Ananda Mandir
269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873
Ananda Sangbad A Quarterly Publication of Ananda Mandir, New Jersey
A Successful NABC-2018 Reported By Guru Chakravarty
“J
ai Ho” Ananda Mandir! The annual threeday North American Bengali Conference, popularly known as NABC, hosted by Ananda Mandir at the Atlantic City Convention Center during June 29-July 1, 2018, came to a highly successful completion. Bengalis from all over USA and Canada and some even from India were in attendance. To begin with, registration for the conference, which had been problematic in the past, was a smooth sailing this time. Right away, you got your registration card to hang around your neck, along with a program booklet, a copy of the literary magazine, a brochure with details of all programs and the people who made it happen, and a copy of the special NABC issue of Ananda Sangbad. The conference opened on Friday evening with Vedic chant by our priest Biswabhai in the Hall “A”, the larger
of the two conference halls. He was followed by a large contingent of Ananda Mandir ladies, uniformly clad in saris of matching color, and singing while holding lighted candles. That was followed by national anthems of four countries – India, Bangladesh, USA and Canada. The focal opening show, “BANGALEE JAGO”—a journey through the heart of Bengal,
created and choreographed by the famous dancer Sukalyan Bhattacharya—was simply dazzling. The master of ceremony, Rituparna Datta, was notable in exceptionally good pronouncements. From the second day onwards, programs extended beyond the conference halls into meeting rooms. While the more popular musical shows by famous stars from India were held on the same floor, in Halls marked “A” and “B”, seminars and mov-
ies were on the third floor. The vast expanse between the two main halls were set up for a “bazaar”, food stalls, and for leisurely “adda”. Among the musical performers, Iman Chakraborty stood out as the most attractive singer, not only for her choice of music, but also for her artistic movements on stage in rhythm with her songs. Other notable singers like Anupam Roy with continue to page 4 }
Durga Puja/ Kali Puja – 2018 Mahishasura Mardini Debir Bodhan Debir Amantran O Adhibas Saptami Puja Ashtomi Puja Sondhi Puja Nabami Puja Dashami Puja Sindur Khela & Arati Kojagori Lakshmi Puja & Satyanarayan Puja Maha Kali Puja
Sunday, 07 October Sunday, 14 October Monday, 15 October Tuesday, 16 October Wednesday, 17 October Wednesday, 17 October Thursday, 18 October Friday, 19 October Friday, 19 October Wednesday, 24 October
4:30 am – 6:30 am 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm 8:00 am- 10:30 am 8:00 am- 11:00 am 12:03 pm-12:51pm 9:00 am- 11:30 am 8:30 am- 10:30 am 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Tuesday, 06 November
9:00 pm- 12:30 am
A Report on Heritage Day Activities and Annual Fund-Raising Luncheon
S
unday, August 26, was a busy and successful day for Ananda Mandir. On that day, we not only celebrated the 71st anniversary of In-
By Debajyoti Chatterji dia’s independence from the British rule but also held our
annual fund-raising luncheon. Both events were well attended, enjoyable and rewarding.
Heritage Day Celebrations
Flag raising ceremony on Heritage Day
This year, August 15, the actual date of Indian independence, fell on a weekday. To allow greater participation by children and working adults, we scheduled the celebrations on Sunday, August 26, and decided to hold our annual fund-raiser that day as well. This was the first time we attempted this “double header” approach. Consider-
ing the end-of-summer vacation plans of many members, this combined event was a success. The main purpose behind celebrating Indian Independence Day at Ananda Mandir is to remind our children and young adults about the long and rich heritage of the country. To that end, various activities were planned for the morning of August 26. These are described elsewhere in this issue by Krishna Dutta Roy.
Annual Fund-Raising Luncheon
This part of the program continue to page 6 }
THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE SOLELY BY A GRANT FROM ANDY BOSE, C.P.A.
NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ PERMIT NO. 1215
October 2018 Ananda Mandir Calendar of Events (Dates are subject to Change) Please check our website frequently www.anandamandir.org Tel: 732-873-9821 NOTE: If a particular Puja time is not listed, please contact temple or visit our ebsite: anandamandir.org
October (*) Mahishasura Mardini Sunday, 07, 4:30am-6:30am Shyama Puja Monday, 08, 6:00pm-8:00pm Durga Puja Sunday Oct 14 to Friday Oct 19 (See Details in the boxed announcement) Kojagori Lakshmi Puja & Satyanarayan Puja Wednesday, 24, 6:00pm-9:00 pm Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 26, call for time Cultural Programto be announced November (*) Maha Kali Puja Tuesday, 06, 9:00pm12:30am Diwali Wednesday, 07, 6:00pm-7:30pm Jagaddhatri Puja Saturday, 17, call for time RAS JATRA and Satyanarayan Puja Thursday, 22, 6:00pm-8:00pm Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 16, call for time Cultural Program (*) December (*) Satyanarayan Puja Saturday, 22, 6:00pm-8:00pm Sahitya O Alochana Friday, 21, call for time Cultural Program (*) (*) 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 October 2018 Ananda Sambad A Periodical Newsletter Published By
ANANDA MANDIR
(A Tax-Exempt, Non-Profit Organization) 269 Cedar Grove Lane Somerset, NJ 08873 Ph: 732-873-9821 Website: www.anandamandir.org Publication Committee of Ananda Mandir Chairperson: Pronoy Chatterjee, pkc_usa@yahoo.com Assistant Chairperson: Subrata Bhaumik, Bhaumik.subrata@gmail.com Editor-in-Chief: Debajyoti Chatterji, Debsmee572@gmail.com Managing Editor, Ananda Sangbad: Guru Chakravarty, guruchakravarty@yahoo.com Managing Editor, Anandalipi: Amitabha Bagchi, amitabhanj@gmail.com Editors: Subrata Bhaumik, bhaumik.subrata@gmail.com Subhodev Das, subhodev.das@gmail.com Sushmita Dutta, sushmitadutt2@gmail.com Amrita Kangle, amritakangle@hotmail.com Nupur Lahiri, nupurlahiri@aol.com Associate Editor: Ruby Banerjea, r_banerjea@yahoo.com Members-at-large: Ashok Rakhit l All queries, articles, news reports and letters should be directed to the Managing Editor Phone: 908-752-3065 E-mail: guruchakravarty@yahoo.com l For general information, please contact the following executives of Ananda Mandir: Ashok Rakhit, President Jaiprakash Biswas, Vice President Suprasad Baidyaroy, Vice President Arun Bhowmik, Vice President Sajal Mukherjee, General Secretary Pradip Majumdar Treasurer
Ananda Sangbad
EDITORIAL After NABC
NABC-2018 at Atlantic City, New Jersey, was a huge success by all measures and the organizers can legitimately claim applause for doing a fine job. Ananda Mandir, in collaboration with CAB, Kallol, GSCA, ICC and other local organizations, worked hard in planning, organizing, and holding the conference, and the result was overwhelmingly positive. Attendance reached a respectable number of over 5000. The location couldn’t be better, with wide open spaces for people to move around. There were stars galore to entertain the Bengalis who flocked from all over USA and Canada. Program venues were set up to easily move from one place to another and attend the selected event you wanted. There were many items to choose from – modern to classical music, folk songs to Rabindrasangeet, dance dramas to full theaters, Kolkata artists vs. indigenous performers that you personally knew. Then, there were seminars with famous writers, movies with actors in attendance, business seminar, medical seminar, and reunions. Food, both in service and quality, was managed well within the arena. Parking fees were reasonable and getting in and out was a breeze. As usual, there is plenty to reminisce and argue about in future, the good and the bad, however, it is a clear “win” for Ananda Mandir. The Publishing Committee of Ananda Mandir takes special pride in issuing a literary magazine and a commemorative issue of Ananda Sangbad for the conference. Whether they become collector’s items or not, we are gratified to have done a decent job. And now, it is back to life after NABC. We have seen the vigor and energy of the people to work tirelessly for the success of the conference. At Ananda Sangbad, we will continue to work with the same drive to improve our quality. We have not spared hard work to put up a respectable October issue and we think you will like it. Besides covering NABC-2018 in detail, we have covered everything that is happening at Ananda Mandir. Heritage Day is always a special event for the kids, and pictures are included. We also had our annual FundRaising lunch at the Tagore Hall which was well attended. Rath Yatra, a popular event is also covered. New articles from our band of internal and external writers are included for your reading pleasure. Your comments are always welcome regarding the quality of our paper. Please write to the editor to let us know what you like in the paper, and what changes you would recommend. You are also welcome to write an article of your own and get it published. We want it to be a paper that you would look forward to reading. There is plenty to look forward to in the coming days at Ananda Mandir. The Octoberfest of pujas is upon us. For the convenience of our readers, the Puja Schedule is printed on Front Page in bold letters. Come to feel the experience of live pre-sunrise rendition of Mahishasurmardini. Enjoy Biswabhai’s pujas of Mother Durga, Mother Lakshmi and Ma Kali to celebrate the Octoberfest at Ananda Mandir. Guru Chakravarty Managing Editor, Ananda Sangbad
President’s Message Dear Members of Ananda Mandir: We just finished two major milestone events for 2018 – successful celebration of 38th North American Bengali Conference (NABC), held in Atlantic City, NJ from June 29th to July 1st sponsored by Ananda Mandir, and our Annual Fundraiser, held on Sunday, August 19th. Thank you all for your support for these two main events. NABC was a major challenge because of the year-long preparation needed for this grand event. That required over fifty volunteers to work in close cooperation to plan and manage a seamless three-day event with a budget of over $1.5 million and over 5000 attendees from various parts of North America. I am proud of the professionalism and self-less service of our volunteers in various teams that showed rest of the country that Bengalis of New Jersey are at their best when we are put to such challenge. We received numerous heartwarming emails and notes from attendees that NABC 2018 was one of the best in recent years – excellent program, good food, no long lines in registration to venue decoration! Every volunteer worked hard to make sure we gave the best experience and value for the time and money each family spent attending NABC. Additionally, because this NABC 2018 was sponsored by the non-profit center of Ananda Mandir, we had many generous Donors and Sponsors who helped raise necessary funds for this grand event. At the end, we were able to bring some surplus back to the center. Our heart-felt sincere ‘Thank you’ to all our local volunteers -- and to the attendees from different parts of the country. We made New Jersey Bengalis proud! Only six weeks after NABC, we were again challenged with our Annual Fundraiser that has been a critical event for the last 10 years. The fund raised in this event traditionally pays more than 50% of our annual budgetary shortfall. Thanks to our donors who attended this event right after NABC and helped raise over $160,000. Although we could not reach our target for annual fundraiser this year, we came close. Fortunately, with Ma’s blessings, the NABC surplus will help meet this shortfall. No time to rest for AM volunteers as we begin preparations for the upcoming Durga Puja and Kali Puja. We are back to work to celebrate these two major annual festivals with the same energy and spirit as in previous years. We look forward to your visit of the temple on these two joyous occasions. May Ma bless you all. Ashok Rakhit President, Ananda Mandir Advertisement
October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
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REMEMBERING KANAK DUTTA (1927-2018) A Pioneer Political Activist & Community Leader By Jayashree Chatterjee I have believed from childhood that to want social change to take place, and then to wait for others to bring it about and to benefit from it is sheer selfishness. I believe that everyone has to participate fully in the effort to initiate change by giving one’s labor, time and complete commitment to the cause.
T
hese are the words of Kanak Dutta, the first Asian Indian to contest in an election to a state office in New Jersey. They were said to Shamita Das Dasgupta of Manavi, for an article entitled Teen Kanyar Golpo that was publishedinthe Bengali magazine Sukanya. Today, several men and women of Indian origin are taking part in local and state politics in the US. In the 1980s, when Kanak Dutta entered the political scene, this was not the case. At the time, according to the 1980 census, there were only 25,799 Indians in New Jersey, compared to 292,256, as stated in the 2010 census. So Ms Dutta’s entry into politics was a courageous move, to say the least. Kanak Dutta was born, in 1927, into a well-known family, the Ghatbhoger Chatterjee family, in Khulna, present-day Bangladesh. She was a school student in 1942 when she participated in the Swadeshi Movement by making posters that read “British Quit India.” During her college days in Kolkata, she joined the Chhatra Congress, and some years later, she contested a seat in the West Bengali Assembly elections but lost to Tarun Kanti Ghosh of Amrita Bazar Patrika fame. The man Kanak Dutta chose to marry in 1951 was Manoranjan Dutta who shared her keen interest in politics. In 1958, Dr Dutta came to the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, and Kanak di, as she was affectionately called in the Bengali community, followed him to this country in 1959. Once in the US, she majored in education at the University of Pennsylvania, began teaching at a local school, and served as a consultant for South Asians at the local Board of Education. It was in 1963 that the Duttas moved to New Jersey, and Kanak Dutta joined Rutgers Prep as a history teacher. It was also at this time that the Duttas took more of a lead in local political matters. Kanak Dutta explains this involvement in an interview with Renu Agarwal for the Local History Project of the Association of Indians in America. AIA, the first organization of its kind in the US, was started by a group of Asian Indians, including the Duttas, in 1967. It was an association of great importance for many reasons. The Asian Exclusion Act had just come to an end with the passing of the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965, and many Indians were coming to the US. They needed assistance in settling in this
country. Dr. Manoranjan Dutta also helped establish the enumeration of Asian Indians as an independent category in the 1980 US census and brought
Kanak Dutta with President and Mrs. Carter about the classification of Asian Indians as a constituent group of the Asian/Pacific Americans. This landmark legislation came into effect in 1979 and was the result of an executive order of President Carter. Dr. Dutta helped appoint the first Indian, Piyush Agarwal, to the census bureau as well. In 1972, the Duttas became American citizens, and Kanak Dutta’s career in politics really took off. She went to the Somerset County Democratic Party office and said she wanted to be involved in party work. She worked for the election and reelection campaigns of Governor Brendan Byrne, and then, in 1976, for the election of Jimmy Carter as president. In 1980, she attended the Democratic National Convention as a Carter delegate, and one gets the impression that she did her best to bring people together at a time when many were supporting Kennedy as the Democratic candidate. Kanak Dutta’sstance was that it was wrong to go against an incumbent president. The Courier News, in an article entitled “Delegate finds animosity lacking amid battle over convention rules”, described how Kanak Dutta sat with Kennedy delegates and talked with them but also cheered for her candidate. She told the paper that the meeting was “more a battle of banter and banners than a war of bitter words and angry clashes.’ Kanak Dutta was elected as a member of the County Committee to represent her district, the 12th district in Bridgewater Township in Somerset County. She also became Head of the Political Action Committee of the New Jersey Federation of Democratic Women, and from 1971 to 1981, she was a member of the Governor’s Eth-
nic Advisory Council. In 1981 Kanak Dutta decided to run for the New Jersey Assembly. Her county chairman warned her that her county was heavily Republican but as she told Agarwal, “I argued that I wanted to prove I belong here and that I am a part of this society.” She campaigned door-to-door. And she did this clad in a sari because though she now felt she was American, she never forgot her Indian origin. Both Ratna Karmakar, a close friend of hers, and Shamita Das Dasgupta recall Kanak Dutta telling them that this is what she said at election meetings: My color is brown, I am of Asian origin, I cannot speak English like you, I wear a sari and I am a woman. But do not judge me by all this. Vote for me based on how I think. She told Agarwal that she said to someone who commented negatively on her wearing a sari, “--- to make decisions, I use my brain not my dress.” She added that her clothes did not make her a good American. “A good American must have a good mind. Let us all try to pass that test.” Kanak Dutta lost that election; Ronald Reagan had just become President and the Republicans were very popular. This is how she explained what happened: it is difficult for the first generation to enter politics; but they have to make the attempt in order to make things easier for the coming generations. I find it completely understandable that I met with resistance. If, in India, a woman of European origin had tried to enter politics, would Indians have welcomed her (at once and open-heartedly)? But apart from making it easier for “coming generations” to enter the political scene, there was another important result. Many voters and Democrats realized that despite her ethnic origin, she could be relied upon, and that she had the good of the country and the party at heart. I didn’t win but I made people realize that I could be relied upon, she later said when speaking about that time. Some people still didn’t trust me completely, but the number was less than before. (It should be mentioned here, though, that after 9/11 her thoughts about what she should wear changed. As she said to Agarwal, “I am part of this society, and my sense of belonging to this society must be pronounced to all --- I will ask all Indian girls to be a part of the United States and not to be dogmatic about the dress.”) In 1984, she was pledged to Walter Mondale, and she became New Jersey’s state campaign coordinator. A June 9, 1984 New York Times article describes the dramatic way in which this happened. After the primary on that Tuesday, Barbara Drake, who was pledged to Gary Hart, was declared the unofficial winner by five votes over Kanak Dutta. Then the ab-
sentee ballots in Mercer County came in, and Kanak Dutta was declared to have won by 15 votes – 6,785 to 6,770! (Eventually, though, Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale.) Upendra Chivukula, who was a member of the state General Assembly for more than 12 years, and who now serves as a Commissioner on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, had a great deal to say about Kanak Dutta’s work for the party. “She was one of the pioneers, and a mentor to me and many others. She introduced me to many key people.” He listed her achievements by citing all the work she had done for the ClintonGore and the Gore-Lieberman campaigns, for NJ governors like Governor Corzine, and for some New Jersey senators. Her strength, he said, was in being able to mobilize support for causes she believed in and in fundraising.
Kanak Dutta with President Clinton She also organized Chivukula’s first fundraising event when he ran for the legislature. “People used to consult her on any number of problems, and I, too, was a beneficiary of all her experience. We went to Democratic events together. She arranged for me to be invited to Bill Clinton’s holiday party at the White House. I called her Kanak Didi and that brought a beautiful smile to her face. She was really a sister to all of us.” Chivukula also talked about her
Kanak Dutta with Upendra Chivukula at a democratic event being a strong supporter of the Asian community. She not only backed his political aspirations, but also those of Kumar Barve, a member of the state legislature in Maryland. She and her husband were involved with SAARC, the South Asian Association for Recontinue to page 6 }
4 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
NABC 2018: A Sampler’s Diary By Amitabha Bagchi
T
his year’s North American Bengali Conference (NABC 2018) was a resounding success. With the exception of some time management issues – an endemic problem with the Bengali community – it ran silky smooth and had few discernible hiccups. It was also a gigantic affair, taking up a major portion of three floors of the cavernous Atlantic City Convention Center. The main floor held cultural programs, in two enormous auditoriums that ran concurrently most of the time. The two auditoriums were separated by an equally large hall that was abuzz with vendors selling wares of all kinds – from clothing and jewelry to snacks and more substantial victuals. The upper floors had rooms that hosted seminars (literary, business, and medical), reunions (of colleges and universities), movie shows (interspersed with discussions) and an assortment of meetings. Clearly there was entertainment aplenty for the large crowd that had gathered. One difficulty, though, was that it was not physically possible to attend all the shows, meetings and seminars. One had to pick and choose, and I was no exception. I sampled a subset of cultural shows, seminars and meetings based on my interest and the timing constraint. What follows is a brief account of what I saw and heard – a sampler’s diary, if you will.
1. Business Seminar: With great presentations bookending it, the business seminar was indeed the high point of the conference. Hosted by Sumit Ganguli and Aninda Basu, it started off with a brilliant keynote speech by Asha Rangappa, CNN legal and national security analyst, who was previously an FBI counter-terrorism expert and now teaches at Yale University. Asha spoke of her highly unusual life’s trajectory: growing up as the child of South Asian immigrants, graduating from Princeton, studying law at Yale, but eventually going off the beaten path and joining the FBI (instead of a corporate law firm) and becoming a counter terrorism agent. One of her interesting anecdotes was when she was checked out by a TSA agent, as she had a gun on her, and the TSA agent, finally seeing a south Asian brown lady wearing FBI credentials, called out to her, “Good disguise!” The other bookend of the event was the speech by the 14-year-old Technology savant, Tanmay Bakshi. He is an IBM Watson expert, who has his own YouTube channel, ‘Tanmay Teaches’. He has been working on a number of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning projects, including one that is focused on preventing suicides among war veterans. He took us into his world of young success, spoke on AI and Ro-
A Successful NABC-2018 | continue from page 1
botics, and proved that he is not just a nerd but a precocious and highly lovable young adult. In between the two lectures was a panel discussion that involved the Consul General of India in New York, Mr. Sandeep Chakravorty, and the leaders of several technology firms and start-ups. The group discussed the opportunities and challenges for the workforce in the present economy affected by automation, disruptive technologies, shifting social sentiments and political attitudes, and changing legal and social environments in the US. (I acknowledge material support from Sumit Ganguli in writing this section.)
2. Literary Seminar: Organized by Subrata Bhaumik, the NABC Literary Seminar offered a sumptuous fare of intellectual stimulation and enjoyment. It was broken into three sessions spread out over two days. The first session, on International Literature, included as speakers such luminaries as the redoubtable Amit Chaudhuri and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The second session, on Bengali Literature and Drama, had three parts: (1) a panel discussion by local thespians on drama as a literary art form; (2) a panel discussion by invited guests on the reach, impact and durability of literature delivered through digital media; and (3) readings of personal works by local writers and poets. The third and final session, also on Bengali literature, involved readings of prose and poetry by eminent invited guests, mainly from India. Regrettably, because of a schedule conflict, I was able to attend only the tail end of the second session and the middle part of the third. In the latter, it was a treat to hear Tilottama Majumdar read out a whimsical short story. She was followed by prose and poetry readings by the renowned poet Srijato and the up-and-coming Angshuman Kar. Sekhar Basu then read a longer story, after which I had to leave.
3. Movie Show—Mayurakshi: One enjoyable aspect of NABC is that if affords an opportunity to the attendees of watching good Bengali movies screened for the occasion. I fondly recall movies I have watched and savored in NABCs past. My focus this year was on the movie Mayurakshi. It was running in Kolkata last winter when I was there, but I did not have an opportunity to see it. I heard very good reviews of it from family members and friends, which whetted my appetite. Then, in the spring, the movie won the National Award as the Best Bengali Feature Film continue to page 7 }
his band, Shovon Ganguly, Subhomita Banerjee, Shrabani Sen—a Rabindrasangeet specialist, folk singer Abhijit Basu—all performed well to satisfy the audience. For the classical listeners, vocal program by Pandit Sanjeev Abhayankar was rewarding. The most anticipated star of the entire conference, Shreya Ghosal, was dazzling in appearance, and performed as generally expected of her. Some were not happy having to stand in a new line to enter into the hall for Shreya’s program, and then waiting for another hour for Shreya’s orchestra to tune up their instruments. As in other years, many local groups participated in various musicals and dramas. One group, Tagore Society of Houston, stood out with a presentation of “Shatakanthe Rabindranath (a hundred voices in Rabindrasangeet)”. The group invites two singers from each of the 50 states of USA to do this program. Director Kamalpriya Roy deserves a lot of credit to plan and carry out such an impressive presentation. “Maganlaler Deray” was a very good theatrical-style production by Bharatiya Kala Kendra, involving actors of all ages. Among the Ananda Mandir presenters, Mitra Purkaystha’s presentation of “Dashabatar”, and Rita Baidyaroy’s dance drama, “Kumarsambhava”, deserve mention. In between shows, there were award ceremonies to honor the people who helped to promote this Bengali affair for our future generations. Cultural Association of Bengal, the creator of NABC thirty five years ago, and still the parent organization, honored Subhra Goswami, Hillol Ray, Krishna Bhattacharya and Timir Hore for their outstanding services to the community. Ananda Mandir, this year’s host organization, honored several members with “Lifetime Service Awards” who contributed to the establishment and growth of Ananda Mandir as an impressive facility to serve the states of the East Coast. The recipients were: Suprasad Baidyaroy, Debajyoti Chatterji, Surya Dutta, Prativa Hore, Chandi Maitra, Biswajyoti Nayak, Late Anil Raychaudhuri, Late Sukanta Sengupta and Kamalesh Sirkar, Like every year, eminent Bengalis from India were recognized for their leadership in various fields of art, literature and business. This year’s honorees were: Sandeep Chakravorty, the Indian Consul General at New York; Sabyasachi Chakraborty, a lead actor in Bengali movies and dramas; Goutam Bhattacharya, Bengali film director;
Swadesh Chatterjee, an industrialist in the U.S. and a “Padma Bhusan” recipient; and Subodh Sarkar, an acclaimed Bengali poet. The literary, business, medical and film seminars were held in various rooms on the third floor. They were highly interesting seminars, and each of them were attended by sizeable crowds. A more detailed coverage of some of the seminars are covered separately in this issue of Ananda Sangbad. There were seminars for reunions too as many like to attend them to meet old friends. There were reunions of Jadavpur University, B.E. College, Presidency College, IIT Kharagpur, BITS Pilani, BIT-Mesra, Viswa Bharati, St. Xaviers, Universities of Bangladesh, Rhythm of Dance & Music, and BASONA – a tiny organization supporting the impoverished district of Bankura. Food, supplied by Moghul, one of the premier restaurants of New Jersey, was pretty good. There were complaints about long lines on the first day, however, those problems were mostly resolved on second day, with some innovative actions by Indrashish, the food coordinator. He arranged separate lines for cash and credit and brought in more serving volunteers. The closing ceremony was choreographed by music maestro Bikram Ghosh. Named “The Global Soundscape”, it featured wellknown musicians from USA and India. A large venture like hosting NABC, catering cultural and artistic pleasures to over five thousand people, is a humongous undertaking. Hundreds of volunteers are necessary to work in harmony under able leadership. This year’s Cochairs—Soumen Roy, Ashok Rakhit and Jaiprakash Biswas – should be congratulated for doing a fine job. Many sponsors supported NABC with large donations. Kallol of New Jersey was a strategic collaborator of Ananda Mandir and their volunteers played a critical role. GSCA, ICC, and other local organizations provided active support. CAB, the licensee organization, has done an enormous service to the Bengali community in originating this conference thirty-eight years ago and still continuing the tradition today. Bengali organizations across USA and Canada eagerly line up to host the conference in future years. For NABC-2019, to be held in Baltimore, a hand-over ceremony was performed on the last day of this conference. Next year’s host is Sanskriti of Greater Washington DC area. NABC Forever!
October 2018
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Gifts of Food and Goodwill: Indian Wanderings
T
he joy of sinking one’s teeth into the chocolate filling of a croissant while sipping a cup of Swiss Cafe au Lait can be a divine experience anywhere. That early spring morning, I was sitting at a table by myself outside the café of the CERN Laboratory in Geneva. The experience was enhanced by the nippy breeze blowing in from the surrounding Jura Mountain range. My curiosity and professional assignments allowed me to explore many corners of the world, often just by myself. I had opportunities to experience exotic, sometimes expensive, meals that were wonderfully satisfying. However, I was remembering experiences that I had enjoyed as a shy young person in India. I also had opportunities to live in several Indian cities, occasionally traveling to other cities on my own. These memories are not only about what I ate at ordinary places, but also about the very special people who gifted them. My mother was an exceptionally versatile, imaginative, and -- shall I say, persnickety – cook who never tolerated anybody, including me, in her kitchen. Her cooking was influenced by north Indian cuisines. Both of my parents, Bengalis by ancestry, were raised in north India in the early part of the twentieth century. At that time, the access to typical Bengali ingredients, particularly freshwater fish, was limited. Consequently, fish was not popular at our home and I never developed a taste for it. However, mother insisted on feeding us a variety of food featuring a healthy dose of beans and vegetables. She would fry her specialty Kochuri, fried bread stuffed with green peas flavored with ginger and a touch of asafetida, one at a time, and plop it on my plate. I would poke a hole in the puffed-up top layer and enjoy the aroma of the stuffing. She also made sure that I appreciated food, even strange ones, offered by others. Because of my father’s employment as a government engineer, he was often transferred to different cities away from any close relatives. Getting household help at such cities was always a challenge. When we lived in Shillong, my mother became very sick and had to spend about a month in the hospital. My father tried his best to feed my brother and me well but would occasionally treat us at a Chinese restaurant in the Police Bazaar neighborhood. Perched on the side of a hill, it was a popular restaurant, perhaps it was the only one of its kind. During our first visit, as three of us settled down at a table, the server came by and put down two big bottles of hot water and one bottle of lukewarm water. Although the weather outside was quite cold, my ten-year-old brain could not figure out the need for hot water with our meal. We were used to drinking room-temperature water with our meals. I believe my father ordered
By Bakul Banerjee Chow Mein and a Chicken dish which we would share. There was a small jar of finger-hot peppers preserved in vinegar on the table. My dad served us spoonfuls of the Chow Mein in an uncertain manner. I took the first bite with huge anticipation. The flavor and texture of the unfamiliar noodles were strange but exciting. However, within a minute or two, I was jolted by the sheer burning sensation in my mouth. Quickly, I poured myself a glass of regular water and gulped it down quickly. My brother, with tears flowing down his cheeks started hiccupping. We finished the entire bottle and reached for the hot water bottles. I am not sure why, but the hot water was much more effective in quenching the heat. Consumed by curiosity I tried the chicken dish after sprinkling a spoonful of the vinegar from the jar of the pickled pepper. All the while, Dad sat across me with a bemused but helpless look. Later, I realized how much he rejoiced in these small adventures with his children. After a stint of four years, Dad was transferred to Calcutta and we settled in a less crowded neighborhood near the airport. The hullabaloo of a big city like Calcutta disturbed him. Yet, he was assigned to the Borobazaar office. Borobazaar was the biggest hub of commodity trading in eastern India. His work was stressful. However, once a week, he would come home with a couple of cardboard boxes of sweets, which dripped pure ghee (clarified butter). Fudges made of milk, almond, or select lentils were covered with silver or gold foils. The incredible fragrance of real saffron steeped in butter and sugar was a sensory overload that remains with me even today. Those sweets were definitely fit for monarchs. Later, I visited a very crowded Borobazaar with my father and learned how expensive those sweets were. I often imagined those treats gracing faraway wedding feasts given by rich folks. When my father was transferred after a few months, my skinny body stopped gaining weight, to the dismay of my mother. After graduating from the Calcutta Presidency College, I joined the master’s program at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and shed the shell of shyness. My fellow students and I, with an equally limited budget, used to make infrequent trips to a fancy, of course by smaller city standards, restaurant. One of the attractions was the popular American songs played at the restaurant. Such music was inaccessible to most of us. For the first time in my life, I tasted grilled fish covered with a white wine sauce along with a side of “blowin’ the wind” song by Joan Baez playing over the microphone. Years later, standing in my kitchen monitoring the doneness of the Shrimp Malai Curry, I would remember the min-
gling of familiar friendly voices and unfamiliar fish preparation along with an exotic song. Was it the dining experience or my newly-found connections that stayed in my memory? A couple of years later, I graduated from IIT Kanpur and started chasing various doctoral fellowships around the country. I applied for newly established government fellowships offered by the University Grant Commission of India at a select few Centers of Advanced Studies in Mathematics around the country. The number of these national fellowships was limited, and the competition was stiff. Appearing for live interviews was mandatory which posed a serious problem for me. Nobody in our friend and family circles had ever heard of an unmarried young woman traveling alone to these remote and often unsafe places. My father was in poor health and nobody else was available. I convinced my parents to let me go by myself. I must admit that traversing the vast country by train was really scary sometimes. I never met any lonely soul like me during those trips. However, unusual acts often come with rewards. On the day of one of these trips, I was on my way to Roorkee, a city in northern India. After getting down at the railway station, I was supposed to take a bus to the university about an hour away. The train was late and it was getting dark. Since I had exhausted the food packed for the twenty-hour-long trip, I approached the roadside food stall. The shopkeeper, the cook, was tossing Naan bread in the Tandoori oven while serving them along with chunks of potato curry to several burly men. He looked at me quizzically. “Sister, why are you here alone this late in the evening? Where are you going?” He looked at me in astonishment. I am sure that he noticed my thick glasses and modest outfit. “I must go to Roorkee University tonight. I have an interview first thing tomorrow morning.” “What will you study there?” He kept questioning as he continued serving customers ahead of me. It took me a while to explain to him the difference between arithmetic and many branches of mathematics that a doctoral student might study. Until then, nobody ever asked about my intended field of study and very few did afterwards. When my turn came, he packed several Naans and a huge portion of potato curry in a disposable bag made up of dried leaves. “How much?” I asked taking out my wallet. “No, sister. I cannot take money from you. I am sure you will earn the Ph.D. degree soon.” After filling my flask with hot milky tea, he summoned one of his workers. “Take the sister to the bus stop.
Make sure to tell the conductor to drop her off in front of the university and to hand her luggage to the guard at the gate.” “May God bless you and have a safe journey. Now, hurry. The Roorkee bus leaves in fifteen minutes.” I opened the food packet in the bus. The shopkeeper had also packed two pieces of gram flour fudge. Eventually, I landed a fellowship at the Ramanujan Institute of Advanced Studies in Mathematics, Chennai. One of my fellow researchers observed that I liked to visit nearby ashrams, temples, and shrines. There were plenty of them in Chennai. She offered to take me to Arunachalam Ashram, the home of revered sage Ramana Maharshi. The sage, who passed away in 1950, had disciples from all walks of life around the world who came to him to learn about ancient Vedanta philosophy. Two of those visitors were Somerset Maugham and Paul Brunton. My friend and I planned to take a day trip by bus. One Saturday, we started early in the morning. The ashram was located at the foot of the Arunachal hill outside the city of Tiruannamalai, about six hours away from Chennai. My friend was familiar with the ashram since she had visited the place before. My friend took me to a nearby home where many visitors stopped for lunch. I was clueless as I did not understand the local language. The house was crowded. After waiting a while, we, about twenty of us, were asked to sit down on reed mats on the floor. Each of us had a large banana leaf in front of us with a small pile of salt on the side. A man came around and placed a mound of white rice on the leaf. Another young woman poured about two tablespoonfuls of golden clarified butter on the rice and somebody else served hot green mango pickles in oil. That was it. I couldn’t figure out why but when I finished the simple meal and stood up, I felt enormously satisfied. We were about to go to the ashram, but I noticed that the top of the dark Arunachal hill had disappeared behind dark clouds. It started raining soon. The tiny house was packed with about fifty pilgrims. Servers were serving people with great dexterity. When I asked about paying, my friend told me that these people do not take any money. I should make donations to the ashram. Later, at the ashram, we spent time meditating in a stark, white-washed room sitting cross-legged on floor mats. The sparseness of the sage’s abode reflected the philosophy he taught. I felt great. Perhaps, it had something to do with the gift of plain nourishment that I had received at the home of a stranger. I left India for the United States soon after. Although I have received many gifts of kindness in my new country, these special memories have helped me during difficult times.
6 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
The Myth of Prodigy REMEMBERING KANAK DUTTA T
(1927-2018)
By Subhodev Das
hey learn to read at age two, play Bach at four, fluently speak foreign languages by six, and breeze through calculus at eight. Their classmates shudder with envy; their parents rejoice at winning the lottery. Prodigious children make headlines in ever increasing number. In the business of performing old music, the industry is relying on youth as never before. While symphony ticket sales are stagnant and classical album sales are plunging, talented teens are filling concert halls and putting CDs on the charts. The past few decades have seen more and more orchestras and record companies in the U.S. turning to youngsters to lift their sales. This trend is being seen in other industries too, such as in Indian TV shows featuring young musical talents. Indeed, today’s swelling crop of prodigies reflects neither a sudden surge in talent among kids nor an improvement in teaching techniques. Instead, it reflects industry-specific economics, pure and simple. So, who exactly is a child prodigy? In psychology, the term child prodigy is defined as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain to the level of an adult expert performer. Wikipedia maintains a dynamic list of child prodigies covering the past four centuries who rose to prominence in various disciplines spanning mathematics, music, science, sports, etc. It features luminaries such as Mozart, Rabindranath, Ramanujan, von Neumann, as well as Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber”. Ever wondered what happened to those wunderkinds from decades ago? Surely many of the prodigies on the Wikipedia list had reached the pinnacle of success in their respective domain. However, to paraphrase T.S. Eliot, the careers of most tend to end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Consider the most prestigious award in the US for scientifically gifted high school students, the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, called the Super Bowl of science by one American president. Since its inception in 1942 and until 1994, the search recognized more than 2,000 precocious teenagers as finalists. But just 1 per cent ended up making the National Academy of Sciences, and just eight have won Nobel Prizes. Of course, these odds are better than 1 in 1000 (of nonprodigious individuals) making the list of Nobel laureates. Yet for every
successful prodigy, there are many dozens who fall far short of their potential. To be a prodigy in music, for example, is to be a mimic, to reproduce what you hear from grownup musicians. Yet only rarely do child musical prodigies manage to make the necessary transition from mimicry to creating a style of their own. The “prodigy midlife crisis,” as it has been called, proves fatal to all but a handful of would-be Mozarts. Early acquisition of skills — which is often what we mean by precocity — may thus be a misleading indicator of later success. Precociousness is a slipperier subject than we ordinarily think. The notion of precociousness as an early form of adult achievement is much of the problem. Often the benefits of earlier mastery are overstated such as in the case of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Famously, Wolfgang Mozart started to compose music at age four; by six, he was traveling around Europe to give special performances with his father, Leopold; and went on to produce hundreds of highly regarded works before his death at the ripe early age of thirtyfive. Upon first glance, Wolfgang definitely supports the explanation that “talent” is genetic and not learned. However, if we take a closer look, we will find some very striking details that we may not have thought about before. Leopold Mozart was a famous composer and performer in his own right. He was also a very controlling parent who put Wolfgang in an intensive training program of music study starting at age three. Leopold was well qualified for this role as he was considered one of the most highly accomplished and soughtafter teachers. He also had a deep interest in how music is taught to children. In a way, Leopold was an 18th-century equivalent of a little league father. Wolfgang’s early compositions have raised several questions upon close scrutiny by many scholars. These manuscripts are not written in Wolfgang’s own hand. It seems Leopold always wanted to “correct” them before anyone else saw the compositions. It’s also interesting to note that Leopold stopped composing himself at about the same time he began teaching Wolfcontinue to page 10 }
| continue from page 3 gional Cooperation, and she, of course, gave the AIA, her whole-hearted support, as she did with Veena Merchant and Gopal Raju and their publication “India Abroad”. People in the Bengali community speak highly of Kanak di as well and describe the many ways in which she helped them in time of need. Kanak Dutta passed away on September 3, 2018. Her impact on the broader political scene was of great importance. She inspired many others to serve in local and state politics and made it easier for New Jersey’s citizens to realize that there were people
of Asian Indian origin who were keen to help in the betterment of their state. And Kanak Dutta always wanted Asian Indians to work towards that betterment. “This is your country now,” a New Jersey resident of Bengali origin remembers Kanak di saying. “Leave your mark on the governance of this state. Get involved in its affairs.” In the Agarwal interview, her closing words to all Asian Indians were, “Be a very good honest American citizen, participate in community activities --community activities and politics go hand in hand --- be an elected official and make excellent laws that will contribute to the welfare of all Americans.”
A Report on Heritage Day Activities and Annual... | continue from page 1 began in the Tagore Hall at 12 noon with a reception, featuring a variety of snacks and drinks. Shortly after 1 pm, the program began with an invocation by Biswabhai, our resident priest. Dipak Sarkar, Chair of Fund-raising Committee then welcomed the guests. Ashok Rakhit, President of Ananda Mandir, followed Dipak, and began his presentation with a newly made informational video, titled “Ananda Mandir – Our Home Away from Home”. He then summarized the many accomplishments of the organization during the past twelve months and outlined the plans for the next three to five years. It was exciting for the audience to learn that Ananda Mandir has secured township approval to (a) build a private puja room, adjoining the temple building; (b) install a gate to the property and two pillars for the gate; (c) finish the basement of the Front Building; and (d) add a second floor to the Front Building with several bedrooms and baths for occasional overnight stays by elderly members after major religious events. – The audience then learned from Ashok that NABC 2018, organized by Ananda Mandir, was a huge success, and that we had received numerous compliments from the attendees. It was particularly gratifying to learn that the event is likely to generate a net surplus of about $150,000 that would benefit Ananda Mandir’s finances. Ashok ended his presentation by articulating the challenges ahead for Ananda Mandir, most notably the need to meet the mortgage burden of approximately $23,000 per month. He detailed the various sources of income and the key categories of expenses. He further explained why the Annual Fund-Raiser is critical to meeting that mortgage payment burden. Pronoy Chatterjee, Chair of Awards & Recognition Committee, then pre-
sented plaques to the two recipients of Distinguished Leadership Awards: Amitabha Bagchi and Dilip Chatterjee. (Please see the report on Distinguished Leadership Awards on Pages 8 for details). A representative of our younger generation, Anirudh Sarkar, talked about the importance of knowing and nurturing our Indian heritage and the role Ananda Mandir can play in this regard. Following the closure of the meeting by Dipak Sarkar, a sumptuous lunch was served to all the guests.
Cultural Program Following the lunch, a 2-hour cultural program was presented by Ananda Mandir members and invited local artistes for the enjoyment of all the guests. The program began with songs sung by the Anandadhwani group under the direction of Arun Bhowmik. The program featured superb dance performances by IMGE, the “urban Indian dance troupe” of Ishita (Mili) Bhattacharya -- and by Madhumita Pal (a renowned chhou dancer from Kolkata) and her group of local students and partners. The final attraction for the cultural performances was a play, “Four Walls”, written and directed by Manoj Sahane, and performed by members of Theatrix, NJ. Inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s Doll’s House, this play “explores the delicate relationship between man and woman” in a modern society and changing nature of that relationship. The cultural program, organized by Sajal Mukherjee, was a fitting finale for an eventful and satisfying day of activities for Ananda Mandir. NOTE: As of writing this report, the total collection from the Fund-Raising Luncheon has exceeded $155,000. More donations are expected to arrive in the near future, and the total collection is likely to reach $175,000 level.
October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
7
The Problem with Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” By Tathagata Ghosh
R
ecently, a comedian by the name of Hari Kondabolu has brought into focus the dubious portrayal of an Indian character, Apu, on the long-running television show, The Simpsons. The character of Apu in this show is a caricature of an Indian storeowner. According to Kondabolu, this character has promoted racial stereotyping of Indians. Lines uttered by Apu have been used to bully Indian children. According to a documentary,‘The Problem with Apu’, made by Kondabolu, much to the dismay of some professional Indian actors, they were even instructed to speak like Apu for the roles they were auditioning. This struck a chord in me. A couple of years back, I had given a talk on ‘The Jungle Book’, the famous Disney movie of 1967at my Toastmasters Club. The talk I had given was critical of the portrayal of the ‘Indian’ characters in that movie. How could there be a problem with it? Everybody seems to love The Jungle Book, and I have never heard of anybody say anything negative about it. Then why did I feel otherwise? The Jungle Book was one of my favorite Disney animated movies when I first saw it in the US. When my older daughter was young, we bought the VHS tape and watched it many times. I always enjoyed it and loved the well-defined characters and the fabulous songs. I watched it again after a decade when my younger daughter was growing up. The magic was still there but somehow I had started to make an association of the characters to real characters, and I began to
realize that apart from token Indian character of Mowgli, a rather generic boy, none of the characters were truly Indian. They were actually well defined British and American characters with Indian names. These are my interpretations. Others may interpret differently. The first character that stood out was Col. Haathi. Apart from his name, he was a typical British military officer. Having read a lot of novels by British authors, I felt he was one of those endearing, avuncular, British colonels who could have popped in a P.G. Wodehouse novel with a proper British handle.Baloo, the bear, was an American drifter with a golden heart and bravado to match. He could have stepped out of Mark Twain novel. Sher Khan was a complex character, seemingly a dangerous British/ Euro villain, suave and deadly. He stalks through the entire movie with stealth and menace. King Louie must have been modelled on one of the black jazz musicians of the 20th century. There is an undeniable racial profiling through the entire movie. It is completely disguised to the point where if this is the first time you are reading it, you are completely unaware of this. To be fair to Rudyard Kipling though, there was no King Louie in his original tale and all he referred to was bandar-log (monkey-people). To avoid controversy, Disney also had an Italian jazz artist called Louis Prima do the voice-over for King Louie, but the character was patterned after Louis Armstrong, the top jazz talent at that time.
NABC 2018: A Sampler’s Diary | continue from page 4 of 2017. Naturally, when I found out that Mayurakshi would be shown at NABC 2018, I knew I would have to be at the screening. At the appointed hour, I made a beeline to the conference room designated as the movie theater. Things were running a bit late, so I got to see parts of a discussion session, mainly Q&A with the audience, where the panelists included Sabyasachi Chakraborty and Prosenjit Chatterjee. The movie showing began shortly afterward. It is the touching tale of a son (Prosenjit) living abroad who returns home briefly to look after his demented father (Soumitra Chattopadhyay). Written and directed by Atanu Ghosh, the film moves at a decent clip and has a minor twist in that Mayurakshi does not refer to the well-known river at all. I thought of how Soumitra, the hero of my youth, has transitioned well over time to the role of an elderly parent.
To better understand ‘The Jungle Book’, we need to go back to the milieu from where these characters were derived. These stories were written by Rudyard Kipling, a Britisher, in the last part of the 19th century. The British were completely and totally in command of India. The interesting fact is that Rudyard Kipling lived in the US when he wrote the story and had never visited the forest that he mentions in the story. He had spent some time in India as a child with his parents and went back later when he was an adult. It is not important nor necessary for an author to have visited the area that he writes about but that could account for the absence of the Indian characters. It is also curious that the name Mowgli is just a made-up name and not really an Indian name. In fact, there are theories that this is an allegorical fable and Mowgli did not at all represent an Indian character but in fact represented the British, and Sher Khan symbolized the Mughal rule in India that was dismantled by the British. The ‘The Jungle Book’ was a Rudyard Kipling creation but the popular portrayal and the overarching influence though is that of Hollywood. The multitude of characters that fill up the screen, each distinct, each memorable, but none of them are Indian because Hollywood was not familiar with Indian characters at that point in time. There were no Indian actors, just a sporadic community of Indians who had probably emigrated as scientists and engineers who had never made contact or had an impression on Hollywood in 1967. It would be hardly fair to blame Hollywood for not
having any Indian characters in the Jungle Book. Disney has gone all over the world to try to be inclusive or maybe trying to be exotic. They went to Agrabah and to Africa, but the characters remained bound to American sensibilities and American humor. Can we blame Disney for that? The genie that we had read about in our youth did not have any resemblance to the genie played by Robin Williams who was one of the most interesting characters in Disney’s version. The problem with movies with universal appeal is that the people who see the movies have strong feelings about the people portrayed in that film. They draw equivalences to the people they see and treat people from that part of the world based on perception formed from the movie. So, many people’s impressions of Indians were formed from seeing ‘The Jungle Book’. Which character would they think was an Indian one? Unfortunately, any character they picked would not have been representative. That was the problem with the Apu character in The Simpsons. Kids of Indian origin had people mocking them with the Apu accent. Indians who are not very fluent in English speak in many different accents, but I have not heard anybody speaking in the odd accent of Apu voiced over by Hank Azaria. Soon enough though you have hundreds of people speaking in the Azaria accent to imitate an Indian speaking. His voice-over was one of the dozens of character voice overs he did for the show of various characters. Hank Azaria has acknowledged that his characterization was
based on Peter Seller’s characterization of an Indian. When I watched an episode with Apu in it, it did not seem that The Simpson’s creators wanted to denigrate Indians. But that did not hinder the kids in the schools and colleges to co-opt that accent for purposes of bullying their Indian-American schoolmates. One of the more positive portrayals of Indian characters is the very recent one by Priyanka Chopra in Quantico. In that role, she is shown as smart and sexy and caught up in intrigue and drama, and she does wonders for the Indian psyche by her positive portrayal. Indian American girls have a role model who is more like them and not some dowdy unintelligent character. Even before that, Kumar, in Harold and Kumar movie series, played by Kal Penn, injected coolness factor to an Indian character. On the other hand, it may have caused some nightmares to Indian parents when they saw the version of a hardpartying American Desi kid who seemed to be more the norm than the outlier. When I travelled throughout the US doing computer consultancy jobs, I realized that people treated us with biases based on their perceptions of who an Indian was. In many of the places, we were the first Indians they had met in their lives, and it would seem that they showed us respect or disrespect based on unreliable sources, the movies or television shows. It is possible some of these perceptions were formed based on ‘The Jungle Book’. That was their earliest vision of India and Indians. Nothing could be further from reality.
NO PARKING ZONE Illegal Parking in circular driveway of temple has to be STOPPED! I know it is a longer walk from parking lot but that is our parking design. There are three car parking back of the front house and few cars can be parked on front house driveway to the garage! Once these are filled, everyone (!) has to park at the parking lot! Most often it is our own people who park illegally! I urge all of you to respect allowable parking space. If not, we are going to call police for TOWING! Let us cooperate and try to avoid this! Let us all be a good CITIZEN and follow the law! No one wants car to be TOWED! It is our community home and let us follow parking rule! Thank you for your understanding and cooperation! Ashok Rakhit President, Ananda Mandir
8 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
Puja Activities of Ananda Mandir I
n the month of June Ananda Mandir celebrated its monthly Shyama Puja on the 13th and Satyanarayan Puja on the 23rd. We also observed Dashohara in the morning. Lord Jagannath Deb’s Snan Yatra was celebrated on the 28th of June. July was a very busy month. We observed the monthly Shyama Puja on the 12th of July. Our longawaited celebration of Rath Yatra took place on the 14th of July. Young and old waited under the burning sun to pull the decorated chariot. Around 6:00pm the idols of
Reported by Krishna Dutta Roy, Chair, Puja Committee Shree Shree Jagannath Deb, Balaram and Subhadra were placed on the chariot. A young lady stood ready to sprinkle Ganga Jal and flowers in the path of the chariot. That is the tradition we follow back home in India. People were pulling the chariot – both young and old. The young children were not to be left behind and they were gleefully chanting along with the Khol. The Dhak and Karnal were also beating out their heady rhythm. Specta-
tors were awaiting their turn to pull the chariot. Hence the chariot had to be pulled quite a few times along the roadways of the Temple. Finally it returned, and the idols were taken back into the Temple and re-installed on their bedis. Before the puja started there was a dance performance in front of the deities as is also the ritual. Then the puja started. As usual puja, arati and anjali were done. Prasad and dinner were served. Thus the first part of
Rath Yatra concluded for the night. On the 17th of July we celebrated Bipad Tarini puja in the morning from 9:30am to 11:30 am. Though it was a weekday around 30 people gathered to observe this puja. A week after the Rath Yatra the second part of this Yatra, as we say “Ulto Rath” was celebrated on the 22nd of July. As the story goes, Lord Jagannath goes to his maternal aunt’s house with Balaram and Subhadra and
Children singing patriotic songs on Heritage Day
returns back to his own home in the same chariot, which in this case is inside our temple. It is a big festival in India and both days are celebrated with fairs being held complete with food stalls, plant sale stall etc. We try to replicate some of these fun things here. At least the food part. As the chariot was being pulled back and forth along the temple path ways, some of our members set up a stall to sell food stuff, snacks etc as it is done in India. It was pure and simple fun. Finally continue to page 10 }
Rath Yatra
Distinguished Leadership Awards Presented to Amitabha Bagchi & Dilip Chatterjee At the Annual Fund-Raiser on Sunday, August 26, Pronoy Chatterjee (Chair, Awards & Recognition Committee) and Ashok Rakhit (President, Ananda Mandir) presented award plaques to well-known members of the organization.
A
mitabha Bagchi was recognized “for his leadership in guiding the organization in its early years and in shaping and leading many important publication programs and projects.” As the General Secretary of Ananda Mandir in its
Amitabha Bagchi receiving award
formative years, he diligently managed many issues and requirements, ranging from legal to organizational to strategic. Subsequently he served as the president of Ananda Mandir for several years. He initiated “Sahitya O Alochana” discussion group which is now an important part of our cultural programs. He is currently a key member of the Awards & Recognition Committee and of the Publications Committee. He is the Managing Editor of Anandalipi, our annual literary magazine, and he was the editor-in-chief of the special literary magazine published for NABC 2018. Dilip Chatterjee was recognized “for his leadership in guiding the organization’s accounting and tax preparation systems and practices and for his skillful interactions with financial institutions.” He is a past member of the Board of Trustees and was our Treasurer for many years. For over ten years he shouldered total responsibility for all our accounting and tax filing responsibilities. And he has been critical to developing excellent relationship with several financial institutions and securing bank loans for all our major construction projects. He was also a key member of the team that was responsible for procuring the main Moorties for
our temple from India. He traveled to India several times, interacted with the sculptors in Kolkata and Jaipur and helped ensure high quality of work. We are proud to have Amitabha and Dilip as core members of Ananda Mandir. Congratulations and best wishes to them!
Dilip Chatterjee receiving award
October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
9
Pictures from NABC-2018 Compiled and arranged by Sushmita Dutta
13th South Asian Theater Festival (SATF) Reported by Subhodev Das
T
he 13th South Asian Theater Festival organized by the Epic Actors’ Workshop was held at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on August 4-5, 2018. The Festival opened witha children’s play A King’s Tale: Shiladitya directed by Parthapratim Deb and choreographed by Madhumita Paul of Kolkata. The play is an English adaptation of “Rajkahini” by Abanindranath Tagore, done by Amitabha Bagchi. It narrates the story of a young boy, named Gayeb, who was born to a lonely and prematurely widowed Brahmin priestess of the Sun Temple under the blessings of the Sun God. Endowed with a potent Sun Stone as a gift from his father, Gayeb vanquishes all enemies and becomes known as Shiladitya
while his progeny establishes the Sun Dynasty. The play was produced by Mrittika Inc., New Jersey. Next up was Achin Doshor, a Bengali play written by Tirthankar Chanda. It was directed by Debshankar Haldar of Kolkata and performed by Spotlight of Columbus, Ohio. The play analyzes the complexities in conjugal relationships where each partner keeps the “other” away in a world that is becoming in-
creasingly self-centered and divisive. The final play of the opening day was Rakt Phera basedon “Bodas de Sangre”by Frederico Garcia Lorca. Abhinav Grover’s Hindi adaptation of the Spanish play is set in Rajasthan/Haryana border areas where honor is valued above life and blood is a symbol of passion as much as it is of death and sacrifice. The production was directed by Mahesh Dattani of Mum-
bai, under the auspicious of Indian Cultural Society of East Brunswick. The concluding day’s proceedings began with a second children’s play Bachchon Ki Adalat written and directed by Nisha Narayan and produced by NatyaBharati of Washington, D.C. ThisHindi play captures the everyday issues encountered by children and parents in the Indian diaspora. A mock court presided by a grandmother
as the children-appointed judge meets out a compromise acceptable to all parties. The second play of the evening was a solo performance by Anjali Agashe in Marathi. Vijay Tendulkar’s well-known Shantata Court Chalu Aahe (“Silence, Court is in Session!”) is a political and social satire set as a playwithin-a-play. It was directed by Uday Agashe and Anand continue to page 10 }
10 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
The Myth of Prodigy
| continue from page 6 gang. There are a few cases where some of Wolfgang’s compositions are not original. In fact, the first four piano concertos written by him at the age of eleven do not contain any original music. They were put together using works by other composers. The next three works composed by the age of sixteen also do not contain any original music. They are simply arrangements of works by Johann Christian Bach with whom Mozart happened to be studying with at the time in London. What these early works really represent are pieces by someone being trained as a composer by the usual methods of copying, arranging, and imitating the works of others. The Piano Concerto No. 9, composed at the age of twenty-one, is considered Wolfgang Mozart’s first real masterpiece. This is still considered an early age, but we must remember that by this time, Wolfgang had been through eighteen years of gruelingly difficult, expert training. Think about this for a minute. If there was any magical talent that Wolfgang was born with, it still did not help him to produce his first masterpiece very quickly or easily. Contrary to the pervading myth, Mozart did not write music in his head as perfectly and completely as you might have originally thought! Today’s surviving manuscripts show that he
was constantly revising, rewriting, crossing out, and reworking many sections of his music over time. Mozart was the same as any of us but underwent intense training (or focused practice) at a very early age. This is not something most of us do in our childhood. The other way to look at precocity is of course to work backward — to look at adult geniuses and see what they were like as kids. A number of studies have taken this approach and uncovered a similar pattern. A study of 200 highly accomplished adults found that just 34 percent had been considered in any way precocious as children. The list of historical geniuses who had been notably undistinguished as children is rather long and includes Copernicus, Rembrandt, Bach, Newton, Beethoven, Kant, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Child prodigies rarely become adult geniuses who change the world. As it turns out, the skill of being a child prodigy is qualitatively different from the “skill” of being a creative genius. What holds the prodigies back is their lack of originality. They strive to earn the approval of their parents and the admiration of their teachers. But as they perform in Carnegie Hall or on Zee TV and become chess champions, something unexpected happens: Practice makes perfect, but it doesn’t make new. Research reveals that the more we practice, the more
we become entrenched – trapped in familiar ways of thinking. On the other hand, the passion that drives one to practice for hours is discovered through natural curiosity or nurtured through early enjoyable experiences with an activity or many activities. If that passion is appropriately channelized, there may be sparks of geniuses. Evidence shows that creative contributions depend on the breadth, not just depth, of our knowledge and experience. Relative to typical scientists, Nobel Prize winners are twenty-two times more likely to perform as actors, dancers or magicians; twelve times more likely to write poetry, plays or novels; seven times more likely to dabble in arts and crafts; and twice as likely to play an instrument or compose music. “The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition,” Albert Einstein reflected. His mother enrolled him in violin lessons when he was five, but he wasn’t intrigued. His love of music only blossomed as a teenager, after he stopped taking lessons and stumbled upon Mozart’s sonatas. “Love is a better teacher than a sense of duty,” he said. Our romanticized view of precociousness matters. When certain kids are singled out as gifted or talented, it creates an environment that may be subtly discouraging to those who are just average. And we will never know how
many kids, who might have been great achievers had they been encouraged and not discouraged from joining the fray, might have ended up as being very successful several years down the road. The wisdom of wanting to provide learning environments suited to different paces of achievement is often overwhelmed by our irresistible desire to look at precociousness as a prediction. Predictions from childhood about adult performance can only be made based on relatively fixed traits. Unfortunately, many of the things that really matter in predicting adult success are not fixed at all. And once we begin to concede the importance of these kinds of non-intellectual, highly variable traits, we have to give up our fascination of precociousness. Consider the story of two buildings. One is built ahead of schedule, and one is being built in New York City and comes in two years late and several million dollars over budget. Does anyone really care, ten years down the road, which building was built early and which building was built late? But, somehow, when it comes to children we feel the other way that we get obsessed with schedules. If you want to know whether a ten-yearold musician will be a good musician when they’re twenty-one, you should wait until they’re twenty-one. It is impossible to predict which course a life will take.
13th South Asian Theater Festival (SATF) | continue from page 9 Ghanekar. Four Walls written and directed by Manoj Sahane and performed by Theatrix, New Jersey, was the next to follow. In a contemporary and non-conventional way of presenting the alter ego alongside each character, the play explores the delicate relationship of a couple going through emotional roller coaster. A demonstration of Chhau by Madhumita Paul was a special addition to this year’s lineup. In a brief span, the audience was enthralled by ‘tri-dhara’ (three schools) of chhau – Mayurbhanj of Odissa, Seraikela of Jharkhand, and Purulia of West Bengal. The program was produced
by Mrittika Inc., New Jersey. The finale of the festival was Nirastra (“Unarmed”) by Epic Actors’ Workshop, New Jersey. This bilingual play, in Bengali and English, is inspired by the short story ‘Draupadi’ and other stories of eminent Bengali author Smt. Mahasweta Debi. It is scripted and directed by Gargi Mukherjee and Golam Sarwar Harun with English translation by Kamala Prasad Das. The play depicts the hardscrabble life of ‘adivasis’ or indigenous people under the oppression of local landlords in collusion with panchayat (the law) and the police (the order). It is set against the backdrop of the Naxalbari movement of the ‘60s that sees atrocities by the army in the form of torture,
rape and killing to squash the movement. Draupadi or Dopdi, a tribal woman, fights for tribal rights alongside her husband in the first part of the play. Following her husband’s death in the hands of the army, Dopdi takes up her fight for all denigrated women as she suffers brutal rape of herself by the oppressors from the male-dominated society. Theater in Breaks conceived and directed by Subhasis Das and produced by Epic Actors’ Workshop was brought back to the festival lineup after a year’s hiatus. According to Subhasis, the concept is one that aims to explore and create spaces of exchange between theater workers and audiences. During four breaks over two
days, Subhasis and his supporting team explored different frames of exchanges in the format of ‘Third Theater’ popularized by his mentor Shri Badal Sircar. The converted black box space of George Street Playhouse was utilized to foster the mutual evolution of the audience and theater through improvisation. The two breaks on first day examined the spontaneity of music as our emotional triggers and of objects and images invoking memories. The first break on the second day explored the spontaneous evolution of stories as a series of connected actions and reactions. The final break showcased Jukti Takko Gaal Golpo or debate as a constructive way to develop narratives.
Puja Activities of Ananda Mandir | continue from page 8 when the chariot returned to the temple we all gathered there for the puja. Like on the day of Rath Yatra this evening too had one Indian dance performer perform in front of the deities. After puja, arati and anjali prasad and dinner were served. Thus we completed the Rath Yatra festival along with our small Mela (fair). In the month of August we observed our monthly Shyama Puja on 10th. Then we celebrated Satyanarayan puja along with Jhulan Yatra and Rakhi Purnima puja on the 26th of Aug. Radha & Krishna were placed on a decorated swing (Jhula or dolna as we say in Bengali). The puja continued while devotees came and offered flowers to Radha and Krishna on the swing and gently pulled on the ropes tied to the swing, again as the ritual is. Also a big event of this month was the celebration of our Heritage Day.This year, August 15, the actual date of Indian independence, fell on a weekday. To allow greater participation by children and working adults, we scheduled the celebrations on Sunday, August 26. On this day adults and young kids paraded along the Temple path ways holding up Indian Flags as well as American Flags, and Chanting “Bande Mataram”. Then the Flag was hoisted by our President and ex-president, Ashok Rakhit and Dr. Dipak Sarkar with our priest Biswabhai helping them. Then the American and Indian National Anthems were sung by Shreya Chowdhury. Both Ashok Rakhit and Dipak Sarkar gave small speeches about Independence Day. Swagata Goswami with her students presented a very beautiful Patriotic song and that concluded this day’s events. The upcoming big event in September is Janmashtomi on 2nd September Sunday. The Temple will remain open from 9:00am to 9:00pm. All the information in on the website. Please remember that Durga Puja is from 14th October to 19th October. Every event at Ananda Mandir is made possible by volunteers. Please join us. We need you.
October 2018 11
Ananda Sangbad
WILL THE FIRST V.S. Naipaul Passes Away By Subrata Bhaumik FEMALE POTUS HAVE INDIAN ROOT? V By Basab Dasgupta
I
t was widely expected that Hillary Clinton would make history in the 2016 US election by becoming the first female President of the USA (POTUS). After her shocking defeat, speculations are again rampant about who would be the first female POTUS. Regardless of whether she is a Democrat or a Republican it would indeed be a watershed moment in the history of male dominated American presidential politics. If one examines the experiences of the US presidents prior to their presidential tenure it becomes immediately evident that a vast majority of them were either senator or governor in their political careers before running for presidency; out of 45 presidents sixteen had been senators and seventeen were governors before becoming president. So, in order to start any speculation about the potential first female POTUS it is reasonable to start with the current female senators and governors and evaluate their strengths and national name recognitions. There were five female governors in 2016 including Nikki Haley of South Carolina, who has since been appointed to be the US Ambassador to the UN by Trump. There are twenty female senators in 2018. Surprisingly not too many of them have high name recognition. So, I will focus on the ones who are relatively well-known. Clearly Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is the leading presidential contender from the Democratic Party. She is very progressive and can set an agenda very distinguishable from that of the GOP. She would presumably have the full support of the younger generation who passionately rooted for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 primaries. In addition she engaged in Twitter warfare with Donald Trump on more than one occasion, much to the delight of the Democrats. The only other female senator with considerable political experience and clout is Dianne Feinstein of California, but she is in her eighties already and has
never expressed any interest in a presidential bid. Among other senators we have occasionally heard of are Jeanne Shaheen from the Democratic side and Susan Collins and Joni Ernst from GOP side. However they are relatively unknown on the national scene. Ernst was reportedly vetted by Trump to be his running mate but the fact that she was not chosen not just for a VP slot but any other cabinet position points to her weakness. Susan Collins was rumored to be considering running for Governorship but recently announced that she would like to remain in the senate. Her repeated voting against Trump’s “repeal and replace” of Obamacare could mean a lack of support from the hard-core conservatives. Kamala Harris of California is a brand-new democratic senator from California who effectively replaced retiring Barbara Boxer. Kirsten Gillibrand is a senator from New York State who filled the position created by Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Obama’s secretary of state. In spite of the fact that she is very popular in New York and often speculated to be a future presidential candidate, she is relatively unknown at a national level from a name recognition point of view. Among the female governors, republicans Susana Martinez of New Mexico and Mary Fallin of Oklahoma are more well-known than their democratic counter-parts Kate Brown of Oregon and Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island. Just like Ernst, Mary Fallin was also considered to be Trump’s running mate but eventually dismissed in favor of Mike Pence. Susana Martinez was once considered to be a rising star within the GOP. Like Nikki Haley she had decided to boycott Trump not only by not supporting him but also avoiding appearance with him during his campaign. However Haley was smart enough to patch things up with Trump after the election and landed a coveted posicontinue to page 12 }
idiadhar Surajprasad (V.S.) Naipaul, one of the most famous writers in English Literature of our times passed away on Aug 21, 2018 at the Age of 85. He is probably the most famous writers of Indian lineage who made indelible and towering contributions to the English literature, and is considered as the best English prose writers of last sixty years. The following narrative is an attempt to encapsulate the essence of his works and life, and an impartial review of his status and the legacy he leaves behind in the international literary arena. Naipaul was born in the Caribbean island of Trinidad in 1932. In the late nineteenth century, his grandfather had emigrated there as an indentured labor from Uttar Pradesh, India. His mother Dropati Capildeo was a housewife from a Trinidadian Hindu priest family and his father, Seepersad Naipaul, was a journalist, whose literary aspirations were inherited by him and his brother, Shiva. V.S. Naipaul left Trinidad in 1950 on a government scholarship to study literature at Oxford University in England. Following his graduation, Naipaul worked as a free-lance writer with the BBC, hosting the program “Carribbean Voices,” and with another cultural/ political journal named “The New Statesman”. In 1955, he married Patricia Ann Hale, an English woman, who he met at Oxford. Reportedly, he never had a high point in his marital life for various reasons. She died in 1996, and Naipaul was remarried shortly thereafter to Nadira Khannum Alvi, a Pakistani journalist. A man of many pursuits, Naipaul also entertained a very long extramarital affair, reportedly abusive, with Margaret Murray, an Argentine woman with British lineage. In his long and illustrious career as a writer, Naipaul has enriched the literary world with numerous unique and marvelous creations in both fiction and nonfiction categories. Many of his works have been critically acclaimed and he has come to represent the most articulate voice in what we know as post-colonial literature. He was awarded the prestigious Booker prize in
1971 and the Nobel Prize for literature in 2001. In 1990, he also received knighthood in England for his outstanding contributions to the English literature. Some of his betterknown works include The Mystic masseur, A House for Mr. Biswas, In a Free State, Bend in the River, Miguel Street, The Enigma of Arrival, Among the Believers: an Islamic Journey, India: A Million Mutinies Now, The Loss of El Dorado, and A Writers People among others. In a statement delivered at the Nobel Prize award ceremony, the Swedish Academy observed: “Not since (Joseph) Conrad (the Polish born British writer) has a novelist so completely absorbed himself in the shifting complexities of his age or written more sharply about the dark places of the world. Certainly, no contemporary novelist shares his gift of watching, of noticing, or his willingness to travel to remote places to find a subject. Nor does anyone write more convincingly of displacement and exile, of the loneliness of the migrant.” Naipaul’s literary odyssey is, in a way, infused with a romantic view of reality; marked by an unforgiving insistence on finding the truth; and an almost unbearable tension between ideas and physical facts. A sense of existentialism defines his work as well, which in an undeniable way puts human experience as the supreme truth. A staunch believer of psychological realism, he professes no love for fantasy. Most of his works epitomize his disenchantment with the prevailing forms of writing and are a fresh but complex blend of fiction, autobiography, journalistic reporting, and social commentary. Naipaul’s primary interest throughout his literary career had been the relationship between the individual and the society. He often wrote about lives of people caught between civilizations and changing cultures; their interactions with the world they live in; their past, their aspirations and illusions; and how domineering societies ruthlessly subjugate others and remake the lives and the psyche of the hapless people of what he calls “half-made societies” that
are domineered. He gives his readers a stunning view of the inner struggle of individuals absorbing the savagery inflicted upon them by such domination and the process of adjusting to the discomforts of the inevitable reassessment of identities in a world where societal evolution and economic forces dictate decolonization. And in laying out his observations, he rewrites history in a way it was never written, especially in narrating how the wounded fights self-pity in rejecting the wounder’s patronage and in search of a purpose in the changed world. Endless search for identity played an underlying theme in many of his writings. This is clearly evident in “A House for Mr. Biswas”, his masterpiece based on the struggles of the protagonist of the novel, Mr. Mohan Biswas, a thinly-veiled emulation of his father. In an almost claustrophobic manner, Naipaul talks about the abject failure Mr. Biswas experiences in making any worthy mark in most of his life’s pursuits: becoming a writer, a responsible fatherhood, and above all, being a homeowner. He is haunted by a lack of authenticity, a sense of incomplete identity, and an inexplicable feeling of loss imbued by his past. Similar sentiment was echoed in many of his other works including “The Enigma of Arrival” in which he alludes to a linkage between his own estranged identity in the English society and the fusion of various incongruous forces he embodies: a resilient attitude that the world is outside human control purportedly inherited from an Indian ancestral past, the shallow cultural silo of the “half-made society” that he grew up in on the enclaves of Trinidad with indentured labor lineage; and the English continue to page 14 }
12 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
WILL THE FIRST FEMALE Devil Plays Violin POTUS HAVE INDIAN ROOT? By Rahul Ray
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roblem started when I called a tabla-player who accompanied a famous vocalist from India and myself in violin as ‘tabol-chi’ in an article that I wrote for a monthly magazine. In the next issue of the magazine one dear reader wrote in the ‘communications’ that I have committed a ‘grave sin’ in calling a tabla-player ‘tabol-chi’. The correct salutation should be ‘tabol-iya’ or ‘tabla-baadok’. He also correctly pointed out that several stalwarts of Indian music have vehemently opposed the term (‘tabol-chi’) as degrading, as it sounds too close to ‘baburchi’, ‘masal-chi’ etc. Obviously, these master musicians and our dear reader did not think too highly about chefs and their associates in terms of their profession and social status. I tried to defend myself by pointing out that both ‘tabol-iya’ or ‘tablabaadok’ have Sanskrit as origin, and hence are Hindu terms in common mind, while ‘tabol-chi’ is most definitely a Muslim derivation. I also argued that a Hindu master-musician is a ‘Pundit’ while a Muslim musician of the same stature is an ‘Ustad’. Therefore, ‘tabol-chi’ and ‘tabal-iya’ or ‘tabla-baadok’ should satisfy both communities. However, my dear reader did not buy it, and instead accused me of hypocrisy, saying - “You are a violin-player. How would you feel if someone calls you a ‘behala-chi’?” I could not tell, because nobody has ever called me by that name, and I do not know whether such term actually exists or not. During our heated discourse, I chanced upon an interesting article by Addison Nugent titled ‘Why the devil plays the fiddle’ in an issue of Ozy magazine (https://www.ozy.com/
flashback/why-the-devil-plays-thefiddle/87458). After reading the article, I found the proverbial head of the nail to hit upon that is myself! Therefore, I relented by saying that ‘since I play the violin I must be the devil to argue so vehemently about why a tabla-player can be called ‘tabol-chi’ against standard norms.’ As it turns out, it would not have been too far from the truth if I lived in pre-sixteenth century Europe. In Christianity, much like many others religions, virtue is associated with denying oneself of earthly pleasures. This is possibly the reason celibacy is strictly mandated for pastors, priests and like. In early Christianity, definition of ‘pleasure’ was far stricter to include music and dance. In the fourth century, St. John Chrysotom proclaimed that: “Where dance is found, there is devil.” Today, music is an integral part of Christianity, but before 14-15th century the only music allowed in churches was chants. Catholic Church considered secular music using various instruments as pagan, because it enticed people to dance and commit adultery. However, going back to the main question why fiddling was considered an act of devil needs a lesson in history. Violin, as a musical instrument did not exist in Europe until the middle of the sixteenth century. Traders brought Rubab and rabec, the two wooden bow and string musical instruments and early predecessors of violin to Europe from Arabia and other parts of Asia; and in the mid1500, master crafts-men like Amati of Cremona, Italy created the first violin. Soon violin, with its human voice-like tonal quality, versatility and portability became a standard fixture in taverns, outdoor festivals and in all forms of merrymaking. This did not sit well with the Church. The medieval European society considered customs of the people of the Middle and Far East to be uninhibited, continue to page 13 }
| continue from page 11 tion in his cabinet. The above discussion leads me to conclude that if a female POTUS is to be elected either in 2020 or 2024 the field is relatively narrow and consists of Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Joni Ernst, Nikki Haley and Mary Fallin. Strictly based on credentials Warren seems to be the best possibility. However there are several things going against her – the most significant of which is her liberal agenda. Defeat of Hillary Clinton showed that it was not easy to bring the so-called independent-minded Republicans under her “middle of the road” umbrella. A more progressive agenda would push them further to the right. In addition Warren does not come across as a very pleasant and friendly person. Although many would downplay this aspect it seems that Americans love a charismatic if not good-looking person to be their president. Hillary was also deficient in this area and it haunted her throughout the campaign. She was often described, even by Democrats as “not likeable”. The chances are that Warren would run for presidency in 2020 and possibly even in 2024 but is not likely to win. As I already mentioned both Ernst and Fallin do not carry enough clout even within the GOP to be in the spotlight. That brings us to Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley both of whom have Indian roots. Nikki Haley was born to immigrant Sikh parents – Ajit Singh Randhawa and his wife Raj Kaur. She later converted to Christianity and married Michael Haley, a Methodist Christian. She was reportedly considered by Mitt Romney to be his running mate during the 2012 election and had expressed her desire to be a candidate for Vice Presidency during the 2016 campaign. She is energetic and articulate. She is pleasant. She has the support of some strong GOP leaders. Her views are well respected by both sides of the aisle, as evidenced by a 94-6 vote in the Senate during the confirmation of her UN position. Even though she was the governor of a small southern state, her UN position would give her considerable exposure to international diplomacy. It is not clear if her early opposition to Trump would cost her some points in the long run. On the negative side, an alleged scandal involving an extramarital affair, which Haley vehemently denied, is likely to raise its ugly head if she does decide to run for presidency. Kamala Harris has the advantage of being a triple minority. She is not only a woman, but her father Donald Harris was an African American (more precisely a Jamaican American) man and mother Shyamala Gopalan, is an Indian immigrant. Her
parents divorced when she was very young, and she was raised by her mother in a modest environment. She did not attend an Ivy League school and lived in predominantly black neighborhoods most of her life. All of these would give her the ability to connect with the minorities and less fortunate segment of the society. Her real strength has been in her slow but steady political climb. She is charismatic and articulate. She served as the Attorney General for the state of California for six years and is presumably very knowledgeable about our legal system. Her name had been mentioned as a potential nominee to become US Attorney General and a Supreme Court Justice. President Obama gave her very strong support during her senatorial campaign by words of endorsement in her campaign ads. She seems to have the perfect temperament to be in any high-profile government job. There was not even a GOP candidate running against her in the 2016 election. She is also remarkably free of any scandal in her personal life. Given the two potential candidates with Indian roots the odds are probably in favor of Harris. Of course, it is highly likely that neither one would become the POTUS by 2024. The path to presidency for a female candidate is going to be a very long one. Even Hillary Clinton had to go through the experiences of being first lady, senator, a failed race for presidential nomination in 2008 and secretary of state before she was deemed to be a front-runner. However Haley and Harris both have the advantage of being young and can continue to gain experience and name recognition in whatever positions they serve in the next decade. Another prominent second generation Indian female political figure is Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic US representative in the Congress – the first Hindu in the House – from the state of Hawaii and former vice chair of the Democratic Party. She drew attention and speculations from the news media when she met with Donald Trump after the election. She is very young and definitely the one to watch for future possibilities. There are other potential female candidates not currently in any government role who may have presidential aspirations: names of (former governor and vice-presidential candidate) Sarah Palin and (former secretary of state) Condoleezza Rice come to mind. However it seems that Palin’s popularity has waned, and Rice is happy to stay out of the political spotlight. Of course, there is always the possibility of a new woman leader entering the arena much like Barack Obama.
October 2018 13
Ananda Sangbad
Devil Plays Violin | continue from page 12 erotic, and outright immoral. Therefore, Church authorities, as the arbiter of European societies dubbed violin, with its origin in the Middle East as the instrument of the devil. Soon myths relating devil and fiddling started flying. Rumor spread far-and-wide that people who played violin were in tryst with Satan. The first devil or Satan in the biblical texts is the serpent in the Garden of Eden that enticed Adam and Eve to eat the proverbial apple and commit the ‘first sin’ by the humankind. By the middle ages, devil’s imagery became wildly varied and colorful. In depictions after depictions, Satan has horns and forked legs of a mule or a goat, wings and often a tail. In some other images devil is decidedly more monstrous with protruding incisor teeth, multiple heads and often a pitchfork in his hand, depicting the tormentor of sinners in hell. These images are very similar to those of Rakkhowsh-khokowsh, Bhut-Petni, Brahmadotyi of Indian mythology. Even the description of ‘narak’ and tormenting of ‘papi’-s is remarkably similar, as described in the accompanying 14th century French depiction of ‘two souls tortured in hell by demons’. Since violin was the instrument of devil, violinists were often seen as entranced by devil, or devil themselves. Rumor has it that in 1655, after a virtuoso violin-performance by Thomas Balthazar in London, a professor of music in Oxford stooped forward to inspect the feet of the famous German violinist whether they were forked hoofs! Myth about devil plays the fiddle has lasted through the nineteenth century and beyond. Niccolo Paganini was a legendary fiddler of the nineteenth century. He played his violin with an unmatched skill and tonality. Therefore, people often thought that he possessed by Satan. The following description of his performance in London comes directly from Addison Nugent’s article with implicit permission from the author. “The audience should have been filled with hushed excitement that spring night in 1831 at London’s King’s Theatre as they awaited the debut of a renowned violinist. Instead, the air was marked by nervousness and fear. Ladies fanned themselves and glanced over their shoulders, while gentlemen stared fixedly ahead, crossing and uncross-
ing their legs. Their anxiety was born of rumors that had been spreading throughout Europe: Niccolo Paganini, the virtuoso violinist about to perform, was possessed by the devil. The lights dimmed and a tall, hawkish figure dressed in black took the stage. Muffled screams could be heard as Paganini’s slender, grayishwhite fingers grasped the neck of his violin. Then, wielding the bow like a weapon, he attacked the first chords of his opening concerto, “Il Streghe” (“The Witches”). The maestro played with wild abandon, his long black hair flying as he sweated over his wailing instrument. In a review for Athaeneum, a music critic referred to Paganini as “Zamiel” (a mythological demonic huntsman) and said of the performance, “The poor violin was a transformed victim in the demon’s hand, uttering the anguished complaints of his inflicted torture.” In 2013 biopic, ‘The Devil’s Violinist’ an image of horned and longrobed satan rises behind David Garett as Paganini, playing Caprice 24 (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YCsVEsQlm7o), while women are seen fainting in ecstasy. Paganini was a known womanizer. Therefore, myth has it that G-string of his Amati violin was made of innards of a woman he murdered! Niccolo Paganini died in 1840, but the Church denied him a Catholic burial because of his rumored personification of Satan. After thirty-six years of delay that included appeal to the Pope in the Vatican, his body was finally buried in 1876. In 1896, his body was entombed in its final resting place in Parna, Italy, the birthplace of the ill-fated violinist. That evening, after a sumptuous meal and a generous helping of my favorite Pinot Noir I picked up my violin to play. I had David Garett and his Paganini’s Caprice 24 in mind, but I do not have his genius nor his skill, and I had not practiced for ages. Therefore, I fumbled through several songs to produce a decent tone, miserably failed to shift to third and fifth positions, and finally gave up. Next morning I woke up late with a thumping headache. I took some aspirin and dosed off. An hour later, I woke up with a persistent nagging headache. While combing my hair with my fingers for relief, I touched something hard on both sides above my forehead. In addition, there was a funny feeling at the end of my tailbone. I closed my eyes in horror lest I wanted to inspect my feet!
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Recent Sahitya O Alochana Sessions at Ananda Mandir Reported by Subrata Bhaumik
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ahitya O Alochana (SOA) is a monthly literary and topical discussion forum under the aegis of Ananda Mandir (AM). It completed its 10th anniversary in January 2018 and will have organized one hundred and eight (108) sessions - including the Literary Seminar at NABC 2018 by the time this report goes to press. These monthly sessions feature exciting and illuminating discussions on diverse subjects including literature, art, theater and movie; history, philosophy and religion; science and mathematics; economics and business; and social issues, sports, and current affairs. Below is an account of the recently held sessions.
June 2018 This was one of our away from home sessions (we had one before in late 2016 in New York). The session took place in Atlantic City as a part of NABC 2018 – which was organized by Ananda Mandir. This event was an astounding success that delivered programming content in excess of 12 hours spread over two days featuring discussions on Literature, Drama, impact of digital media, and 4 hours of uninterrupted poetry and prose readings by the stalwarts of contemporary Bengali literature and Indian English Literature (IEL), including Chitra Divakaruni, Amit Chowdhury, Srijato Bandyopadhyay, Tilottama Majumdar, Angshuman Kar, and others. Attendance was very strong and averaged about 125 each day. Based on the feedback from the attendees and the writers, it could be deemed the best literary seminar in the 38-year history of NABC. A ton of thanks goes out to the volunteers and organizers of the Literary Seminar.
July 2018 In July we were able to take advantage of the continued presence in the US of a couple of star writers from the NABC Literary Seminar and we presented an event entitled An Evening with Srijato and Angshuman. This event featured reading of the works of these two very famous poets in contemporary Bengali literature who are also the joint editors of “Krittibas,” the venerable Bengali poetry magazine stirred up quite a bit of excitement amongst the local literary enthusiasts. Attendance was really robust with more than 50 people; the atmosphere was inspiring; the mood was intimate, infused with breathless expectation on the part of the audience. And boy, weren’t the blown away? They marveled at the wondrous literary work that was shared
with them: Srijato, along with some of his prose-poetries (including the famous “Najam”), read a selection of paragraphs from his very famous new novel “Tara Bhora Akasher Niche,” an adaptation of parts of van Gogh’s life, while Angshuman read several of his famous poems. The experience was fantastic, almost bordering on surreal. A ton of thanks goes out to Srijato and Angshuman.
August 2018 In August we had session that focused on the life and works Raymond Chandler – the famous detective fiction writer. Chandler, an American, who spent his formative years in Britain returned home in early twentieth century as a young adult just to find that he had to relearn the American way – thinking, expressions, slangs, baldly plain worldview, and the contemporary crime riddled society. Embarking on a writing career at a relatively older age, he focused on pulp writing with hardboiled plots. His fame gathered slow but serious inertia as he established himself as a mystery writer with an eye for intricate, sometimes poetic, details, who also shunned the affinity in the established mystery writing world for inordinately complex plots that demanded highly intellectual and objective solutions. On the contrary, his plots and characters including the famous detective Philip Marlowe often had a human angle, although sometimes prejudiced, and a touchy and feely side to them. His famous novels include “Farewell, My Lovely; The Lady in The Lake, The Long Goodbye, The Big Sleep, among others. Some of his novels were made into movies including The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart playing the role of Philip Marlowe. This was a wonderful session and attracted a completely different crowd who love mystery novels. A ton of thanks goes out to Abhijit Gupta.
Future sessions Quite a few interesting sessions are in the pipeline for next several months. They feature eclectic topics including a discussion on business environment in India, one on theory and the concept of lineage in Indian music, a session on Block chain, and an event showcasing local writers. The friends of Sahitya O Alochana would like to thank Ananda Mandir for its continued support for the forum’s contribution to the cultural enrichment of the local Indian and Bengali communities.
14 October 2018
2018 Kishalay Awards for Writing Excellence The Kishalay Awardsfor Writing Excellence were established by Ananda Mandir(AM) in 2016. This program is designed to recognize superior writing skills of school age children and kin of AM members. The initial year awards were made possible by a donation by Abhijit Sen, a life member of Ananda Mandir.In 2017, the award was funded by a donation by Ashok Rakhit, the current president of AM. For 2017, the winners were Puja Vengadasalam (first prize) and Shruti Roy (second prize). Nominations are hereby invited for 2018 Kishalay Awards, which have been made possible by a donation by Utpal Sengupta, a member of the Trustee Board of Ananda Mandir. Following are the basic rules that govern the award administration. 1. The first place winner will earn prize of $300, and the second prize is worth $200. 2. It is available for only school age children and kin of Ananda Mandir members. The contestants for the awards need to reside in the US, and preferably enrolled in a high or middle school. 3. A contestant will need to be nominated by a member of Ananda Mandir or be self-nominated following the nomination rules set forth herein. 4. Potential contestants over 18 years of age will be automatically disqualified. 5. Number of submissions is limited to two (2) per contestant per year. Only English prose (essay, story, report, article, etc.) would be considered, and the length should be limited to 2,500 words. 6. Submission of published article in any magazine (school or others) is highly encouraged although unpublished work will be accepted as well. 7. Nominations should include short biography of the author and his/her connection to Ananda Mandir. 8. Deadline for nominations (with copies of the submissions) for the 2018 awards is November 15, 2018. Awards will be announced and presented by the end of the year. 9. All nominations will be made using the Nomination Form downloaded from Ananda Mandir’s website. For copies of nomination form, please contact Subrata Bhaumik and /or Pronoy Chatterjee at the following email addresses. Completed forms should be supported by the submitted piece(s) of work of the young author. 10. Nomination forms will be available on Ananda Mandir’s website and distributed via email. In case of questions, please email Subrata Bhaumik (Bhaumik.subrata @gmail.com or Pronoy Chatterjee (pkc_usa@yahoo.com).
Ananda Sangbad
V.S. Naipaul Passes Away | continue from page 11 language, his “Ticket to Ride” to the outside world. A vocal critic of traditional Eurocentric writings with defined beginning and end, he often leans toward shunning any clean sweep conclusions thereby leaving the playing field open for the story to breathe and move on, alluding to a kind of eternity that some of his characters dissolve into. Traces of his Hindu roots may sometimes be noticed in these tinges of “Ananta”, the perpetual cycle of the universe. Thus, “A House for Mr. Biswas”, is a prompt for Anand, the son of Mohan. It is Anand writing Mohan, the son refiguring the world of his father, and, in the end, with the father’s death, the son begins his life. Naipaul on occasions appeared to be overly obsessed with cultural identities of people. At times it might seem that he would be vulnerably prone to self-denial, to the extent that he chose to overlook the undebatable truth of humankind regardless of time, race or creed: the human identity. History is replete with triumphs of this paramount identity over any other sub-identities created by human behavior. Despite his legendary stature, he has a penchant for stirring up great controversies. Naipaul is famous or infamous for the humanity or lack of it expressed through his opinions, his discomfiting assertions – about Islam, about women, races and cultures including Africa, Indian subcontinent, and Trinidad and Tobago, his country of birth. While his assertions and thoughts may often be biased, inaccurate, and unpleasant, but he consistently pointed out that, despite the unpleasantness, they possessed unflinching quality of truth. Furthermore, he often found himself in murky waters due to his vocal disregard of the establishment as well - the literary world at large. He is known to have made disparaging statements about many stalwarts of the western literary world – the likes of Charles Dickens, E.M. Forster, Earnest Hemingway, James Joyce, and Rudyard Kipling – dismissing them for repetitiveness, incomprehensibility, shallowness, and revelatory tone, among other things. He also decried the banality of some of the latter-day works of Derek Walcott, the celebrated poet and a fellow Nobel Laureate who he shares a Caribbean background with. It is interesting to note here that it is Naipaul himself who, at the beginning of the Walcott’s career, accoladed him with a comparison to the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Various literary quarters have
matched such indignities, riddling him with scathing criticisms for his apparent bias towards life in exile, haughtiness, and at times, limited vision, while grudgingly conceding him the stature he so deservedly commands in our times. Thus, in The New York Times, Fouad Azami, a Middle Eastern studies scholar of repute, noted in a review of his writings about Islamic civilizations that the master, while delivering his craft at its best, exhibited a limitedness of vision. Salman Rushdie, one of the great writers of our times, a figurehead of magical realism after Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and a compatriot of Naipaul in terms of a shared Indian lineage, observed of Naipaul’s rejection of fantasy as a literary technique, “When fiction fails the writer, what remains is autobiography”. James Wood, a literary critic of enormous fame, called him a “public snob and a grand bastard” in a New Yorker magazine review. He theorized that a discernible dual personality in Naipaul had always estranged him from where he strived, on one hand, to be one from within, while rejecting such assimilation on an intellectual level – “He lives in English countryside but is ashamed to live there; The house for Mr. Naipaul in England, as for Mr. Biswas in Trinidad, is a homeless house”. On the other hand, many literary scholars argue that recognition of Naipaul’s achievements would have been reached considerably unparallel and higher (than he was afforded to) plains during the time he lived and wrote but for obvious reasons. As Amit Chaudhuri, a famous writer and literary scholar of our generation puts it – “which is so obvious that we aren’t conscious of it. Naipaul was not white. This means we must primarily view him as a representer – or misrepresenter – of the culture he came from, rather than as one who’s renewing language and radically rethinking the form he uses. After all, how can you renew something – in this case, the English language and the novel as a genre – which you don’t have cultural ownership of (the novel is seen to be a Western invention “adapted” to other milieus)?” For all the controversies Naipaul was mired in and the denigrations showered on him, history would still uncontentiously recognize him as a literary pathbreaker who almost singlehandedly created the concept of “Post-colonial literature in realism” focusing on the dynamics of the lives of individuals ruled by extrageneous people in changing times, in complete rejection of the fashionable exoticness with which tales of such bonded societies were hitherto greeted in the first world, the world of the rulers.
Food Drive by Ananda Mandir
The food for the needy comes from generous donations made by you - our members, temple attendees and all well-wishers of the community. Will you please help? This is a year-round program, so any time is good for the donation. All kinds of non-perishable food and toiletries are needed. No glass jars please! Thank You, Krishna Dutta Roy, Chair, Ananda Mandir Humanitarian Activities
COMMUNITY NEWS
Ananda Sangbad
GSCA Corner
ICC Corner Reported By Arpita Gupta Debol Gupta
Reported by Pradip R. Das
A
nnual General Meeting Garden State Cultural Association held its Annual General Meeting at the Crown of India restaurant at Plainsboro on Saturday, March 31st. The attending members were first treated to a savory lunch buffet of North and South Indian delicacies. The meeting which started at 1 p.m. had a full agenda, the highlights of which were reports by the outgoing Chairman of the Board, the General Secretary and the Treasurer, approval of the current year’s budget, followed by reports by the coordinators of the nine committees. The meeting concluded with a welcome note by Sandip Saha, the new Chairman, and self-introductions of this year’s new members. A brief Q&A session followed as well. The meeting concluded at 3:45 p.m. “Baishakhi” was celebrated by GSCA at Linwood Middle School, North Brunswick on Saturday, May 12th. It organized a cultural program commencing with children showcasing their talents. A GSCA In-House program with theme of the Sun and its preyasi was enjoyed by all. In another item, five dance schools from New Jersey participated in presenting marvelous dance medleys which captivated the audience. A short “Shruti-Natok” with a comedy theme followed. The program concluded with “Sur Safari” by Arindam and group whose melodious renditions enthralled all present. Clothing and jewelry and food stalls drew crowds and added to the festive mood of this day. Picnic GSCA hosted its Annual Picnic on Sunday, July 29, at Mercer County Park, West Windsor. Around 150 people, members and members’ friends, adults and children of all ages, enjoyed a gorgeous day at this beautiful picnic site amidst green meadows next to the Mercer Lake. Morning breakfast included popular Bengali jalkhabar items such as kochuri, ghoogni (prepared on site) and jilipi. Later, for lunch, typical picnic grilled food was made and served in abundance. Varieties of hot and cold beverages were available all through the day. Many fun-filled activities were planned to keep both adults and children occupied and entertained. Several games were organized for all age groups including spoon races, tugof-war, three-legged races, water-gun fights and soccer. Some picnickers were seen on paddle-boats on the lake, making merry of the gorgeous summer day. Several GSCA teams, in particular food and recreation, put in commendable efforts to make this day of delightful food, great company and outdoor activities go by too fast, it seemed. Sharad Mela For the first time, GSCA will be hosting a “Sharad Mela” during Durga Puja 2018 in the massive space of Plainfield High School’s gymnasium. Stalls of various kinds, traditional and new-age music, video contents will create a nostalgic mela like atmosphere to augment the puja experience this year.
S
araswati puja was held at ICC with a pretty large number of participants. After the pratima decoration was finished, puja was done with proper ceremony, followed by pushpanjali. In keeping with our tradition, many ICC’s kids participated in a variety of good cultural programs. Naturally, they got the biggest applause from their parents in the audience! Among the adults, musical programs were beautifully presented by Sangrami Lahiri, Arpita Gupta, Mousumi Chakraborty, Ruma, Kakoli, Suthapa M, Suthapa C and Babhrabi. The Bangla School presented a drama, “Choda”, with their students. Food was ordered from “Raandhuni” and it was delicious. Our next celebration was “Baishakhi”. There was a large attendance for this program too. The entertainment programs were built to showcase the ICC kids. Performance of Disahri, Monalisa, Ragni and Ananya were really of high quality. ICC served goat meat, non-veg biriyani and many other items to complete the celebration. ICC supported NABC2018 at Atlantic City, New Jersey, hosted by Ananda Mandir, with a lot of organizational effort. Arpita served as co-chair of the Reunion Committee, and did an exceptionally good job. Debol, Nilay and others played important roles.
NJPA Corner
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Reported by Chanakya Ganguly
he cold weather has transitioned to warm summer days and we are devoted to leisure and good times with people we love. This year, NJPA ‘s summer started with the meeting of our ‘parivar’ at East Brunswick in NJ. A new executive committee was formed for 2018-2020 at the AGM. The incoming President elect is Aparajita Sengupta, the Vice-President is Ranadip Sarkar, the Secretary is Chanakya Ganguly and the Treasurer is Pankaj Mishra. The new committee will strive to continue the good work done by the previous committees and will look forward to the continued support and encouragement of one and all. As India and the World celebrated the International Day of Yoga this summer, the seedsof yogic consciousness seem to have sprouted a little more to develop thePower of Constant Awareness. With the celebration of India’s Independence Day all over the
world, one is reminded of the Nobel Laureate, Late V.S Naipaul’s words, “… the beginning of self-awareness is in India now what didn’t exist200 years before: A central will, a central intellect, a national idea… Theywere a part of the beginning of a new way for many millions, part of India’sgrowth, part of its restoration.” Summer will eventually fade away and Fall will be knocking at our doors. The crisp fall air will herald the season of festivities and celebrations. It will also be the time for NJPA’S gala event of the year-”Diwali and Kali Puja celebration”. We welcome all to come, join us at our annual extravaganza and make our parivar a part of your parivar. Information about the upcoming event will be available on our Facebook page “NJPA Parivar.” Till we meet again, have a Joyous Summer and a Happy Fall.
October 2018 15
Membership Status Changes (From May 1, 2017 to June 30,2018) Jai Prakash & Suparna Chandi & Nandita Ashok & Bandana Shyamal & Ruby
Biswas Maitra Rakhit Sarkar
Benefactor-Diamond Benefactor-Diamond Benefactor-Diamond Benefactor-Diamond
Paritosh & Srimati Pijush & Chandra Debajyoti & Shikha
Chakrabarty Benefactor-Gold Chakraborty Benefactor-Gold Chatterji Benefactor-Gold
Arun & Rita Rajat & Devika Dr. Kiran & Kamala Supriya & Rik
Bhowmik Benefactor Chakraborty Benefactor Das Benefactor Sen Benefactor
Samir Banerji Grand Patron-Gold Achintya & Dr. Roopali Bhattacharjee Grand Patron-Gold Anup K. & Meena Dam Grand Patron-Gold Tapan K Audhya Grand Patron-Silver Subhendu & Sipra Bagchi Grand Patron-Silver Siddhartha & Malavika Bhattacharji Grand Patron-Silver Dilip & Snigdha Chakrabarti Grand Patron-Silver Manash K. Chakraborty Grand Patron-Silver Maumita Ghosal Grand Patron-Silver Nimai B. & Manideepa Ghose Grand Patron-Silver Rama K. & Baruna Haldar Grand Patron-Silver Arabinda & Chhabi Sinha Grand Patron-Silver Provat & Mita Sinha Grand Patron-Silver Kasturi Sanyal & Anindo Dutta Debol & Arpita Gupta Champakoli Sinha-Roy Pal & Jayanta K. Debiprosad & Shrabasti Palit Anusua & Aniruddho Sanyal
Patron Patron Patron Patron Patron
Alik & Sreela Basak Life Member Dr. Ashish & Frances Bhattacharya Life Member Abhijit & Sanghamitra Bhattacharya Life Member Swati Chakraborty & Niraj Biswas Life Member Miabi Chatterji Life Member Vikas & Aparna Chawla Life Member Manjari and Prasun Chowdhury Life Member Tista & Jayanta Das Life Member Kallol Basu & Antara Datta Life Member Rajat & Anindita Dhar Life Member Aritra Ganguli Life Member Pradip K. & Sanchita Ghosh Life Member Debi P. Gupta Life Member Abhay & Amrita Kangle Life Member Anjali Majumdar Life Member Tapas & Mousumi Mallick Life Member Atanu Dutta & Tungasree Maulik Life Member Srikant & Chandrika Mukherjee Life Member Amit Mukherjee Life Member Benu & Chitra Pal Life Member Ramkrishna & Ruma Pal Life Member Parthapratim & Ananya Palit Life Member Nageshwar Rajanala Pradhan Life Member & Sushmita Egil & Reeni Rostad Life Member Koushik & Anuradha Roy Life Member Bimal & Minati Saha Life Member Apurba & Sipra Saha Life Member Milton Biswas Sarkar Life Member & Anindita Jagadindra Nath Sen Life Member Poushali Mukherjee Sengupta Life Member & Kaushik Arnab & Ekta Sikder Life Member Subrata Ghosh & Sujata Vaidyanathan Life Member Please note that you can become an Associate Member of Ananda Mandir by donating a minimum of $100. Your subsequent donations of $50 or more are credited to your account. When your total cumulative donation reaches $1000, you become a Life Member. Your support, small or large, is most welcome and sincerely appreciated.
16 October 2018
Ananda Sangbad
Members Recognized for Leadership by Ananda Mandir Lifetime Service Awards Mita Sinha Recognized as an Outstanding Volunteer At the recently held NABC in Atlantic City, NJ, Ananda Mandir presented Lifetime Service Awards to the following individuals for their sustained and extraordinary contributions to the organization and to the local Bengali community: • Suprasad Baidyaroy • Debajyoti Chatterji • Surya Dutta • Prativa Hore • Chandi Maitra • Biswajyoti Nayak • Late Anil Raychaudhuri • Late Sukanta Sengupta • Kamalesh Sirkar
Distinguished Leadership Awards During the Annual Fund-Raising luncheon on August 26, Ananda Mandir presented Distinguished Leadership Awards to the following members for their numerous contributions to the organization: • Amitabha Bagchi, and • Dilip Chatterjee Please see the “Distinguished Leadership Awards” (on Page 8 of this issue) for more on the awards to Amitabha Bagchi and Dilip Chatterjee.
Ananda Mandir Board of Trustees is pleased to recognize Mita Sinha as an “outstanding volunteer” of the organization on the basis of a recommendation from the Awards & Recognition Committee. For the last few years, Mita has volunteered as a dedicated member of the Puja Committee. However, she started volunteering at Ananda Mandir long before joining the Puja Committee. For many years she gladly volunteered for numerous hours to help in the kitchen and in food distribution to guests. Mita is a very responsible and dependable individual, and it is a pleasure to work with her. She always does all tasks assigned to her with a smiling face. She never says “no” to any job whether it is a Puja Committee or Food Committee task and is always ready to help. Mita is in the temple from early in the morning till night during many pujas and during the 5-day long Durga Puja festivities. Some days she is happy to be there just to keep a watch on the temple. During the 2018 NABC, Mita helped with the preparation of guest registration packages before the conference and then worked tirelessly at the Registration Desk during the entire three-day mega event in Atlantic City. Mita is indeed an outstanding volunteer, and Ananda Mandir is grateful to her for her tireless service.
Tagore Hall at Ananda Mandir
Available to All Members for Meetings, Workshops & Events
A 12,000 square foot, multi-purpose facility with rooms for meetings, a mezzanine area for workshops and classes, and a large auditorium-cum-banquet hall with a stage, a dance floor and full audio-visual capabilities – ideal for religious, cultural and social events of all kinds. Contact Surinder Singh (917-304-9878) for more information