot using thick ropes.

In recent years RathaJatra has been celebrated in some western countries. At Ananda Mandir the deities of Jagannath, Balaram & Subhadra are brought out to travel on a chariot drawn by hundreds of devotees accompanied with shankha, kansar and dhak.

Kids with their parents participated in this procession. This is a fun festival. Various type of snacks and drinks were for sale on our premises that day. Everybody enjoyed this special day. After doing a couple of rounds, the deities were brought in and the puja started inside the temple. Since kids are out of school by this time many people attend this festival at our temple every year.

The month of June ended with our Bipad Tarini Puja on June 27. This puja is done in the morning between 9:00 am to 11:30 am.

Even though this was a week day lot of devotees came to the Temple to attend the puja.

June ended with Mahaprabhu’s Punar Jatra also known as Ulto Rath on June 28. Ulto Rath is the return journey of Rath Jatra. This marks the end of the Jagannath Rath Jatra. Deities of Jagannath, Balaram, and Subhadra were taken out and placed on the chariot, decorated with garlands and flowers.The pulling of the chariots began in the late afternoon.

At Ananda Mandir we welcome everybody to come and join with our puja activities. Our temple hours are 9 to 11:30 am in the morning and 5:30 to 8:00 pm in the evening. The temple is open seven days a week. Anyone can sponsor an online puja if you cannot come to the temple. On line pujas are performed with sponsor’s name and Gotra. For our detail schedule please go to our website at www.anandamandir.org. Please come and be a member of the temple and enjoy this special place with your friends and families.

July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

9

HIGHLIGHTS OF CULTURAL COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES

Reported by Debajyoti Chatterji (New Jersey)

D

uring the April-June quarter, the most significant day on the calendar of the Cultural Committee was a “double header” on Sunday, May 7. That day Ananda Mandir joined hands with Santiniketan Ashram Sammilani International (SASI) to celebrate the 162ndbirthday of the famous Bengali poet, Rabindranath Tagore.

The first part of the program was organized by SASI and was a salutation to the poet, featuring his poetry, songs and dance creations. The event began with a beautiful procession of sariclad girls and women from the temple entrance to the Tagore Hall entrance, while singing a song written by Tagore and dancing in a style created by the poet (and nurtured and promoted to this day at Santiniketan, home of the poet and his university). Once everyone was seated in the Tagore Hall auditorium, they were treated to a highly enjoyable variety show, showcasing the breadth and depth of Tagore’s literary and musical genius. A large number of talented artistes participated in the program and received very positive response from the audience.

The second part of the program, sponsored by Ananda Mandir, focused on classical Indian music by three high-

ly acclaimed artistes: Shreya Choudhury, Abhisek Lahiri and Subrata Bhattacharya.

Shreya is a young but firstrate vocalist who is well-known in the NJ Bengali community.

Hindustani classical musichas been her passion for many years, and she has delighted audiences at numerous musical events. She cast her magic once again on the evening of May 7, with the very able support of Neil Khare on tabla and Arindram Chakraborty on harmonium.

Following Shreya, two exceptionally skilled classical musicians, Abhisek Lahiri and Subrata Bhattacharya, mesmerized the audience. Subrata is a renowned tabla player with a vast knowledge of Farukhabad Gharana tradition and has earned numerous accolades for his outstanding expertise.

Abhishek is a sarod player with a gharana-blending style formed from Shajahanpur, Maihar, and Senia Bangladesh traditions. With his vast knowledge of classical music notes and sounds, Abhishek has performed in some of the most prestigious venues globally, and his performances have received widespread recognition.

Together, these artists created an unforgettable experience for all lovers of Indian classical music.

10 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

By Dilip Chakrabarti (New Jersey)

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oday is Mother’s Day. My salute to all the mothers of the world, young or old.Mothers are mothers -- they have given birth to the world.

Without them, this world will stop to exist. So, they deserve love and respect from every human being.\ Mothers are emblems of love, stability, endurance, sacrifice and may other good qualities which only a mother can have in her for others’ benefit. Some mothers changed the whole world. One of them isMarie Curie. In 1911, this nuclear physicist mother received the Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity. Another example of a great mother is Sojourner Truth who escaped slavery and saved her infant daughter only to find that her five-year old son was sold to a man in Alabama. She fought against a white man for selling her son, beat him in the court and successfully rescued her son from this human sale. This was the first case against a white man when a black mother successfully defeated a white man in the court of law. Eventually, MsTruth moved to New York City and became a Christian preacher there.

We can find many stories of extraordinary mothers who have done many thingsfor their children and family. Now, I am going to tell you about an ordinary mother whose extraordinary story of courage and wisdom has remained untold till now.

She not only worked tirelessly to protect and serve her family when she was alive but also thought constantly about her family’s safety and wellbeing even after her passing.

Being displaced by the demonic partition of India, this woman and her husband were compelled to leave their home and moved to India, leaving everything behind and becoming paupers overnight. After moving to India, their struggle to survive became the order of the day. Being the mother of the family, she never gave up.However, her ill fate would not spare her, and suddenly she became very ill and was admitted into a local hospital. Her teenager son used to visit her every day. Fortunately, her condition started to improve, and she was told that she could go home on the next Saturday morning.

Everyone in the family was excited that mom would come home soon.

They could smell the aroma of happiness in their home. Next Saturday morning her son went to hospital to fetch his mother home. But all his joyfulness burst out like a balloon when his mother told him that she has a rare infection in her brain and the doctor had told her that she needed to stay longer in the hospital to cure the infection.

Hearing his mother, the boy embraced his mother and said, “Ma,

when are you coming home?” His mother was crying silently. She wiped her eyes and told the son, “Listen to me carefully. Probably I shall not come home ever. This disease is very serious and there is no cure. You are my brave son, be calm now and go home.” The boy started crying and said, “No, Ma, you must come home.

If you are not with us, we will not live either. I love you too much to let you go.” His mother took the boy’s cheek in her hand, kissed him and said,”Even if I die, I shall always be with you. You will feel me whenever you need me. If something happens to me, please take care of your brothers and sisters. And do not be a trouble to your father. He will be alone, and it will be very hard for him to raise you all just by himself.So, help him in every step of your life.” Her cheek was all wet, she took a long breath and said, ”I have saved some money and I kept it in the small blue trunk.

Tell your father to use that money for my last rites. Ask him not to borrow money from anyone. You guys be good to your Pishi (paternal aunt), always be obedient to her.When she becomes old, take care of her.” She was weak and breathing heavily, she stopped and said “study very hard and remember, only education can give you a better life, and you will not be poor anymore.” She took him in her arms and squeezed tightly and reminded, “Don’t you remember you are my “Baba”, and someday my “Baba” will be a big man and we will be proud of you.” Yes, once she said that her father passed away when she was only seven days old, and she never said the word “Baba” until her son was born. She always called her son “Baba.” Mother and son had a special bond of love and affection with this word “Baba.”

To this date, that son feels that his mother’s affection, love and blessings are always with him. He remembers that his mother looked like “Devi Durga” when she used to put the mark of red vermillion with her finger-tip on her forehead. Since the day after her last rites, he always does “Pranam” to his mother before going to bed and getting up in the morning, never missing a day from his routine. The teenager’s biggest regret is that he did not have the good luck to buy a “Lal Par Sari” (a sari with a red border) for his mother. The unlucky teenager feels bad when he sees people not taking care of their old parents. Some people neglect their parents while others try their best to take care of them. The teenager of that day humbly expresses his “Pranam and Happy Mother’s Day” with folded hands to his mother and all the motherson this “Mother’s Day.”

The “First Days” Project by SAADA | continue from page 4 cans’ experiences with cross-country travel), Letters from 6’ Away (documenting South Asian Americans’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic), Election Stories 2020 (an exhibition of anonymous reflections from South Asian Americans during the leadup to the 2020 election), and a wide range of longform oral histories, wherein community elders and other South Asians of note are interviewed about their life experiences.

And SAADA is not content to rest on its laurels, despite the hundreds of stories already archived as part of the First Days Project. Yousef Khan, SAADA’s Program Coordinator, currently oversees the initiative. He explained that the organization has plans to expand in the very near future: “At the moment, we’re close to 600 stories -- but our plan is to expand by adding hundreds more in order to reach the milestone of 1,000 by year’s end. We’re asking our SAADA volunteers to focus their efforts on the First Days Project entirely this year, and we’re doing outreach to increase our level of new volunteers and provide them with training, guidelines, and support throughout the process.

In addition, some educators who are familiar with our work have been assigning First Days interviews to their classes; we received about ten submissions just recently from the University of Michigan.”

Getting involved, for those interested, is simple. Prospective volunteers can fill out a brief form at saada.

org/volunteer, and archive staff will reach out to facilitate the next steps.

And the interviewees don’t have to be limited to friends or family of the volunteer in question—SAADA is perfecting a matching process whereby volunteers will be placed with subjects based on language preference, location, and more.

One returning volunteer, high schooler Kamala Gururaja, is open about the positivity of her experience thus far: “I reached out to South Asian Americans and spent hours interviewing them, transcribing their interviews, and talking with them about how they wanted their stories to be represented. It really made me think about how I stand on the shoulders of the generations of South Asian Americans before me, and how they uprooted their lives to start afresh in a new country and make a better future for their children and grandchildren. I now know a lot more about my community, and I’m really grateful that I was able to interview these immigrants and hear their inspiring stories firsthand.”

It’s no secret that leaving one’s entire life behind to journey to a new country, often an entirely new continent, can be an overwhelming experience—but it is often an exhilarating one as well. And whether or not one’s first day in the United States lived up to expectations, these memories deserve to be preserved for future generations. SAADA’s work aims to ensure that—and they hope you can be part of this history, too.

LAND OF THE INCAS | continue from page 6 over an hour there. After the birds had left, we were surprised with a picnic breakfast and hot coffee. By the time we returned to our lodge, it was almost lunch time. During lunch, we all talked about our early morning’s mesmerizing experience.

After lunch we were taken through a new long trail to a small lake. We were told that this was originally a branch of the Tambapota river. But the water vegetations growth completely chocked the river, disconnecting it from the main river. This

lake is heavily infested with vicious Piranhas. Name of Piranha gave me a chill. Our guide brought some food with him. Every lump of food was devoured by hundreds of Piranhas in seconds.

Next morning was our end of this tour. We went to the airport after breakfast to catch a flight for our next destination, Cuzco. With heavy hearts, we badegoodbye to all the people of the lodge.

(Part 2 of this article will focus on the Cuzco and Machu Pichu regions of Peru)

BORDER MANAGEMENT

| continue from page 7

Superpower Interference The superpowers USA and Russia both consider India to be important strategically but have treated them differently over the years. Russia has been the traditional ally of India and USA has been supportive of Pakistan for geo-political reasons. But things are changing, and USA is now slowly increasing cooperation and trading ties with India. China, the next superpower, must be closely watching these gestures before making their own moves. India needs to walk a tightrope balancing their interests against the designs of these

superpowers so as to avoid unnecessary friction and to watch out for Trojan horses.

The only way to ensure a stable India is through increased cooperation and amity with its neighbors.

It also stands to reason that India should have deterrence capabilities so that there are no encroachments into India. It is going to be a testing century to keep all of this in balance.

As many knowledgeable people in the military and on strategy have repeatedly emphasized, border management is one of the most important challenges that India will face in the coming years.

July 2023 11

Ananda Sangbad

A BRIEF HISTORY OF “PATEL HOTELS” IN AMERICA

By Mahendra Doshi (California)

M

uch has been written about how the Gujarati Patels have dominated the American hospitality landscape by turning it into a colossal enterprise, generating billions of dollars in revenue, employing hundreds of thousands, and establishing the Patels as a dominating force to be reckoned with. The Patels, who started with ownership of Single Room Occupancy [SRO] hotels, have gradu-

had severely restricted immigration of Asians through the Acts of 1917 and 1924. As a result, the founders of the Patel hospitality enterprise came as a stowaway in a “banana boat” [Nanalal Patel] or by crisscrossing Central America [D. Lal], or by masquerading as a tourist [Kanji Manchhu Desai]. America was not welcoming, so they could only find jobs in the farms of the San Joaquin Valley of California, working for little, toiling in the sun, and frequently facing immigration raids. However, they survived, and in 1942, when the Japanese were

nascent businesses. By the late 1960s, Patels had moved into motels in the Bay Area and across the country.

In 1955, Kanjibhai was forced to leave America, but he had groomed a few Patels who filled the void of his evangelical leadership to consolidate and expand the business. BhulaVanmali Patel, DahyaRatanji Patel, Dhanji Vakil Patel, Gopalji Gordhan Patel, AmbuParbhu Patel, Shanti Vithal Patel, MuljiMakanji Patel, and a few more Patels helped many, in fact, thousands of Patels, into buying new hotels and motels across the United

Founders of the First “Patel Hotel”: Kanji Manchu Desai, Nanalal Patel and D. Lal ated to Five Star hotels, have established reputed franchises, and are now into boutique hotels and even luxury resorts.

However, little is known about how such a mammoth business enterprise came into being -- and who its protagonists were and where they came from. South Asian scholars in America have long considered the “Patel Hotel” narrative as sketchy because it lacked archival depth. Hitherto, no efforts were made to write the “Patel Hotel” history.

I have tried to save this important segment of our diaspora from marginalization.

My recently published book, Surat to San Francisco: How the Patels from Gujarat Established the Hotel Business in California 1942-1960 [hardcover, 338 pages, Trailblazers Publishing, www.patelhotelhistory.com], tries to answer these questions. For the first time, this book tells how the business originated in 1942 and traces its founding fathers’ journey that led them into serendipitous happenstance by leasing a dilapidated Single Room Occupancy establishment.

The founders were uneducated farmers from the Surat District of Gujarat. The economic misery created by droughts, high taxation by the British rulers, and constant borrowing from loan sharks forced them to seek foreign earnings in Panama and the West Indies.When they failed to earn enough there, they were forced to seek better life in America.

At the beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century, America

interned, they leased the Ford Hotel, an SRO in Sacramento, with $350 down and $75 a month payment. The money was insignificant, but the hotel work beat the farm jobs.

Kanji Manchhu Desai, the founder, moved to San Francisco in 1947, where he leased Hotel Goldfield, which became the adda [the nexus] of the newly arrived Gujaratis. He fed them khichdi kadhi and told them, “If you are a Patel, lease a hotel because there is nothing better for you here,” as San Francisco practiced institutional and racial discrimination.

Kanjibhai had a heart of gold, and he sheltered many Gujaratis and introduced them to hotel leasing [the Alien Land Act forbade them from buying] by providing them with “handshake loans” that required no paperwork nor schedule of payment.He told the would-be hoteliers, “Pay when you could and even by dribs and drabs.”

By 1952, he had converted 30 Patels in the Mission District to hoteliers.

The enterprising Patel hoteliers lived frugally, saved money by performing hotel chores, and reinvested the meager savings to improve their businesses. The liberalization of US immigration laws in 1952 allowed their wives to come here. The Patel women courageously dealt with unsavory hotel chores like cleaning rooms and bathrooms and dealing with the winos and people of ill repute while tending to domestic duties and raising children. They admiringly rose to the occasion to become reliable partners of their husbands to help consolidate and expand their

States. Some newcomers even paid $10,000 to earn green cards to get into the motel business. The hotel and motel business became coveted for most Patels, who preferred to work for themselves, a Gujarati tradition that the elders advised them to adhere to. Further helped by the Immigration Act of 1965, the Patels’ quest to immigrate to America was full on.As one Patel came, soon followed his brothers and brothers-in-law, his village friends and first cousins, and so on. Most liked the hotel business and preferred owning wherever they could find in America. Soon the name Patel became synonymous with their business, and the phrase “Hotel, Motel, and Patel” was coined, perhaps in jest. By the mid-seventies, the Patel enterprise had become a juggernaut that mowed the competition. Today, it has reached almost stratospheric heights.

Since the Patel hoteliers are the book’s main topics, it details the biographies of many hoteliers who contributed to expanding the business, Additionally, I have traced the first Gujaratis and Patels who came to America in search of better life. Interestingly, Gujarati-speaking Parsis arrived in America as early as 1848.

Some went back home with admiration of America and encouraged their community to immigrate en masse, but nothing came of it, and we missed the establishment of colonies of Parsis in Pennsylvania in the early 1870s.

Here are a few interesting facts about Gujarati immigrants in America: 1.

While the present popula-

tion of Gujaratis in America is second only to Punjabis, at the start of the 20th Century, Gujaratis were not interested in coming here. Their eyes were toward East Africa, where they had a network of their own to ease their entries there. They believed they had no future in America.

2.

The book also highlights the early Gujaratis in America whose work helped ease the strict American laws restricting Indian entries. One such person was Haridas ThakordasMuzumdar, whom many of my Bengali friends considered a Bengali because of the way he spelled his name. His mother’s maiden name was Majmundar, a Gujarati last name that somehow was changed to Muzumdar. [I am a Bengalized Gujarati.

I grew up in Calcutta and studied at Presidency College and Calcutta University]. However, Muzumdar was born in Mahuva, Gujarat, came to America in 1920, and became known as “Mahatma’s Man In America.” He earned his Ph.D., taught at various colleges, and was the first Indian Republican to contest a Congressional seat from Iowa in 1956, the year Dalip Singh Saund won a seat in California.

He helped pass the Luce-Celler Act, which eased the entry of 100 Indians a year, beginning in 1946. Indirectly, Muzumdar helped expand the hotel business by Patels as the Luce-Celler Act helped over 30 Patels to legally migrate to America to be in the hotel business.

3.

Another Gujarati who arrived in America in 1893 was VirchandRaghavji Gandhi [no relation to the Mahatma] to participate in the World’s Parliament of Religions Conference in Chicago, which saw the Vedant scholar Swami Vivekananda.

Gandhi impressed many delegates with his knowledge of various religions, but Vivekanand’s fiery speech sidelined him. Gandhi was the first Gujarati Jain in America.

4.

One firebrand revolutionary Gujarati is almost forgotten, but I have brought him back to the forefront. He was Chhagan Kheraj Verma from Porbandar, Gujarat. He was the first Gujarati to arrive in Vancouver, Canada, in 1911 and took over the leadership of the Punjabis and fought for their rights as British citizens in Canada. He raised funds for the Komagata Maru passengers whom the Canadian authority would not let Indians disembark. He was also involved in the Gaddar Movement and communicated with Tarak Nath Das and Lala Har Dayal. The Canadian authorities tried to deport him, but he stayed and fought many battles against them. He founded the Socialist Party in Canada. He died in 1937.

5.

I could trace the first Patel, who came in 1911 to study after continue to page 12 }

12 July 2023

O

Ananda Sangbad

EVERGREEN CLUB ACTIVITIES

WRITERS CLUB ACTIVITIES

(January – June, 2023)

(January – June, 2023)

Reported by Prabir Biswas (New Jersey)

Reported by Debajyoti Chatterji (New Jersey)

n January 1, the Founder and Chair Person of Evergreen Club, Debajyoti Chatterji, passed-on the baton to me. Big shoes to fill. He also convinced Susmita Biswas to be the Vice Chair. Debajyoti was well supported by Sikha Chatterji during his leadership period. Sushmita and I hope that we will be able to carry on their legacy.

Debajyoti and Sikha’s initiative and leadership made this Club a highly desirable place for the seniors to meet virtually or in-person. I humbly acknowledge their leadership and contribution.

This year, we had three meetings so far through the end of May (when this report is being written).

The first meeting was on January 28, Saturday. It was a Zoom meeting. The second meeting was an inperson meeting at a restaurant (Stage House Tavern) near Ananda Mandir on Sunday, March 26. And the third one was a Zoom meeting on Friday, May 12th. No meetings were held in February and April, because most of the Seniors were in India.

On our first meeting we mostly talked about Subhendu Bagchi and his contribution to Ananda Mandir and to the community. Subhendu Bagchi, one of the founder members, passed away on January 14th. We also talked about Sujan Das Gupta, the creator of the well-known detec-

tive character, Eken Babu. He suddenly passed away in his Kolkata home on January 18. Sujan was personally known to quite a few of our members.

The second meeting was over a group lunch at Stage House Tavern.

It was refreshing to meet the member friends after riding through the (not so brutal) winter. Two hours passed by quickly and all left with fun memories.

The May session was again a Zoom meeting. We reminisced about Guru Chakravarty, a founding member and a big contributor to Ananda Mandir and to the communities here in the US and in India. Guru Chakraborty passed away in April.

We also discussed experiences from members’ recent trips to India.

Since this meeting was during the Rabindra Jayanti, we paid respect to the Poet through his songs and poems. A guest artist recited a poem and some of our members presented Rabindra sangeet. The meeting ended on a lighter note, with a Sruti Natok written and performed by Banani Mukherjee.

We expect to hold another meeting in June. At the time of writing this report, the meeting date has not been scheduled.

We wish all Evergreen Club members and their families a very enjoyable summer.

F

our sessions of the Writers Club were held during the first half of the year. All were Zoom video sessions. While the pandemic years made Zoom conferencing a necessity, it has become the preferred mode for Writers Club meetings in the post-pandemic era. Several members are from distant states (like Massachusetts and South Carolina), so it is possible for them to join NJ-based meetings from the convenience of their home. We can also occasionally invite out-of-state guest speakers/ presenters, thanks to the videoconferencing technology.

Our first session of the year, held on Friday, January 29, used an “open format”, allowing writers the freedom to choose the types of writings they preferred to present: poems, short stories, narratives or essays.

The meeting began with a moment of silence to pay respect to Sujan Dasgupta, a highly admired member of the literary community in New Jersey and a strong supporter of Writers Club efforts, who had passed away suddenly in Kolkata on January 18.

The meeting on Saturday, March 19 was a special session, featuring four well-known authors from outside New Jersey: Uddalak Bharadwaj and Sraboni Roy Akilla (from Houston), Ranjita Chattopadhyay (Chicago) and Tapas K. Ray (Cincinnati).

Each of these guest authors were requested to describe how literary

ELECTION OF TRUSTEES

At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Tagore Hall on Saturday, May 6, Prof Kamalesh Sirkar, Chair of Nomination and Election Committee, reported the results of this year’s election of trustees. There were eleven (11) vacancies on the Board of Trustees, and the committee received eleven (11) nominations by the deadline. As a result, all the eleven candidates were elected uncontested. They are Jai Prakash Biswas Debajyoti Chatterjee Dipak Sarkar Joy Bhowmik Prabir Biswas Subhrojit Dutta Mitra Purkayastha Mita Sinha Nilotpal Paul Sajal Mukherjee Uma Roy Chowdhury We congratulate all the elected trustees and wish them highly successful 4-year terms.

groups are actively pursued in their local Bengali communities. They were also requested to present samples of their own writings. This was an excellent session, judging by the extensive discussions that followed these presentations. We thank Uddalak, Sraboni, Ranjita and Tapas for taking the time to enrich this session of the Writers Club.

We returned to our usual “open format” for the session on Friday, April 28. A number of authors presented a variety of writings and received constructive feedback from their peers.

At the time of writing this report, the next session is scheduled for Friday, June 16. The focus will be on writing “micro-stories” (onugolpo, in Bengali). All members have been urged to write and present “microstories” in 500 words or less. We had held a similar session a couple of years back, and that session was highly enjoyable.

A Brief History of “Patel Hotels” in America

| continue from page 11 reading about the unique concept of “earning and learning,” which was not available in India but was widely promulgated by Swami Satyadev, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. Even Sarangadhar Das, a revolutionary student in the Gaddar movement at Berkeley, wrote in the Modern Review in 1911, “Only in America, you could earn and learn. Come to America, whether you have money or not.

You will find a way.” Inspired by this hype of earning while learning, he came to the University of California, Davis, and enrolled in Horticulture courses while working on farms in Antioch, California. He was the first Patel to graduate in 1917 from a major U.S. college. He was GovindjiNaranji Patel from Ruva-Bharampur, Gujarat. After returning in 1918 to India, he wrote his autobiography, which was very helpful in detailing the lives of Gujaratis who came illegally in early 1900 from Panama and Trinidad to work. Most of them could not earn enough to help their farming families; they left disappointed, declaring America was not for them.

Our diasporic community has embraced the book, and I am pleased to contribute to the historical knowledge. I am grateful to my professors, Drs. Ashin Das Gupta and Amlesh Tripathi at Presidency College, and James Hulse of the University of Nevada, Reno. A few colleges in America with Hospitality Studies plan to teach courses based on the book.

July 2023 13

Ananda Sangbad

BANKIM’S HOUSE IN KANTALPARA

COMMUNITY NEWS

GSCA CORNER Reported by Pradip R. Das (New Jersey)

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO GURU CHAKRAVARTY Guru Chakravarty and GSCA

GSCA Baisakhi

Guru da’s association with GSCA of New Jersey of nearly thirty years predates his involvement with other nonprofits in the state. He served in many important roles in GSCA…. Serving as the chairman of the board in the early 2000’s; main priest for all GSCA puja events for twenty five years; one of the initiators of the now well established Philanthropy wing at GSCA beginning with the scholarship program for graduating high school seniors at Plainfield High School which has expanded now, in addition, to a robust effort to help needy and meritorious students in West Bengal; a mentor to many new and younger members in helping them explore their voluntary contributions to the organization.

Not all may know that Guru da loved music and old Bengali songs in particular, even appearing on stage performances at GSCA events rendering his voice to group songs. His sincerity in attending practice sessions and punctuality were both an inspiration and guide for other participants.

Guru da was a proud and dedicated member of GSCA till the very end and earned the admiration of those who knew him. His good deeds shall never be forgotten.

On a personal note, it was with Guru da’s encouragement that I started and have been writing GSCA’s quarterly report for Ananda Sangbad for the past six years since 2017.

We will all miss him dearly and will cherish his memories close to our hearts.

On May 20th, GSCA celebrated its annual spring festival at Manville High School.

With a nagging drizzle most of the day, attendance was dampened a bit but those who did attend were treated to a grand show of blendings of West Bengal and Bangladesh recitations, musicals, dance, Lalon Geeti and a band ensemble.

The program began with some GSCA in-house items, a recitation by Sanghamitra Bhattacharya, a dance recital “Ronge RongeRangalo” and a musical presentation, “AlorPothoJatri”. “Lalon Geeti” by Subarna Mozumdar followed next.

After a break, a musical soiree “Tobu Bhai Roth Chole” by Onuranan, a dance presentation “Nabo Rhythm” by ChhondeAnonde of New Jersey entertained the audience.

Finally, a band brought the crowd to a musical tempo with their rhythmic musical beats.

Besides the dazzling show on stage, Bengali snacks and a light dinner were also served to all present.

All in all, it was an afternoon of superb Bengali songs and dances.

Annual General Meeting On Saturday, March 25th, GSCA conducted its in-person (after a lapse of three years due to Covid) annual general meeting of members. The venue was Crowne Of India Restaurant at Plainsboro. The attending members were treated to a sumptuous lunch buffet of south and north Indian delicacies.

After duly meeting quorum, the meeting started off with a welcome note by the chairman of the board. This was followed by an address by the secretary and the treasurer’s report for the past year.

Subsequently, the budget for the current year was also approved by the members.

The coordinators of the nine GSCA committees then proceeded to report on their activities for the past year and give their thoughts and suggestions for moving forward. A lively Q & A session that ensued was constructive and provided insights into the active involvement of members in the organization. All the new members who came on board this year were introduced to the general assembly and were accorded a warm welcome to the organization.

GSCA Philanthropy Update In India, seven new students were sponsored in 2022 (4 female 4, including one disabled and 3 male students). Courses attended by these students include 3 MBBS, 1 Nursing, 2 BSc in Physics and Math, respectively, 1 PG in Clinical Resources & Regulatory Affairs.

Existing students (in addition to the 2022 numbers) - 40 (25 through Mukti Foundation and 15 with Sinchan). Courses pursued by these 40 include 18 in MBBS, 6 in Nursing, 1 in Pharmacy, 8 in Engineering and 7 in BSc/MSc. Additionally, GSCA provides onetime scholarships to six graduating high school seniors at Plainfield High School entering colleges every year.

Philanthropy committee members, during their visits to India, interact with existing and newly supported students.

They also search for potential future scholarship recipients and work with our partners in Kolkata who facilitate the implementation of our program there.

In addition, GSCA’s youth volunteers organize snack stalls at various GSCA community events and donate all sales proceeds to philanthropy. What a marvelous and encouraging impact GSCA’s philanthropic efforts are having on the youth!

The lives of many young people, and their families as well, have been altered profoundly as a result of GSCA’s benevolence.

By Mandira Chattopadhyay (Ohio)

A

few years ago, we visited the paternal home of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in Kantalpara, 24 Parganas. This house has been a living witness to numerous memorable incidents. In this house the legendary literary giant Bankim Chandra was born. As we stepped into the house the curator started to narrate various incidents associated with Bankim Chandra’s life.

Bankim Chandra’s father, Jadav Chandra, was a Deputy Collector with the British Raj. He was bestowed with the title of Ray Bahadur and was awarded huge estate as a token of appreciation by the British.

Jadav Chandra lavishly built a European style mansion with 28 Tuscan style columns. He brought all the best materials to build this mansion.

After Bankim Chandra’s death nobody paid any attention to this precious property. The curator said the place was in a dilapidated state.

The Railway department at that time ignored the existence of this place and started devouring the entire property. There were protests from local people for ruining the sacred estate but were not of any avail. Luckily the Government of West Bengal took over what was left of the property and converted into a museum and a research center, where the scholars are trying more to find about Bankim Chandra, the Sahitya Samrat.

Bankim Chandra was a very private person and did not want anyone to write about him when he would leave this world. They had to wait ten years after his death. He did not want anyone to glorify him. He burnt a lot of his own letters. He did not want anyone to know of his admiration for his beautiful wife, Rajlaxmi Devi. He admitted at one point that because his wife’s tender care, he could pursue his challenging writing career. But from the writing of others, we come to know more about him. In the research center of Kantalpara the scholars are trying to learn more and more. When Bankim Chandra was asked why he did not want to write about his life, he would say that if the readers paid close attention, they would find his life history in his novels. It was in Kantalpara that Bankim brought the Bengali language to its highest form and ornamented it with all its aristocracy.

In Kantalpara he would take long walks and looked for the places where the luscious trees would look like a canopy. Sometimes he would go to the deep bushes where he could hear the birds sing. On his way to college, he would cross the river in a boat, sang, and enjoyed the natural beauty. His affinity with nature is profoundly evident in his novels.

Bankim’s father gave him an extra favor – a small building next to the mansion. There Bankim built a “Baithak Khana” (Visitor’s Lounge).

There was a garden beside the building and during monsoon beautiful fragrance would drift from the blooming flowers. Bankim would sit in the Baithak Khana and write and write. His father Jadav Chandra lavishly built a two storied palatial building using best materials, with 28 pillars erected in front of the building. People would come and watch the place with awe and wonder. In the courtyard a chair would be placed. As Jadav Chandra sat on this chair, his golden complexion would shine under the sun. All the religious festivals would be celebrated in the house atKantalpara. Even theRathajatra and Dol Purnima would be celebrated. Especially During Durga Puja, Jadav Chandra would order the most beautiful idol of goddess Durga. Jadav Chandra sought beauty in everything, and probably Bankim inherited his love for beauty from his father. Bankim wrote an essay on Durga and then wrote the novel “Durgesh Nandini” (The Chieftain’s Daughter) where he created women that were gorgeous and beautiful.

We do not know how religious Bankim was. He enjoyed the festivals that were celebrated in the house of Kantalpara, but he would not care for the extravagance associated with the pujas. He would not make any comments about his own religious belief to anyone. During the Puja he would stand in a corner and was always in his own world. He was probably immersed in the thoughts of the characters in his novels. Under that stance he wrote “Ananda Math” in which he composed “VandeMataram” the national song of India.

Bankim was well versed in English. His very first novel was written in English and entitled “Rajmohan’s Wife.” The rest of his novels were all in Bengali. During the months of festival in Kantalpara, Jatras (Traveling Dramas) were held, but Bankim did not care much for them, but listened to the music. The epics such as Ramayana and Mahabharata would be staged and so was the puppet show (PutulKhela). No wonder, all the rich environment in his father’s house would nourish his thoughts.

Jadav Chandra was a kind and hospitable soul and would often invite people for sumptuous dinners which he would himself supervise. He was very polite to the guests and made sure everyone was fed properly.

Bankim possessed the same qualities, and he would always make sure that the guests were served with lemons.

One of the incidents that happened in the house of Kantalpara is quite continue to page 14 }

14 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

BOOK REVIEWS

“The Anarchy” by William Dalrymple

“When Stars are Scattered” by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed

Book Review by Debashis Roy Chowdhury (California) Editor’s Note: William Dalrymple, born in Scotland in a noble family, now lives in Delhi. He is a highly regarded historian and author who has specialized in the history of the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan, especially of the Moghul period and of the East India Company’s exploitation of India. Winner of many literary awards, he is credited for making Indians aware of the injustices of the British era through books as well as documentaries. “The Anarchy” was published in 2019 (Hardcover, Bloomsbury Publishing, 576 pages) and is reportedly being made into a movie.

I

n modern times, no other historical event in the Indian sub-continent is perhaps as momentous as the battle of Plassey in Bengal in 1757. The victor of the battle, the East India Company (EIC), an unregulated private company based in London, thus began its journey to become a supreme colonial power ruling the sub-continent over the next hundred years. ‘The Anarchy’ by William Dalrymple tells the remarkable story how the great Mughal empire was taken over and ruled by a corporate entity, thousands of miles away from India. It is a riveting story, meticulously researched

by Dalrymple. The book deals with historical events and characters; yet the humane, perceptive writing makes it read like fiction. And his insights about the dangers of global corporate power elevate the historical narrative to something more relevant, from which key lessons can be drawn, especially today.

It is painful reading for an Indian; the brutality, violence and pillage of a country by a trading company is often unbearable. For example, during the great Bengal famine of 1770, under the rule of Warren Hastings, “one in five Bengalis – starved to death that year”, totaling up to 3 million people by 1771. The book is strewn with such incidents of EIC’s inhumanity, treachery, greed, racism, self-serving political strategies and unchecked plunder.

It tells the story of how EIC defeated its principal rivals – the nawabs of Bengal and Avadh, Tipu Sultan of Mysore Sultanate and the Maratha Confederacy. The company took under its wings the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam. He came across as a tragic figure, a helpless witness to the destruction of the empire and his own family. Yet | continue from page 13 noteworthy. Once a monk arrived there with a large sack on his shoulder. He opened the sack and inside it was the statue of “Shri Radha Ballav” that he showed to Bankim’s family. The monk then presented the family with this statue. He said this statue will bring good fortune to this family. Jadav Chandra erected a temple for Shri Radha Ballav and Bankim became a great devotee of this deity.

Jadav Chandra was a very conservative man. He made sure that women could hang around in the inner chambers, not coming out in the public but Bankim had a modern outlook. When the Governor General visited Kantalpara a great celebration was held. The entire place was lit up. For many weeks there were preparations for welcoming the Governor General.

Bankim Chandra did not want to exclude the women from this colorful occasion. He himself escorted the women to come to the premises and be seated in the front row. His wife Rajlaxmi was assigned to hand over his books to the Governor General. The Governor General was mesmerized to see the glowing beauty of the women. Throughout his novels we come across his soft corner for women and how these women go through all kinds of sufferings. Especially in Bisha Briksha (The Poison Tree) he expresses it very clearly.

Bankim Chandra had a great respect for his par-

Shah Alam’s tenacity, courage in the face of adversity and humanity stood out in sharp contrast with the traits of his adversaries, mainly the British rulers and the Generals.

The economic consequences of the conquest of Bengal was unprecedented. It gave EIC the right to tax 20 million people with an annual revenue of 3 million pounds, a staggering sum by eighteenth-century standards. Seizing the many riches of Bengal, the Company funded the most powerful army in Asia. India henceforth became a vast country to be plundered and the profits shipped overseas to London.

A notable personality in the book, connected to the American war of independence is General Lord Charles Cornwallis, who governed India from 1786 to 1793 in his first term. Prior to his arrival in India, he had surrendered the thirteen American colonies over to George Washington. His mission was not to repeat the blunder in India. He succeeded in defeating the arch rival Tipu Sultan in 1792 in the Third Anglo-Mysore war. This was the turning point when EIC established itself as a major territorial power in the sub-continent.

For anyone wishing to learn about the colonial conquest of India starting from 1756, the book is undoubtedly one of the finest. The epilogue is particularly portent, with lessons learnt from this period in Indian history. In Dalrymple’s own words, “The East India Company remains today history’s most ominous warning about the potential for the abuse of corporate power …”. Dalrymple’s outstanding work and rare scholarship brought into life EIC’s checkered history, four hundred and twenty years after its founding.

Book Review by Ruby Chatterji Loeffler (New Jersey) (Age 10)

“W

hen Stars are Scattered”is a graphic novel written

by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed.

It is a true story about two brothers,Omar and Hassan, who live in Dadaab,a refugee camp in Kenya. They have been there for seven years and came from Somalia. The younger brother, Hassan, is and always has been nonverbal. They cannot get the proper medical care he needs.He can only say one word “hooyo”. They lost their parents, so they live with a foster mom, Fatuma. Omar, the older brother, has never been to school, so when he gets the opportunity, he takes it. Will education be enough to help Omar and Hassan find a permanent home?

I highly recommend this book because it makes you stop and think about how people and children survive in a refugee camp. While the book discusses serious and sad topics, it is a heartwarming story that I loved.

“But we are not one star.We are millions.Not one background, but millions.To the untrained eye, the night sky is a scattering of stars, a chaos of light and dark across the universe.”

The book is published by Dial Books/Penguin Random House (228 pages, 2020). It is written for young adults in the 8 to 12 years age group. The book was a National Book Awards Finalist.

Ruby Chatterji Loeffler is a fourth grader at Montessori Children’s Academy, Short Hills, NJ. She loves animals, Roblox, her friends, and reading (specifically When Stars Are Scattered!).

BANKIM’S HOUSE IN KANTALPARA ents. His mother died when he was in Behrampur and he ran barefoot to Kantalpara from there. He always wanted blessings from his mother. Story goes when he left home for college, he kept a bottle of water from the Ganges after dipping his mother’s feet in the water.

The most favorite and cozy place for him was his Baithak Khana. The Baithak Khana had four rooms.

One of the rooms was used for scholarly discussions.

Next to this room was a room for entertaining the guests, which was called “Tosha Khana” where there was hookah and tobacco for smoking. In the Writing Room Bankim would light a kerosene lamp and write vigorously. No one except his close relatives were allowed in the room. In the Baithak Khana the guests would be engaged in heated discussions. Sanskrit scholars would be invited because of his mastery of that language. Mats would be placed on the floor and colorful pillows placed against the walls and some chairs would be there as well. In one corner sat Bankim’s most cherished harmonium. He was not a great singer, but had training in classical music from JaduBhotto, who helped him compose “VandeMataram.”

We come to know from Haraprasad Shastri that sometimes his thoughts would come to his mind like a gush of wind, and he would leave his guests, go to his writing room, and start to write without pause.

In the Baithak Khana he would read aloud the manuscript of Durgesh Nandini, which really brought an uproar in the literary circle of that time. In this Baithak Khana he wrote Kamalakanter Will and a host of other novels. During that time, he was serving as a Deputy Magistrate. He would take some time off from work and do his writing at Baithak Khana.

This house would resonate with sound and music. At times Bankim became so busy with his writing that he would forget to go home, and his wife would send a servant to bring him home.

The curator finished the tour by asking us, “Did you read Bisha Briksha? There you can find the entire description of the palatial building of Kantalpara. It is a mirror image and we the readers can see a vivid description of Bankim Chandra’s favorite house in Kantalpara. It was his magical kingdom.”

Pramatha Nath Bishi once wrote about Bankim Chandra that in the literary sky of that era Bankim Chandra outshined them all.

Ananda Sangbad

July 2023 15

HIGHLIGHTS OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

A

nnual General Meeting (AGM) of Ananda Mandir was held in Tagore Hall on Saturday, May 8. As per our Constitution, this meeting was open to Life Members (i.e., Voting Members) only. During the pandemic years, these meetings had to be held on our digital platform. It was refreshing for our members to be able to return to our past practice of in-person meetings.

The meeting began at 11:45 am after an informal social hour over snacks and tea. The meeting started with a prayer

by Biswabhai, our priest, followed by brief welcoming remarks by Arun Bhowmik, General Secretary. The following speakers then presented brief reports on various important areas of organizational emphasis during the past year: General Overview of the Past Year: Jai Prakash Biswas, President (presented by Arun Bhowmik in absence of Jai Prakash) Financial Overview: Chanu Das, Treasurer Budget Planning & Loan Repayment Status: Anjan Lahiri, Vice President Tagore Hall Operations: Arun Bhowmik (in place of Jai Prakash Biswas) Puja Committee Activities: Mita Sinha, Chair Cultural Committee Activities: Sajal Mukherjee, Chair Community Service Activities: Utpal Sengupta, Chair Construction Updates & School of Arts Activities: Ashok Rakhit, Vice President Activities of Other Committees: Debajyoti Chatterji, Vice President (presented by Arun Bhowmik) Results of Trustee Election: Kamalesh Sirkar, Chair, Nomination & Election Committee (Prof Sirkar announced that there were 11 positions open on our Board of Trustees and 11 nominations were received. So, all candidates were elected to the Board unopposed. Please see a separate announcement elsewhere in this issue.).

Arun Bhowmik ended the meeting at 1:30 pm with concluding remarks, thanked everyone for their participation. The meeting ended with all feeling comfortable about how the institution is being run and managed.

A sumptuous lunch, prepared by our volunteers, of course, was served after the meeting.

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16 July 2023

Ananda Sangbad

Nominations Solicited for 2023 Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Awards For Literary Excellence The Gayatri Memorial Awards were established in 2010 by Jerry GaMarsh to honor his late wife, Gayatri GaMarsh. The program is administered through the Awards & Recognition Committee of Ananda Mandir, Somerset, NJ. Two cash awards are usually given each year to recognize outstanding works published in North America-based literary magazines. One award is given to an author of Bengali works, and another is given to an author in English. Each award consists of $500 in cash and a commendation plaque. Under certain situations, co-winners may be selected for an award category.

An author may nominate himself/herself -- or may be nominated by third parties. Each nomination must be submittedthrough email and supported with copies of one of the following: Two (and only two) works of prose (essays, short stories or plays) published in North America-based Bengali or English print or digital magazines within the last five years. The submitted articles should not be more than ten (10) pages long.

Longer articles may be disqualified. Books or book chapters will not be considered.

In case of poetry, submission may consist of up to four poems, each of reasonable length (2 pages or shorter).

A combination of prose and poetry may be submitted as well. However, please submit no more than one short story, essay or play and two poems.

Please note that unpublished works of literature will not be accepted. Full publication references must be given for the articles submitted with each nomination. Articles published in magazines or websites outside of North America will not be considered.

Nominated authors must be 18 years or older and residents of North America.All nominations and correspondence should be submitted electronically.

Each nomination should include a short biography of the author. Judging, however, will be based primarily on the supporting publications. Judges’ decisions will be final.

Members of the Awards & Recognition Subcommittee and the judges cannot submit nominations for themselves nor can they be nominated by third parties.

Deadline for nominations (with supporting documents) for the 2023 awards is September 15, 2023. Awards will be announced and presented in the Fall of 2023.

Please send nominations (with supporting documents) to Debajyoti Chatterji (debsmee572@gmail.com) or contact him for questions.

Tagore Hall at Ananda Mandir

Available to all Members of Our South Asian Community!

A 12,000 square foot, multi-purpose facilitythat serves all members as anauditorium (with stage and audio-visual capabilities) as well as a community hall, and offers classrooms and meeting rooms.

Ideal for your religious, educational, cultural and social events!

For more info, please email TagoreHall@anandamandir.org Or call 732-873-8300