Surangan News

Making Music Music aAPart PartofofYour YourLife Life -Making -

Houston, Houston,Texas Texas A News Letter from Surangan Music School – Houston, TX

Basanta Utsav and Bengali New Year Celebrated in Houston Surangan Family and friends celebrated the spring festival and the Bengali New Year’s on April 13, 2019 in Houston. The festival gives an essence of motherland to the thousands of

introduction of the importance of Basanta in our lives by Mila Sengupta followed by Rupa Ghosh opening the event with her melodious rendition of Rabindra Sangeet “Biswabinarobe Biswajon Mohichhe” that captivated the audience’s attention.

This was followed by presentation of Bengali cultural program themed “Rangiye Diye Jao”, narrated by Biplab Samadder and Nurin Benazir Khan.

people living away from home.

Rupa Ghosh, renowned Rabindra sangeet singer and founder of Surangan, has tried to promote the Bengali culture and tradition to the new generation of Bengali Americans. Her tireless effort and hard work was rewarded by an enthralling performance of music and culture by the students and friends of surangan. The evening started with a brief

The program was a combination of solo and group songs and dances accompanied by a host of musicians. The singers were accompanied by Houston’s tabla wizard Raja Banga and Niranjan Roy. Renowned violinist Biplab Samadder and Bidut Ghosh accompanied on violin and mandira respectively.

Group and solo dances were choreographed by Supradipta Datta, Joyita Dasgupta, Shanta Talapatra and Shawon Sarker. The dancers ranged from considerably young artistes to

Vol: 05, Page: 01, August, 2019

more mature and brought some color and life to the music program.

Rupa Ghosh, with the help of her students and friends were successful in putting together this program with the large contingent of 64 participants.

Donna, Meenakshi, Jharna, Nandini, Debjani, Puja, Somik, Shahed, Khalil, Bobe, Biplab, Rupa and many more.

The colorful and joyous festival of spring was celebrated by the audience who were mesmerized to the tunes of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.

Kalpataru Utsav Celebrate in Houston Sri Ramakrishna Kalpataru Utsav is celebrated all over the world on 1st. January of every year.

Each individual participant namely Tithi, Amreen, Anyaa, Aditya, Ali, Sharani, Ishaani, Ankita, Rishe, Manavhi, Dev, Shree, Abhishey, Hera, Josh, Binnita, Tinni, Shawon, Shahani, Teresa, Nita, Naiza, Ankita Talukdar etc., and the senior participants were Tutul, Parvin, Shila, Rumki, Roksana, Arghya, Mitra, Runa, Dina, Amitava, Rumel, Faria, Uday, Shudeshna, Amit Sarkar, Adeeba, Suva,

The Hindu religious people do show their homage and prayer to Sri Ramakrishna Deb on 1st. January from wherever they are. They believe their prayer on Kalpataru Day will be fulfilled. In Houston the hindu religious people welcomed 2019 by celebrating ‘Kalpataru Utsav’ on January 01.

Houston Durgabari Society celebrated Kalpataru utsav on January 1st. 2019. A perfect ambiance was created with the fragrance of fresh flowers, hymns of Page: Sri 02, Ramkrishna and Vol: 05, September, 2019 special food.

The priest Buddhadev Bhattachariya performed a special puja on that day. After the puja, a cultural program on Sri Ramakrishna’s life was performed by durgabari’s devotees.

Vol: 05, Page: 02, August, 2019

The program started with a brief introduction

by Rupchanda Ghsoh, followed by Rupa Ghosh, who with her melodious rendition of ‘Thakurs Pranam Mantra’ captivated the audience’s attention. Each individual participant were Ganesh Mandal, Tushar Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta, Achinta Ghosh, Sujata Ghosh, Jarna

Sarkar, Amit Sarkar, Devangshu Goswami, Tithi Ghosh etc. The tabla accompaniment was provided by Shyamal Bhattachariya.

The program was mastered wonderfully and truly enthralled everyone present. The script, songs, narration everything blended beautifully. Finally, the day culminated with delicious lunch prasad served to all the devotees. Everyone welcomed the New Year with content, happiness and togetherness and bid farewell to the year gone by.

Swami

Vivakananda’s

156th.

Birth

Anniversary Celebrate in Houston On the occasion of the 156th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta Society of Greater Houston celebrated Swamiji’s birthday on January 27, 2019 with full respect and enthusiasm.

Swami Vivekananda needs no introduction. He was one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the modern world, a great lover of humanity whose unconditional love extended to all people without any distinctions of caste, class, creed, race, region or religion.

Swami Vivekananda is also remembered as a great patriot, the first cultural ambassador of India to the West. He introduced the philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the

western world. He was instrumental in the revival of Hinduism, raising interfaith awareness and contributing to the concept of Nationalism in colonial India. He was a major influence with the youth of India.

In Swamiji’s honor, Vedanta society of greater Houston (VSGH) have tried their best to make this auspicious day as remarkable as possible.

Swami Atmarupanandaji, Resident Minister of VSGH performed the Puja and arati. A huge gathering of people participated in the event.

Devotes offered their prayers to swamiji and Rupa Ghosh and other devotees performed a series of devotional songs composed by Swamiji himself.

Surangan Celebrate Saraswati Puja

Vol: 05, Page: 03, August, 2019

Saraswati Puja was celebrated on February 10, 2019, with traditional flair, led by the young generation of the community. Ma Saraswati is the goddess of Knowledge, music, arts and wisdom and many youngsters and kids of all ages participated in organizing the puja activities with great enthusiasm. All devotees pray to Ma Saraswati for enriching their lives with all the happiness. To receive the goddess's blessings, the students also offered their books,

Following on, a mesmerizing musical program was arranged by the students of Surangan.

Friends and families also participated in the cultural event to make the entire atmosphere enthralling.

Sri Ramakrishna’s Birthday Celebrate in Houston

pens and musical instruments to the goddess for worship. In addition to the traditional puja, anjali and arati, hate khori or the ceremonial induction of child into the word of learning was performed.

Buddhadev Bhattachariya, head priest of Houston Durgabari performed the puja and

Ramakrishna Paramahansa born Ramakrishna "Gadadhar" Chattopadhyay, was a Hindu mystic and saint in 19th century Bengal.

He was born on 18 February 1836 in the village of Kamarpukur, in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, into a very poor, pious, and orthodox Brahmin family. Ramakrishna experienced spiritual ecstasies from a young age, and was influenced by several religious traditions, including devotion toward the goddess Kali, Tantra (shakti), Vaishnava (bhakti), and Advaita Vedanta.

Houston Durgabari Society On March 24, 2019, Houston Durgabari society celebrated ‘Ramkrishna Janma Tithi’ with full of respect and enthusiasm. The photos of

arati. The celebration was attended by more than 200 people. After the puja and pushpanjali, delicious vegetarian lunch Prasad was served to all the devotees. The young volunteers were involved in distribution of prasad and other activities.

Ramkrishna, Sarada devi and Vivekanada were beautifully decorated with garlands. Priest Vol: 05, Page: 04, August, 2019

Buddhadev Bhattachariya performed the puja.

After the puja and pushpanjali, a geeti Alekhya was arranged on Thakur’s life’s. A group of devotes sung a series of devotional songs. The program started with a brief introduction by Sumanta Shynal, followed by Rupa Ghosh, Ganesh Mandal, Swapan Dasgupta, and Achinta Ghosh. The tabla accompaniment was provided by Shyamal Bhattachariya.

The program was mastered wonderfully and truly enthralled the audiences. The songs and narration blended beautifully. After the program, all the devotees enjoyed the lunch prasad.

pushpanjali. After the Homa, lunch was served to all devotees.

Tagore Society of Houston Celebrated Tagore Jayanti 2019 Tagore society of Houston (TSH) celebrated and paid homage to Tagore on his 158th birth

Vedanta Society of Greater Houston Vedanta Society of Greater Houston (VSGH) celebrated the Thakur Sri Ramakrishna’s 183rd.birthday on March 10th. 2019 at their

anniversary along with Houston Durga Bari Society, India Culture Center, Houston, Bangladesh Association of Houston and Bangladesh Society of Greater Houston.

The celebration started early morning at the Tagore Grove in Ray Miller Park with reverential garlanding of the Tagore statue. The occasion was graced by Consul General, Dr. Anupam Ray and Sri Preston Kulkarni along with the

Vedanta center. Swami Atmarupanandaji, Resident Minister of Vedanta Society of Greater Houston (VSGH) performed the Puja and arati.

It was a divine atmosphere with lots of devotees present at the august gathering. Rupa Ghosh, Arghya Dhar, Puja Roy sung couple of devotional songs on thakur’s life’s during the

puja. The celebration ended with arati and

leaders of Indian and Bangladeshi diaspora and members from both communities. The august gathering paid their homage to Kabiguru by

offering floral tributes and preaching and celebrating the teachings of Tagore. The whole

Vol: 05, Page: 05, August, 2019

performance was coordinated by Rupa Ghosh and Mita Shome. Raja Banga, Ex. President of TSH and Houston’s tabla wizard accompanied on Tabla. All songs were soulfully rendered and touched the hearts of the audience.

The evening was a depiction of a common man’s journey from darkness to light as a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 158th birth anniversary. atmosphere was filled with hymns of beautiful tunes of Tagore, performed by local artists.

The celebrations continued into the evening at the HDBS Sur auditorium where the audiences

Bangladesh Independence Day 2019 Celebrates in Houston On March 26, 1971, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Bangladesh's independence movement

were treated with musical and dance recitals based on Tagore’s songs. Debleena Banergy, president of Tagore Society of Houston welcomed the audience and emphasized

Tagore’s borderless vision and its relevance to the modern times.

The evening featured a colorful burst of creativity ranging from TSH Youth Orchestra; a number of solo and group song, Tagore natok (tota kahini) and dance performances and

culminated with grand choral by almost 50 singers from epar and opar Bangla. The choral

following the crackdown on unarmed Bengalis in the midnight of March 25 by the Pakistani occupation forces. After the nine-month War of Liberation with the supreme sacrifices of three million martyrs and the honor of two lakh women, Bangladesh achieved its cherished independence on December 16, 1971.

Bangladesh’s National and Independence Day has been celebrated with great enthusiasm in on April 6, 2019 at the Bayland Park in

Vol: 05, Page: 06, August, 2019

Houston, Texas. It was a community event organized by the members of Texas and Houston Awami league.

Both organizations arranged a day long program which included morning procession,

This was a daylong event, attended by members and friends of Bangladeshi community of Houston. The day was an amalgamation of cultural performances by local artistes and outdoor activities for the participating

audiences of all ages. The presentation of the songs and recitation created a patriotic fervor to the entire atmosphere.

A special buffet lunch with a variety of Bengali dishes was arranged by the organizers. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the program with sumptuous lunch and mesmerizing music.

wearing black badges, placing floral wreath at the shaheed minar, special discussion, art and essay competition for new generation, cultural program etc. A group of Surangan students also participated in these program.

Surangan Observed Baishe Srabon Rabindranath Tagore passed away on August 7, 1941 on ‘Baishe Srabon’ (The 22nd Srabon in

International Mother Language Day Celebrated in Houston Each year on 21st February, Bangladeshi communities in Houston celebrate International Mother Language Day (IMLD) through community gathering. Bangladesh American Society of Greater Houston (BASGH) and Bangladesh Association of Houston (BAH) has come forward this year to celebrate the 68th.

International Mother Language day in their the Bengali calendar). Surangan Family and Friends paid homage to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore on his 78th death anniversary on August 04, 2019. Tagore lovers of Houston paid their respect to Gurudev by packing the evening

premises with due respects and solemnity.

Many prominent politicians and public figures were in attendance to show support and express how important it is to protect the right to speak your native language.

Vol: 05, Page: 07, August, 2019

with songs and recitations composed by him.

The theme of this program was ‘Amare Tumi Ashesh Korecho’. The program started with a group song-‘Tomaro asime pranomonoloye’. In this program a series of tagore songs and

poetries were sung and recited respectively.

Solo and group songs were interspersed with recitations.

Each individual participant solo and group songs namely Tithi, Puja, Rumki, Amitava, Rumel, Devjani, Faria, Uday, Amit, Bina, Bithi, Minashki, Roksana, Pamela, Mahasweta, Jharna, Nandini, Shahed and Rupa; recited by Parag Bhai, Hafiz Rahaman, Sheikh Ahad, Syeda Razia Sultana, Zulfikar Islam Arun etc.

The tabla accompaniment was provided by Niranjan Roy and Samrat Saha. The scriptbased program was narrated by Syeda Razia

Surangan’s mission is to create, teach and encourage

Bengali

Music

to

our

new

generation, who are born and brought up in USA. Surangan also aims to nurture our Bengali Cultural heritage by participating in various cultural programs and workshops.

We train ‘Vocal Music’ through classes every weekend.

We also provide the facility of attending online one-on-one music classes through Skype for students who are interested in distant learning.

Sultana. The function was attended by a close group of people who are appreciative of Tagore’s songs and compositions.

Rupa Ghosh: Surangan Music School; 17714 Strolling Stream Ln, Richmond, TX 77407; Phone: 832.704.8867; 832.274.6823; Email: surangan2010@yahoo.com; website: www.surangan.org