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NABC 2018: A Sampler’s Diary

By Amitabha Bagchi

This 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 Robotics, 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 }

A Successful NABC-2018

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; | continue from page 1 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!