Loss of a Friend

October 21, 2009 on 5:21 pm | In Generic, Social | No Comments

Three months ago, when I lost my mother, I received the following email from a close friend:

Gayatri GamarshTonight at the Sahitya O Alochana meeting I heard the very sad news of your mother’s passing away.
I offer my heart-felt condolences to you. I have suffered some losses in my own life and I know first hand the sorrow of having to say good bye to a loved one. I also know that during this time and all through your life, you’ll know that she is with you and watching over you, because you can feel her presence in your heart.
I feel deeply moved by this change from life to after-life that your mom has gone through and I felt compelled to tell you that she is still with you and will always be, just as I feel that my son is always with me, no matter where I am.
With my love and blessings to you and your family

The email was from Gayatri Gamarsh (who allowed me to call her as Gayatri-di) and it really helped me cope with my pain. Little did I know that three months later, Gayatri-di herself will move on to “her after-life” leaving us behind mourning her loss.

I came to know Gayatri-di mainly through her literary works and her love for anything artistic.  She used to love coming to our plays and appreciated them very much. Several times she has written about our plays in Anandasambad and other magazines. Her appreciation and encouragement meant a lot to me and my team mates.   It is for people like Gayatri-di that makes all the hard work in writing and staging a play worth it.

In September, she had participated in a workshop on creative Bengali writing conducted by Sunil Gangopadhyay. She had rescheduled her heart surgery just to attend this workshop online. That was the last time I had heard her voice on the phone.  Later, after her surgery, she had sent me an email asking for an article or cartoon for the “Sambad Bichitra” English section. But I never had the chance to hand it to her.

As mentioned by Gayatri-di in her email, I’ll believe that she is always with us and will be watching any play we put up or read any article I write or any cartoon I draw.

Goodbye Gayatri-di and thank you for all your encouragement and blessings, for those will be my source of inspiration for whatever I do in the future.

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

NJPA Kali Puja 2009

October 1, 2009 on 10:09 am | In Events, Social | 1 Comment
October 10, 2009
3:00 pmto11:00 pm

NJPA cordially invites you to celebrate Kali Puja on October 10th at CrossRoads Middle School.Puja will start at 3:00 PM which will be followed by Prasad and Dinner. Nirmalya Roy of Zee-TV, Tara TV, ETV, Saregama fame will present semi-calssical and ghazals and Moumita Chatterjee of Calcutta Door Darshan, ETV, Tara Music and aAkash Bangla Fame and will present variety songs,. For more information, please visit http://njpa.net.

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Mahalaya in New Jersey - A Tradition of Our Own

September 22, 2009 on 3:27 pm | In Arts-Culture, Social | No Comments

Mahalaya in Bengal is synonymous to the seventy year old radio musical “Mahisashur Mardini” written by Bani Kumar and composed by Pankaj Mallik. Over the years this has become a Bengali tradition to wake up at 4.30am on Majalaya day and listen to this wonderful program that has not lost its charm till date. In fact, in Bengal the demand for new radios spike during this period. The inspiring narration and “Chandi Path” by Birendra Krishna Bhadra, the wonderful songs by the great musicians like Supriti Ghosh, Manabendra Mukherjee, and many others cast a spell on the listeners and put them into the Puja mood. Once there was an attempt to change the program and make it more contemporary using stars like Uttam Kumar, but severe protests from the listeners forced All India Radio to scrap it and go back to the traditional format.
In New Jersey, we have developed a tradition of our own. At the Anandamandir, at 4.30pm local musicians gather in front of a packed audience and perform the famous “Mahishashur Mardini” under the guidance of Arun Bhowmik. The musicians, most of whom are accomplished in their own right, devote their time to usher in the Durga Puja festival in front of the idols of Goddess Durga and Kali and create a magical moment for the audience some of whom travel all the way from Philadelphia, Long Island, and other distant cities.
I have attached two clips of this event (recorded on my cell phone) for you to get a glimpse of this event. The audio quality is not too good, but you’ll still feel the electrifying atmosphere that charges us up for the upcoming festivals.

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

The Health Care Debate

September 16, 2009 on 12:04 pm | In Generic, Social | 1 Comment

I have been trying to avoid writing about the current health care issue on this blog. The key reason being that if I start writing I won’t be able to stop. I have been discussing this issue with my friends on my facebook page and the discussions often became quite passionate and sometimes quite heated too. The rumors, hear-says, myths and speculations on the healthcare bill have risen to a level that I doubt if ever happened before in American social and political life. Multiple bills have been floating in the Capitol and today Senator Baucus unveiled the so-called bipartisan bill (which apparently only one Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe is likely to support) which has no option for a public-option, requires families to contribute 13% of their income for health insurance premiums and imposes fines ($3800 per family) on those who do not purchase insurance. The bill does however impose some restrictions on insurance companies to prevent them from rejecting people with pre-existing conditions or from increasing the rates for people with serious illnesses. This bill, if accepted, would cost $856 billion over 10 year time.

Continue reading The Health Care Debate…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Goat and the Bengali Intelligentsia

September 9, 2009 on 5:29 pm | In Generic, Social | 3 Comments

goat The intelligentsia (as defined by Wikipedia) is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them.  You can very well attribute this term to the Bengali society who fits this definition quite well.  But what does a timid and herbivorous (although Bengalis think goats to be omnivorous - chhagole ki na khay) mammal like goat got to do with this elite group of people?  The answer to this is well known to all of us - Bengalis love goat meat. Although in other parts of the World, goat milk and milk products (cheese) are also extremely popular, but we the Bengalis don’t care much about the milk.  It is the meat that is most important to us - the ultimate food in any Bengali plate.  Historically, goat meat is the only kind of meat that Bengalis (especially the Hindu Bengalis) ate. Goats were the most popular offerings to Goddess Kali and Durga - and the meat then cooked in a recipe void of any garlic or onions and hence termed as “vegetarian meat”.

Continue reading Goat and the Bengali Intelligentsia…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Durga Puja 2009 - Just a Month Away

August 20, 2009 on 5:31 pm | In Generic, Social | 1 Comment

Durga PujaBengali Associations of NJ are gearing up for the biggest festival of the year - Durga Puja. This year the festival starts quite early, around 25th-26th of September. Kallol, GSCA and Anandamandir will be celebrating their Durga Puja during that weekend.  And just like last year we should expect that the registration to start soon. GSCA has already opened their online registration, and Kallol is expected to open theirs in early September.

Last year (2008) was the first time when Kallol of NJ started their online pre-registration process and it caused quite a bit of furor amongst the Kallol regulars who failed to register early. The registration window was closed as soon as the guest count limit was reached and that left many people with a bad taste.  Some people were able to get in at the last moment (I don’t know how) but several people had to go back. I think Kallol needs to do something about this. Continue reading Durga Puja 2009 - Just a Month Away…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Facebook, Social Networks and Teens

April 9, 2009 on 6:07 pm | In Social | No Comments

Teenager sending text message on cell phoneRecently I listened to an excellent talk by Dr. Jeffrey Cole (Director, Center for the Digital Future, of the USC Annenberg School) about Social Networks, the digital media and our teens. His research and insights into this digital revolution that we are growing through threw some interesting light on our teen generation. The teens today use technology in ways we never thought of. The entire digital industry is geared up to develop new gadgets and gizmos for the new generation. The social networking phenomenon like Facebook, Orkut and others have demonstrated how much influence this new generation has in defining the shape of digital media.  Dr. Cole lists few characteristics of a teen in this and our future digital generation.

Continue reading Facebook, Social Networks and Teens…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

How to Bring Traffic to Your Blog or How to Make Money with Your Blog!

April 1, 2009 on 5:45 pm | In Generic, Social | 1 Comment

Make Money on your Blog and WebsiteAnybody who is even the least interested in making money with their blog has done a google search this title phrase and have landed up with thousands of articles, posts, advertorials, videos and other material that provide a hash-up of few different techniques that can bring in the greens. But when you look at them with some curiosity, you’ll see that almost all off them give you a bullet list of techniques that can bring in traffic and can potentially bring in some dough. You’ll learn about SEO techniques to improve search engine rankings, you’ll know how important it is to have in-links to your site, you’ll discover what article marketing is, and how to effectively use the social networking and bookmarking sites (Facebook, Orkut, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Stumbleupon etc. etc.). You’ll know the benefits of enlisting your blog to multiple blog networks and directories, tricks to improve Alexa rankings and the secrets of setting up RSS feeds for potential subscribers. All these techniques are good and work to some degree to bring in traffic to your blog - but believe me, millions of bloggers are doing just the same. Traffic is king to any blogger, and whatever published technique exists today are being tried over and over again. The problem is that the search engines (google, yahoo etc) and traffic ranking sites (like Alexa) keep on changing their strategy frequently and hence many techniques become stale. Continue reading How to Bring Traffic to Your Blog or How to Make Money with Your Blog!…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

Trouble in IIT Campus

March 23, 2009 on 1:12 pm | In Generic, Social | No Comments

IIT KharagpurIt is ironic to say the least that just when I was enthusiastically reporting the news of the development of an artificial heart by IIT Kharagpur, a young heart stopped beating in the campus. Rohit Kumar, a third year Electrical Engineering student (LLR Hall) died due to the apparent neglect by the in-campus “B.C.Roy Technology Hospital”.  Details about this event can be found in the campus students newspaper “Scholars Avenue” and I will refrain from reporting them once again out here.  However this incident resulted in a student uproar that was unprecedented in the history of IIT Kharagpur. The angry students demonstrated their frustration at the residence of the director of the Institute which resulted in the resignation of the director as well as some other administrative staff. Continue reading Trouble in IIT Campus…

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »

President Obama on the Tonight Show

March 20, 2009 on 11:58 am | In Generic, Social | 1 Comment


President Obama on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! Enjoy

Share this article
[Ask] [blinklist] [Bloglines] [BlogMarks] [Blogsvine] [del.icio.us] [Digg] [Facebook] [Google] [LinkedIn] [Mister Wong] [Mixx] [Reddit] [StumbleUpon] [Technorati] [Twitter] [Windows Live] [Yahoo!] [Email] More »
Next Page »