NY/NJ Bengali

New Jersey Durga Puja 2008

The most awaited event for any Bengali, the Durga Puja festival, is less than two months away. Kallol of NJ will be celebrating this festival during the weekend of October 3 to 5, 2008, while Garden State Cultural Association will have a concurrent celebration on Oct 4th and 5th. Having a concurrent celebration has its pros and cons. On the positive side, it helps to divide the audience which otherwise becomes impossible to manage at a single venue. The negative aspect is that many of us, who would have loved to attend both (and attend them completely), are denied of the opportunity.
However, even this joint celebration (I mean the dates only) is not helping the organizers. Depending on what performers are being invited from Kolkata or Mumbai by these organizers, crowd management becomes a major issue with frequent interruptions and threats from the Fire dept. Inviting these famous artists to perform during the Puja is a double edged sword. You need to get the popular star performers to pull in the crowd because it is them who pays for the enormous expense. On the other hand, too many people cannot be accommodated in the spaces the organizers typically use. Continue reading New Jersey Durga Puja 2008…

Cartoon of the Week 3: The Selection Process

Arranged marriage is still quite common in India, and one important phase in an arranged marriage is the process of selecting the bride. Mind you, I said “bride selection” and not “groom selection”. An important component of this process is to visit the bride’s home and conduct an interview of the girl to figure out if the girl is a suitable candidate. In some cases, the girl is not only asked to provide verbal answers to the questions, but also demonstrate their gait, posture, length of the hair and also their artistic, musical, and culinary skills. This cartoon was drawn to emphasize on this aspect of the selection process - the girl demonstrates her gait by walking on a tight rope. After all, that’s what she will have to do everyday at her in-laws family - walk the fine line with amazing dexterity, balance and skill. Women of our country may not be participating at the Olympics gymnastics events, but this skill of walking the horizontal beam is in their genes. This cartoon was done for Proma (published from Kolkata) few years ago. I thought this would be an interesting post during this Olympic season.

Some Reviews on ECTA’s Theater Festival

Recently a bunch of reviews on ECTA’s mini Theater festival plays have been published in various news and online media both in USA and India. I would like to share them with you, since many may not have access to these publications, especially those which are published in India.

• Gautam Dutta wrote about “Satyameva…” in Sambad Bichitra (published by CAB). The review is in Bengali and to read it click here.
• Gayatri Gamarsh wrote about the second day of the festival in Ananda Sambad. Click here to read that review.
• Alolika Mukherjee’s detailed review appeared in Saptahik Bartaman in Kolkata. Click here to read it.
• Madhu Rye Thaker writes about Satyameva in India Abroad. Click here.
• Jyotirmoy Dutta writes about ECTA and Taconic Parkway in DesiTalk. Click Here.
• Sambit Basu writes about Taconic Parkway in his blog “Monk’s Pearl“.

The opinions expressed in these reviews are solely that of the reviewers themselves. They provide us with different perspectives, but they can never replace the actual viewing of the play and its enjoyment. Plays, films and any other objects of art should be viewed and appreciated on your own. To get an wonderful perspective on reviews, I recommend watching the fantastic animated film “Ratatouille” and listen to the final review by Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) the dreaded food critic.

Lopamudra Concert in New Jersey

Few weeks ago, Lopamudra Mitra presented a concert at the Marlboro High School Auditorium at the invitation of the Dakshineshwar Ramkrishna Sangha Adyapeath (DRSA) of New Jersey. She was touring USA at the invitation of the Bangamela 2008 (held in Columbus OH) and before leaving the country, she made a brief visit to New Jersey. It was Lopamudra’s special attachment to Dakshineshwar Adyapeath that brought her to this fund raising concert. However, the audience response was only lukewarm at best. The torrential downpour before the concert may have contributed to the low attendance, but I think the major reason is the multiple events that are happening all around us during the summer season. Continue reading Lopamudra Concert in New Jersey…

Cartoon of the week 2: Abstract Art

This cartoon was done for “Proma” a long time ago. Abstract art has always drawn the attention of humorists and cartoonist. This one exaggerates the abstractness to the extent that the artist himself does not have any clue regarding his own painting, not event it’s orientation. Many of us, the naive (read pseudo) art connoisseurs, think that abstract art - the art that does not represent any form that we are familiar to, is quite easy to render. Many of us consider them nothing but few blotches of paint and maybe some geometric patterns in an arrangement which does not resemble anything that we see in our daily lives. Hence, many pseudo-artists tend to declare themselves as artists by creating such absurd canvasses and trivialize the bewildered viewers as “uneducated an uncultured” brutes. This is true not only for fine arts, but also in those branches of art that thrive on abstractions and absurdity - like poetry, play, film, music and even short stories. Hence it is of utmost importance, that we make an attempt to train ourselves to be able to appreciate these art forms - to open up our minds to appreciate forms and colors and movements and sounds that are beyond our accustomed reality.

Bangla E-Zines

The proliferation of internet and web technology has ushered in a new era in the publication of Bengali literary magazines. Any Bengali who has the slightest inclination towards Bangla literature must have been associated with some kind of “little magazine” related activity in some point of their life, be it writing, editing, publishing or even selling them to their patronizing clients. The thrill of seeing ones own writing in print fascinated them and hence whenever a few like minded folks got together, a visit to the printing press became obligatory. The smell of ink and the clanking of the printing machines was intoxicating to say the least - long hours were spent proof reading those smudgy newsprint and trying to pool in as much money they could by either begging the local business owners to insert an advertisement or by coughing up their own savings to pay the press owner. But the exponentially growing costs of paper and printing has often resulted in an untimely death of the magazine and hence the death of many literary dreams. Many of these talents also whither away just because they do not get the opportunity to be noticed by any of the leading print publications. Continue reading Bangla E-Zines…

Cartoon of the Week: Quality of Art

Long time ago, I used to draw cartoons for some magazines like Proma (published in Kolkata), Udayan (published from NY), Sangbadik (also published from New York) and News India Times. I would like to share some of them with you. This cartoon was published in Proma few years ago. It is a take on art valuation. Let me know how you like it. In future weeks I’ll post one cartoon a week, from my old archives.

Barack Obama’s Strategy for a New World

On 15th of July, 2008, Barack Obama laid out his foreign policy strategy in very clear and specific terms. He talked about how he would end the war in Iraq, how he would like to combat terrorism and end the oil based conflicts by reducing our (as well as other nations) dependency on oil. His plans call for getting back the world’s confidence in America, to get back some of its lost credibility by working together with the nations of the world to combat terrorism, reduce oil dependency and control climate change. He even talks about his willingness to sit down and talk to Iran about resolving the nuclear crisis.
All this may sound quite idealistic, but I guess at this point of time this idealism gives some hope to make things right. Any idealism can succeed if it is supported by the people. Let’s hope that Barack gets the support he deserves and brings in the change he envisions.
Watch the speech in this embedded video.

Bangamela - The Festival for the Midwestern Bengalis

Just as the excitement and euphoria of the recently concluded BangaSammelan (Toronto) dies down, Bengalis living in the middle western states are preparing to get into a festival of their own - Bangamela.

The 10th annual Bangamela 2008 will be held in Columbus OH this year from July 18 to 20. The event is hosted by COBCA (Central Ohio Bengali Cultural Association). Just as Bangasammelan (NABC) is franchised and sponsored by CAB (Cultural Association of Bengal), Bangamela is managed and controlled at the high level by MABA or Mid America Bengali Association. Without going into the details about the genesis of Bangamela, it suffices to say that the Bengalis of the mid west felt that they needed to have a festival of their own, a festival that is located closer to where they live and is easily accessible compared to NABC that tends to get most of their attendees from the densely populated (with Bengalis) east and west coast states. Continue reading Bangamela - The Festival for the Midwestern Bengalis…

CAB Honors Pronoy Chatterjee

The Cultural Association of Bengal (CAB) every year honors a group of people for their outstanding contribution to the society. This year, one of our closest friends, Pronoy Chatterjee has been awarded the “Distinguished Service Award” for his contribution towards promoting and nurturing Bengali literature in North America. His award letter reads,

You are one of the foremost literary personality in the United States who has helped the cause of propagating and nurturing Bengali culture in North America, the goal the Cultural Association of Bengal cherish. You have done so as founder of NJPA and through years of association with Kollol of Jew Jersey, Ananada Mandir and other well known organizations. Your contribution to literature and work on arsenic cleaning in water is also well known.
In recognition of your dedication, we have the honor to award you the “Distinguished Service Award’ during the 28th North American Bengali Conference.

Pronoy Chatterjee is an ardent author, has written two novels (a review of one of his books appear in this blog) and has been an editor or several Bengali magazines including “Kallol Sahitya Sambad”, “AnandaLipi”, “Ananda Sangbad” and many others. He has that magical ability to inspire people around him to be creative, to develop their literary skills that have been dormant in them, and to enrich the lives of the community members through their creations.

My heartiest congratulations goes to Pronoy-da for this well deserved award.