Sahitya O Alochana @ Ananda Mandir

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Ananda Mandir is starting a regular Sahitya O Alochana – Meeting of literary readings and discussionswith a meeting this Friday, 22 August 2008, at 8:30 PM.

The aim is to have a quasi-monthly meeting of literary readings and discussions, occasionally interspersed with lectures on religion or philosophy. The first meeting will focus on how to get the effort organized, but we will also have invited speakers from our community speaking on selected topics. Anyone interested is welcome to attend.

CAB Classical Music Concert

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Cultural Association of Bengal
presents
A gala concert of classical Indian Music
On 13th September 2008, Saturday , 5 P.M.
at Q208, 74-13 commonwealth Blvd, Bellerose, NY 11426

Pt. Tarun Bhattecharya on Santoor accompanied by Abhishek Basu on tabla.
Eminent vocalist Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik, accompanied by Sri Dibyarka Chatterjee on tabla and Sri Kedar Naphade on Harmonium.
Young vocalist Indrani Chakrabarty Khare will be recognized by cultural association of Bengal (C.A.B) for her achievement.
Suggested Donation $20.00, $35.00. Ample free parking inside the school premises.
Contact Number: 718-631-9819, 516-298-2454, 914-277-4662, 732-496-0385, 631-821-5684,
917-518-5484, 718-380-1373, 516-501-1966, 516-232-5124.
Direction: By subway/bus: E or F train to Union Tpk exit. Then Q46 bus to Cross Island Parkway stop. Enter school gate.
By car: (1) Grand Central Parkway (east) to Union Tpk exit. Right turn to Unin Tpk. School entrance between Cross island and commonwealth Blvd.
(2) Grand Central Park way (west) to Little neck PKway. Left Turn to Littleneck PKway. Go under Grand central PKway.Right turn on Littleneck PKway. Right turn again on Union Tpk.
School on right after crossing Commonwealth Blvd.
(3) Long Island Expressway to Littleneck Pky exit. Take Little Neck Pky (South). Go under Grand Central Pky and follow option 2.

Cartoon of the Week 3: The Selection Process

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Walk the lineArranged 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

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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.

HERITAGE DAY & ANANDA MELA 2008

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ANANDA MANDIR Presents
HERITAGE DAY & ANANDA MELA 2008
A FUN FILLED DAY OF ACTIVITIES

Starting with Heritage Day Celebrations August 16 @ 10:00am

NATIOANAL ANTHEM, PRABHAT FERI, FLAG HOISTING, BHARAT
MATA PUJA, CHILDREN TREE PLANTING, PRESIDENT’S SPEECH,
CULTURAL PROGRAMS including VANDE MATARAM- Song & Dance

FOODCOURT & SHOPPING,

Followed by Ananda Mela Activities @12:00pm–
GAMES FOR Adults, Young Adults, Children & Family;

CHILDREN’S COMPETETIONS
BADMINTON & TABLE TENNIS COMPETITION;
($5 ENTRY FEE FOR MEN’S / YOUNG ADULT’S BADMINTON & T.T. COMPETETION)
CANDY SEARCH & SPOON RACE, MUSICAL CHAIR,
TUG OF WAR & YOUTH PROGRAM – MAGIC SHOW,
PRIZE DISTRIBUTION & RAFFLE DRAW

In the evening 6:30pm ONWARDS Rakhi & Jhulan Yatra Samapan
AND Community Dinner

AT ANANDA MANDIR CAMPUS
Date: AUGUST 16th, 2008
Time: Starts at 10.00 AM
269 Cedar Grove Lane, Somerset, NJ 08873
Phone: 732 873 9821
www.anandamandir.org

Contact: Krishna Dutta Roy – 732-390-8069 / Sanjit Dutta – 732 821 5996

Ananda Mandir requests your presence to make this a Grand Success

Lopamudra Concert in New Jersey

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Lopamudra MitraFew 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 →

Ananda Sandhya: Madhumita Saha

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AT ANANDA MANDIR Artists of the month

MADHUMITA SAHA
Madhumita will be accompanied on Tabla by her husband, the illustrious
Tabla Maestro
Pandit Samar Saha

On the harmonium, it will be our own and very talented
Sri Kedar Naphade
Who has accompanied all prominent vocalists from India for many years

As you can see, this one will be memorable event presented by ANANDA MANDIR

Please come and share this fabulous musical evening.
As usual, the ANANDA SANDHYA concert is FREE, Children come free. However, your kind donation is always graciously accepted.

Ananda Mandir is located on Cedar Grove Lane off Easton Avenue in Somerset, NJ.
For info, call Arun Bhowmik at 908-672-1452.

Cartoon of the week 2: Abstract Art

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Ulto ChhobiThis 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.

Bhajan Sandhya at Anandamandir

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On the auspicious occasion of Janmashtami (Sunday, August 24, 2008), Anandamandir will be hosting a four hour long (3.00pm to 7.00pm) event of Bhajans and Bhakti Sangeet.

Musicians are invited to participate (singers, accompanists) in this great event and be a part of the Anandamandir community.
If you would be interested to participate, then please send an email to suranjanbc@hotmail.com by Thursday, July 31, 2008. With your help and support this will be an enchanting evening of Bhajan and Bhakti Sangeet.

Bangla E-Zines

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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 →