Nandonik 2022

As we celebrate many events throughout the year, we pause to acknowledge the generosity of our Sponsors, without whose magnanimous support, we could not proceed. We truly appreciate your support!

Editorial Note by Monideepa Mukherjee

Editorial Note by Piyali Ghosh

Ishani Ghosh

Arushi Banerjee

Mondal

Ghose

Debohuti Das

Art work by Arik Choudhury 18

Painting by - Aayan Saha 19

Painting by Aashna Guha 20

Painting by Akira Choudhury 21

Painting by - Nirvan Bhattacharya 22

Painting by Sreehan Roy 23

Painting by - Tanishi Ghosh 24

Painting by - Sourish Prasad 25

Adopt or Shop Anoushka Majumdar 31

Covid 19 A Satanic Saga Santanu Ghosh 35

The Student Ashish Choudhury 40

Painting by Prapti Ghosh 50

Painting by Aaria Saha 51

Painting by Anunita Guha 52

Painting by - Ritashmi Aich 53

Painting by Ina Puri 54

Painting by Debaditya Bose 55

Painting by Zinia Sagar 56

Art work by Deboleena Mukherjee 57

Our New Protima 58

Art work by - Upasana Ghose 60 Painting by Kankana Sinha 61

Painting by Piyali Ghosh 62

Painting by Jhilam Singha 63 Painting by Santanu Pathak 64

A Machine Born Santanu Ghosh 67

Tasmita Aich 69

Photography by Nivedita Ghosh 76

Photography by Buddhadev Sinha 77

Photography by Apurba Mondal 79

Nandan Moments 84

Nandan Cares Applause for Blood Donors 86

Painting by - Ishani Ghosh

Nandan Cares Feed the Need

Nandan Cares The Act of Giving

Article By: Monideepa Mukherjee Editorial Note

THE LAUNCH

It was a cold Saturday evening and a group of likeminded enthusiasts gathered for a casual meet to enjoy with family and friends. What started as a simple discussion of doing something NEW, found wings in the next couple of months and ultimately transpired to “Nandan” of today. Nandan is an endeavor to preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of Bengal and India at large and serve the society through voluntary and philanthropic effort.

With the pandemic era pressures overwhelming already busy professional and family lives, would you like to find a channel for making you feel at home even though it may have been months, or years that you couldn’t travel those thousands of miles? Look no more, Nandan is your family!

But why another organization? Because Nandan is different!

We practice what we preach, and our culture, ethics and vision are the propellers that help in consistently achieving our milestones. Nandan believes in fostering resilience and our unified thought process gives us the wind beneath our wings. Learning the layer of resilience that’s needed for every small step, helps overcome any setbacks and emerge stronger than before.

Article By: Monideepa Mukherjee Editorial Note

THE LAUNCH

We embrace authenticity – bringing our whole self to the initiative. This helps to connect with people at large, create partnership with inclusiveness. Nandan demonstrates giving back to society. A visit to the Atlanta Food bank, a consignment pickup for the American Kidney Society, a blood drive for the Red Cross, are just a few of the community drives that we have successfully accomplished! The spirit for charity keeps getting stronger with each noble deed.

We at Nandan have laid out a very bold vision at the very onset of formation. Navaratri, also known as Durga Puja, is one of the biggest and widely celebrated Hindu festivals across the globe. The unrelenting faith of “Nandan ites” to celebrate Durgotsav with new Idols from India turned into reality. We are proud to announce that Nandan brings you one of the tallest goddesses Durga in the USA. Join us and enjoy the exquisite creation of Indian artistry in “Maa Durga” on the auspicious Durgotsav on 24th and 25th of September @ South Forsyth High School

This is just the starting, the steppingstones to the journey of lifetime. What we have set out to achieve goes far beyond. It is our responsibility to pass on the culture, values and the goodness that are part of our upbringing and every lesson that we learn in our positions of influence. But that’s not where it ends. Our aim is to reach far above and beyond, so that not only the Bengali and India community but people across all caste and creed can benefit from our social drives and celebrate life!

By: Ishani Ghosh

Article By: Arushi Banerjee

An Imaginary Friend Poet's Corner

It has short hairstyles, the color is red. It has blue eyes, with no regrets. It stays by my side all day, it disappears sometimes, with no trace. It gives me advice, like my expert friend. It makes me laugh, like my best friend. It holds grudges, if I do, Then tells me to let go,

as if “nobody cares about you”. It wipes my tears, if I cry. It makes me comeback, if I say goodbye. No it’s not a boy. No it’s not a girl. But someone who doesn’t exist in this real world. It appears if we think, it disappears if we stop. Yes, it is it, an imaginary friend of ours

Debohuti

Art work By: Arik Choudhury

Painting By: Aayan Saha

Artist's Corner

Painting By: Aashna Guha

Artist's Corner

Painting By: Akira Choudhury

Artist's Corner

Painting By: Nirvan Bhattacharya

Painting By: Sreehan Roy

Corner

Painting By: Tanishi Ghosh

Painting By: Sourish Prasad

Corner

Article By: Anoushka Majumdar

Adopt or Shop?

“‘We are never going to go back to a time when we are going to make decisions to euthanize for space. We refuse to do that.’” This is Julie Johnson, the executive director of the Animal Care Center and SPCA, describing the way the recent situation has affected animal shelters. With the recent situation, many animal shelters around the country are experiencing an influx of people looking to rehome their pets. This forces shelters to go past their limit to accommodate all these pets, even resorting to makeshift kennels. Breeders continue to breed dogs during this crisis. People should choose to adopt their pets over buying them from pet stores or breeders for the following reasons: the environment that breeders keep their pets in promotes severe animal cruelty, dogs that are the product of breeders very often suffer from major health problems and overpopulation in shelters often lead to animals being euthanized. Many breeders keep their dogs in environments that strip them of the bare minimum. In the article “Buying from Pet Breeders Promotes Animal Cruelty”, the author talks about how one reason that animals are given the lowest standard of care by breeders is call animal hoarding. The article describes animal hoarding as a situation where “an individual possesses more than the typical number of animals……. but is unable to provide the minimal standards,”(Marquez).

Writer's

Article By: Anoushka Majumdar

Adopt or Shop?

While people may be searching for a pet that looks or acts a certain way, buying pets from stores or breeders who keep their animals in cruel environments is unnecessary, especially when only about half of shelter pets are put into homes, another point the article makes. If you choose to buy a dog from breeders when there are over 1 million pets being euthanized per year, you are directly contributing to animal cruelty.

When people want dogs that look a certain way, the breeder gets them to look that way. This often causes some very serious health issues for the animal. Sumera Siddiqi uses pugs as an example in her article, “Animal Lovers Should Adopt Pets, Not Shop”. The author talks about how pugs, which are only of the many breeds that suffer from these issues, are sought after due to the way they’re built and their faces. But the fact that this look and build is made by the breeders, it tends to cause joint, eye, and neurological problems that can turn out to be fatal. These problems are due to the fact that breeders fish out certain traits that they want to be passed on, causing genetic diversity to decrease.

Article By: Anoushka Majumdar

Adopt or Shop?

This causes the chance of unhealthy traits being distributed on much higher than pets from animal shelters. People looking to get pets should look for healthy pets over the ones who look or act a certain way. If people put the behavior and appearance of their pet over the welfare of the animal, then they shouldn’t be surprised when their pets suffer from fatal diseases.

With so many people looking to rehome their pandemic pets, shelters around the country are being backed into a corner that they don’t want to be in. The executive director of the Animal Care Center and SPCA, Julie Johnson, says that capacity in animal shelters have risen over 75%. The founder of Rocket Dog Rescue also explains how she started receiving “dozens of emails and text message requests every day”(Nielson) from people wanting to return the pets they’ve adopted. Staff at shelters blatantly refuse to resort to euthanizing for space. Many senior dogs, who have become accustomed to families and homes of their own, have been dropped off at shelters as well. There are no signs that these numbers will decrease. Instead of buying from somebody that is contributing to the reason for animal overpopulation, adopting from a shelter gives one of the many rehomed animals a new home.

Article By: Anoushka Majumdar

Adopt or Shop?

From animal cruelty to overpopulation, pet breeders are slowly backing animal shelters into a corner that they cannot afford to be in. If we keep allowing places like this to stay open, the numbers will never decrease to what they used to be. Eventually, euthanization will become an option, whether people want it to or not. We need to make a change, for the sake of the animals and those who take care of them.

WORKS CITED PAGE

Marquez, Maria. "Buying from Pet Breeders Promotes Animal Cruelty." University Wire, 17 May 2021. SIRS Discoverer, explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer. 31 January 2022

Morgen, Sam. "Bakersfield Animal Care Center Waives Adoption Fees as Dogs.." TCA Regional News, 30 Jun 2021. SIRS Discoverer, explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer. 2 February 2022

Siddiqui, Sumera. "Animal Lovers should Adopt Pets, Not Shop." University Wire, 22 Sep 2021. SIRS Discoverer, explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer. 31 January 2022

Nielsen, Katie. "Animal Shelters Inundated with 'Pandemic Pups' as Adoptive Owners'.." CNN Wire Service, 16 Jul 2021. SIRS Discoverer, explore.proquest.com/sirsdiscoverer. 2 February 2022

Article By: Santanu Ghosh

COVID 19 - A Satanic

Vacant streets and void souls; medical mathematics and human guinea pigs on a role; half burned corpse and an entangled viral fallacy; maligned relationships and a forcefully degraded human behavior; inexplicable insomnia and persistent heartthrobs; never-ending ambulance sirens symmetrical with sounds of trumpets

in a war Yes, there was an attack on human civilization the attack of the fearless, the gruesome Covid 19. The Covid marauders were stopped by no one. They came and they began to kill, kill with deliberation, kill with cold blooded calculation.

Death, decay, disgrace and disillusionment, all seemed to happen simultaneously. Our civilized veneer was stripped off and all of a sudden we lost our conscience and consciousness. The repercussions were horrifying. We gradually started believing life as how it was and absolutely forgot how it ought to be ! The fanatic dancing somnambulist with a sword in his hand butchered the human race in existence at will. The annihilation continued…….

Crying children, horrified parents, helpless science and ceaseless moaning persisted with all its vigor. The breathtaking miasma mingled to strike up an awful din that echoed and left the entire human civilization absolutely deaf and profoundly dumb until the plunderer with the bloody sword in his hand reached the

Article By: Santanu Ghosh

COVID 19 - A Satanic Saga Writer's Corner

border of the earth - the place we live in , and stood in the middle of the river with knee level water in a moonlit night surrounded by pitch dark mountains. He noticed the silver grey reflection of nature partially visible in the flowing downstream and in the subtle silence, he saw a white falcon looking towards a wild deer gradually passing the river. In this absolute touch of nature he dropped his sword and touched his fingers in the flowing river and got pragmatically hallucinated to the call of the wild and the gigantic heat gradually diffused and dissolved in the bed of nature . But by then we suffered irreparable damage , a loss that would haunt us in the ages to come. The unaccountable and incalculable martyrs in the war would perhaps justify in history the enormity of the human race still in existence . Life will go on but can we remove the scars and stains the war has left behind?

Article By: Ashish Choudhury

The Student Writer's Corner

According to the Hindu Vedas there are four stages of life student, householder, forest dweller and renunciate. But in the modern world, does there exist a clear demarcation of when a stage ends, and the next begins? Aren’t we students for our entire lifetime, as well dwelling in the concrete jungle because of the aggressive urbanization?

In general, thirty five is almost the age where you get to experience the first three stages of the Vedic life. And if like me, you too think of renunciation, either after a hard day answering to the endless curiosity of my children, or to the demanding questions at work, then well, lucky you have experienced the famous four! But Nandan is only one year old! If I may personify the association, Nandan Bengali Association of Atlanta, is in the first stage of the Vedic circle of life. We just took our first baby step for the organization. Here, the avenues of growth are boundless. On that note, let me share an insight. Some of our members are most comfortable growing horizontally. Nandan’s first love is food, and we will feed you well, so that you can tag along on our journey to grow by the width.

Article By: Ashish Choudhury Writer's Corner

The Student

Nandan is our brainchild, brought to fruition with deep thoughts, high ambition, core belief, and lots of mental and physical labor. One of the first pursuits that happened at the inception of the organization was to turn dreams into reality. The goddess Durga symbolizes positive energy, epitome of strength, wisdom, power, prowess, and determination. With strong grit and determination, we chased our dream to get an idol transported across thousands of miles, in just a couple of months.

This was the first learning experience for the students among us, to learn about the complicated process of idol making, transportation logistics, trucks capacity and about storage units. Do you know that typical climate-controlled storage unit doors are generally 7 ft (84 Inches) in height? Well, we at Nandan learnt about it because our idol itself is almost 10 ft tall. You read it right, Nandan Bengali Association of Atlanta, proudly presents to you the tallest goddess idol in Georgia and probably among the top ones in the USA. This is just the beginning. As we embark on our journey, please bear with us if we falter. But have faith, as we continue to learn with every steppingstone. Also, heartfelt gratitude to family, friends, and our beloved sponsors for their unwavering support.

By: Tasmita Aich

By: Tasmita Aich

By: Tasmita Aich

Painting By: Ishani Ghosh Artist's Corner

Painting By: Prapti Ghosh Artist's Corner

Painting By: Aaria Saha

Artist's Corner

By: Anunita Guha

Painting By: Ritashmi Aich

Painting By: Ina Puri

Painting By: Debaditya Bose Artist's Corner

Painting By: Zinnia Sagar

Artist's Corner

Art By: Deboleena Mukherjee

Artist's Corner

Art By: Upasana Ghose Artist's Corner

Painting By: Kankana Sinha

Painting By: Piyali Ghosh

Artist's Corner

Painting By: Jhilam Singha

Artist's Corner

Painting By: Santanu Pathak

Artist's Corner

Article By: Santanu Ghosh

A Machine Born

I stand in the stinking miasma of the deep sombre color of night, in the absence of light, in a potholed wasteland filled with materialism and awesome desires , waiting to be born human. I too have a dream that my heart has wings and with my wings stretched apart, I have a dream that I would fly , above this earth on the sky, and witness with my stereoscopic eyes the beauty of the entire spectrum of my dream earth, a place to where I belong, yes an establishment to be solely owned by me and no one else.

I stand helpless alone, in an era of taciturnity, waiting to be born in a place far away from the deluge of deliberations and cold blooded calculations, far from the celluloids and chlorophyll’s, the iron and daffodils, in a place to where I only dare , in a place where only I would live and only I would die and after my death only the waters will dry and the darkness would cry -yes, in a placid and void enigma I stand aspiringly alone to be born a machine a machine born.

I stand to emerge not from the blue of the sky, no soft hands, no small steps with arms held high to reach an anonymous destination, no mountains of the moon would come in vision, no rains, no rainbows and no fragmented inexplicable expectations….. but from solidified pure steel i shall be born yes, with a turbine

Writer's

Article By: Santanu Ghosh

A Machine Born Writer's Corner

heart pistoning along like a machine, I too have a dream of being born a machine-a machine born.

I stand amidst the flattering wings, clattering young steps, the chirping beaks in the innocent greens. I stand in the immense blues with the slashing waves, the glittering corals, the redefined freedom of the moving fins…..

I no not why often am I filled with the passion of the deep Once for a while, truly sublime, from the window panes shall peep Up on high may be in the sky, a flight that vows to never falter At last, in silence, it would come dancing and singing The predestined notes that never fail to alter Home sweet home, I shall be taken to the place I do belong Neither early nor late, it shall come just before dawn In a chariot drawn by a horse, the clot-clot sound will be heard Flowers fresh and children in grace will stand as my guard Waving their hands in mystic silence in the journey willingly last I will be greeted, passionately treated and deities completed for the past In a frame, hopefully wooden, difficult it will be to breathe The dried flowers with lost fragrance would find its place in the heave No more worries no more care the worthy title worn I have a dream that I would fare in being a machine born.

....Contd

By: Tasmita Aich

By: Tasmita Aich

By: Tasmita Aich

Article By: Tasmita Aich

Article By: Tasmita Aich

Article By: Tasmita Aich

By: Tasmita Aich

Photography By: Nivedita Ghosh Freelancer

Photography By: Buddhadev Sinha Freelancer

Photography By: Buddhadev Sinha Freelancer

Photography By: Apurba Mondal Freelancer