Sangeet Sandhya

SKN Foundation Proudly Presents:
“Sangeet Sandhya”

“An Evening of Classical and Semi-Classical Songs”

“A fundraiser for the preservation of Hindustani Classical Music”

Date – Oct. 2 nd , 2010 – Time – 4 PM to 8 PM

Venue – Stonecrest Community Church Auditorium

1 1 Technology Drive North , Warren , NJ – 07059
Hindustani Vocal Classical by – ANASUA ROY

And Semi-Classical Vocal and with a touch of Fusion by – NIRMALYA ROY (From Kolkata)

Semi-classical music with touch of fusion:

Vocal by Nirmalya Roy (Kolkata), a scholar in classical music from SRA and disciple of Pt. Arun Bhaduri, is equally talented in light classical, Ghazal and Filmi songs. He has released number of CDs and has been performing in TV, Radio and abroad. Performed with Ravi Shankar-ji. Currently, involved with Z-TV Bangla SaReGaMa show as composer. www.nirmalyaroy.com.

Sitar By Abhisek Mallick, disciple of Pt. Shyamal Chatterjee and Pt. Manilal Nag, is a recipient of President Award for first position in AIR music competition 2003. He has been performing in TV, Radio and abroad.
Tabla By Shivalik Ghoshal, disciple of Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri.
Resonance Band (Satyajit Bhattacharya on Keyboard, Atish Mitra on Guitar and Anil Das on Percussion)
For More details pl. visit www.sknfoundation.org or call 732-310-3617 Cell.

Raag Rang Presents Lecture Demonstration by Dr. Mohan Deshpande

Raag-Rang presents for the first time an Informative, interactive and intimate session on different styles(Gharana) in Hindustani Music.
A Lecture-Demonstration by Dr Mohan Deshpande.

Dr Deshpande, a musician and musicologist, will talk about different
styles of Indian music and how it is in use in today’s context.

Date– 3rd October, Sunday.
Time– 3 pm.
Donation– $5.00 for members and $10.00 for non-members.
RSVP will be appreciated.
Contact– (732)-296-1865, (908)-429-1120. Email –raagrang07@gmail.com

Venue–At Sunil Nair’s residence
36 Pine Ridge Drive,
East Brunswick,
NJ 08816.

From New Jersey Turnpike
-Take Exit 9
– Exit left after tolls to Route 18 South towards East Bruswick
– After you pass Eggers St make the next U-Turn to get on 18 North
– Immediately get to the right most lane on 18 North
– Turn right on S Woodland Ave
– Turn right at Serviss Ave
– Turn left at Messler
– Take the 2nd right onto Pine Ridge Dr
Destination will be on the right 0.3 mi
36 Pine Ridge DrEast Brunswick, NJ 08816

From Route 1
Take Exit to Route 18 South and follow signs above.

Bijoya Celebrations in NJ with Anwesha

She has already been tagged as the rising star of Indian playback and may hold the most expensive concert ticket next year.
Folks who attended NABC 2010 and left dazed by her singing prowess but still desired that she had sung those magical Hindi renditions of Lata, Asha, Shreya and Sunidhi numbers – the wait is over.

Anwesha will be back in NJ (only show in NY-NJ) to perform in a concert “Anwesha, Live in NJ” hosted by Que Zara Productions at the conveniently located North Brunswick School Auditorium (Exit 9 from NJ Turnpike and 40 minutes from NYC) on Oct 17, 4 ? 7 p.m.
From Salil Chowdhury, R.D.Burman, Shankar Mahadevan to her latest hits, she will enchant in a 3 hour musical concert. The sound engineering will be done by Jack Lowrie of Strike Sound.

She is coming in with Zee Bangla fame Trijoy and soulful Bandita along with five top notch musicians from the Indian film industry.

Tickets and Show Promo video: www.quezara.com

A special post concert elaborate dinner has been arranged by Moghul Caterers for the musical team. You may email Abhy – abhy_m@hotmail.com to purchase the VIP Dinner tickets or for any additional details.

You may like to get hold of your tickets which understandably are running fast.

Divyendu Sinha Murder Followup: Community Forum and Discussion

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A COMMUNITY FORUM & DISCUSSION ON WORKING TOGETHER TO SECURE AND STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITIES

Date: Saturday, September 25, 2010

Time: 10:15am – 12:45pm

Where:
George Bush Senior Citizen Center
1 Old Bridge Plaza, Old Bridge, NJ 08857
Directions: www.oldbridge.com Ph: 732-721-5600

PART I
Bias Incidents and Hate Crimes:
How to identify and address them as a community?

PART II
Bridging the Gap:
How can community members collaborate with local law enforcement agencies
to enhance public safety?

RSVP preferred by Saturday, September18th, 2010 to
CitizensofOldBridge@gmail.com
Please indicate whether you would like an interpreter. Refreshments provided.

THIS EVENT IS ORGANIZED BY THE CITIZENS OF OLD BRIDGE (COBNJ), SOUTH ASIAN AMERICANS LEADING TOGETHER (SAALT) AND THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE COMMUNITY RELATIONS SERVICE IN COLLABORATION WITH OLD BRIDGE TOWNSHIP, MIDDLESEX COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE, OLD BRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT, SOUTH ASIAN BAR ASSOCIATION NEW JERSEY (SABA-NJ), ASIAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND (AALDEF), MANAVI, THE SIKH COALITION AND INDIAN AMERICAN DEFENSE LEAGUE

Durga Puja 2010 : New Jersey Style

The time of the year is here again. The sky is blue with patches of white clouds floating lazily and the weather is cooling down. Durga Puja is here again in New Jersey. The local Bengali associations are gearing up to welcome Ma Durga with the usual pomp and cultural extravaganza, and let me share with you some information about the festivities that has come to my notice.

Like previous years, Durga Puja festival in New Jersey will be heralded in by the live Mahishashura Mardini (Mahalaya) performance  at the Ananda Mandir on October 10th at 5.00am in the morning. I have been a regular attendee at this event, and I can promise you that if you can take that bold step of getting up from bed that early and drive down to Ananda Mandir, you’ll have an experience that you will never regret. Continue reading

A Panel of Bengali Playwrights

On August 10, 2010, at the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy, an interesting event took place along with my book launch ceremony. As a part of the book launch, Saptarshi Prakashan arranged for a discussion from a panel of contemporary playwrights which included Ujjal Chattopadhyay, Tirthankar Chanda, Sudipto Chatterjee and myself. The panel was moderated by Satya Bhaduri, the editor of the well known theater journal SAS. The topic of discussion was “Exchange of Ideas”. Ujjal and Tirthankar being Kolkata residents and both Sudipto and me being expatriates, the moderator essentially wanted  to get the panelists view point as to how contemporary Bengali playwrights, living all around the globe, can exchange their thoughts and ideas, discuss and debate their plays and finally produce plays that enrich Bengali theater on the whole. The panelists spoke about their own ideas and convictions which may not have found a perfect answer to Satya Bhaduri’s question, but it did raise some good issues that we the playwrights and theater lovers ought to ponder on. The following video clips from the panel discussion will give you a better understanding of the proceedings of that meeting. Enjoy and don’t forget to add your thoughts below as comments.

Continue reading

Top Ten Requests from NABC Domestic Performers

Few weeks ago I had written about the plight of domestic performers at the North America Bengali Conferences. I had also mentioned that the current CAB president Kajal Sarkar promised to look into this issue and try to resolve the matter in future NABC meets. He also asked the domestic performers to come up with a consolidated list of “10 most important things need to be implemented in future Banga Sammelan for performance related to local artists / groups”.  I volunteered to co-ordinate the effort and came up with a list based on inputs from several domestic performers at the NABC 2010. I would like to share the list with you all and maybe you can put in your comments too. I hope all Bengali organizations, who plan to host NABC in the future, would read this and take this as an important feedback from the local/domestic performers and groups. Continue reading