Tag Archives: radio

EBC Drama Club Conversation with Soumendu and Arpana

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Soumendu and Arpana Bhattacharya on EBC Radio

Soumendu and Arpana Bhattacharya on EBC Radio

Those of you who missed our EBC Drama Club show on June 29th, 2013, don’t feel bad anymore. Here is the podcast of the show made available to you courtesy of EBC Radio and this blog. As I mentioned earlier you can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes (on iPhone, iPod or Android phones, or computers). Just search for “NY NJ Bengali” and you’ll find it.

This week we had an invigorating chat with one of the most talented couples in New Jersey, Soumendu Bhattacharya and Arpana Bhattacharya. We talked about many different issues about their life on stage and how theater enriched them over the years. Soumendu and Arpana performed some clips from the plays they have acted earlier, like Sacrifice, Bhopal and Hayavadana. Listen to the podcast below and next time do not forget to tune in to 1170 AM at 12:00 noon on 1st, 3rd and 5th Saturdays of the month. Please give your feedback in the comments section below.

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EBC Radio Drama Club

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Recently, I was invited by Kulraaj Anand of EBC Radio to initiate a drama club for the radio.  Since my childhood days, I was always fascinated by radio drama. Growing up in a small town, we didn’t have much of live stage theater available to us easily. Radio drama was one of the greatest source of entertainment and nourishment for my imagination. I loved radio drama so much, that I would never miss a single broadcast, for whatever reason. So, this opportunity gave me a chance to get up close and personal with radio drama. On March 30th we had the premiere broadcast of the show, and in the podcast below you’ll get a chance to listen to the show if you missed the chance of tuning in at 12:00noon last Saturday to 1170 AM. This was our first attempt and we had made a few mistakes. But that’s what happens in a live show. We’ll try to minimize the mistakes in our future shows.

We plan to continue this show every other week. The show will not only feature radio dramas, but also story readings, discussions, reviews and previews of local theatre, interviews with actors/directors/producers etc.  If you have any comments or suggestions  please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Part 1: (Opening remarks, World Theater Day, Play Reading by Nupur Lahiri)

Part 2: (Call-in, Story reading by Sudipta Bhawmik)

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“Ekti Gnaye Thaki” : A Preview

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Simanti Dasgupta

ektignaye_norm Many of us will intuitively link the title of the play to Rabindranath Tagore’s well know poem, “Ek Gnaye” and correctly so. Sambhu Mitra and Tripti Mitra particularly immortalized the poem in their rendition of it in Bidhayak Bhattacharya’s celebrated radio play, “Tahar Naamti Ranjana”. “Ekti Gnaye Thaki”, written and directed by Sudipta Bhawmik, is the story of a sister, Ranjana and her brother, Rajat, reuniting after fourteen years. Rajat immigrates to the US with his family after Ranjana sponsors their green cards. The reunion is marked by its usual excitement followed by nostalgia for their “gnya” they left both behind. Rajat becomes a critical link for Ranjana to relive her past, while Ranjana helps him come to terms with his decision to abandon his familiar world in Gobindapur. Ranjana is also ill and Rajat’s presence offers a long-awaited emollient. As the brother and the sister often slip into the past, the rest of the characters are excited at the prospects of their future in the US, especially Rajat’s son, Rajib.

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Durga Puja and Cultural Events: The 2009 New Jersey Lineup

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Ujjaini MukherjeeIn New Jersey, Durga Puja is a special time when the festive mood brings with it a flurry of entertainment and cultural programs across the state. This year too the line up looks very promising although the spirits have dampened a bit due to the tough economic times and with the rejection of visas of few of the performers.  Still the combination of local talents and professionals from India is bound to enthrall the Puja attendees on the coming weekends.

I’ll try to briefly summarize the lineup this year, although the organizers have in many cases conveniently omitted the details about the local performers from their web sites. I tried to collect as much information I could manage. If any of you have more information, then please feel free to add them to this post as comments. Continue reading →

Want to Outsource that Term Paper Assignment?

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Just heard this news on the radio. Now you can outsource your term paper to some online company who employs writers in India, Philippines, Pakistan and other countries to write original essays for you. Note, that these essays are not plagiarized versions, rather they are crisp original and custom made. Although in some cases they have raised suspicion because some of the essay’s quality were far better than what the teachers expect of the student. Not only short term papers and essays, these enterprising writers can write an entire dissertation for you. In one case (I understand it was for an MIT student) the online essay mill delivered a dissertation on aerospace engineering (read rocket science). These companies charge anywhere from $10 to $75 per page and the students spend hundreds of dollars to get them. They are located off-shore but they typically have a fake US address. In the case of one company, EssayWriters, they used a Virginia address while the company was located in Philippines.

But was the essay mill the culprit here or the folks who purchase their products?

Podcast: “Baad Protibad” A (Hilarious) Play in Bengali

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Last week I wrote about our new radio play “Baad Protibad” that was broadcast on EBC Radio 1170AM during the Sunday morning Bengali program “Probaho” conducted by Abhijit Sanyal. The play received quite a bit of positive feedback, and I thought that for the benefit of the people who could not listen to the radio that morning, I’d upload this play as a podcast. You can listen to this play by clicking the player above or download it into your iPod or similar digital players.

The credits are given below.

“Baad Protibad”
A Hilarious Play in Bengali by Sudipta Bhawmik

Produced by ECTA Inc.
Directed by Indranil Mukherjee
Cast:
Subhodev Das as Ashok
Aparajita Das as Kakoli
Indranil Mukherjee as Soumen
Anisha Das as Jhimli

Recorded and mixed at the Bharatiya Kala Kendra, NJ, Studio by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee
Edited by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and Indranil Mukherjee
Music and effects by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee.
Song “Need some cash to fill up my gas” by Vikram Kumar

Please let me know how you liked the play. We may do more plays like this in the future.

Gas and Us

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Couple of years ago, I wrote an article on how to save gasoline by changing some of our driving habits. I have republished the article again with the faint hope that it may help us again. I say “faint hope” because whatever we could have saved has been wiped out by this record price increase. These days I am taking a more philosophical approach towards this disaster, and this resulted in a new play “Baad Protibaad”. Well, don’t be scared, since “Baad Protibaad” is not a philosophical play at all (unless you really try hard to dig out the trace amounts from deep within the characters). It is just a humorous take on the effects of the gas price increase on us, the Bengalees.
The word “Gas” has some special connotation to us the Bengalees. But now, it almost means our life blood. And when this important part of our existence in this country is threatened, how do we react?
“Baad Protibaad” is a short play, produced in an audio play format. The play will be broadcast on EBC Radio, 1170 AM on Sunday, June 22nd, in the Bengali program air slot – “Probaha” hosted by Abhijit Sanyal at 10am in the morning. The play is produced by ECTA Inc. Following are the detailed credits:

“Baad Protibad”
A Hilarious Play in Bengali by Sudipta Bhawmik

Produced by ECTA Inc.
Directed by Indranil Mukherjee
Cast:
Subhodev Das as Ashok
Aparajita Das as Kakoli
Indranil Mukherjee as Soumen
Anisha Das as Jhimli

Recorded and mixed at the Bharatiya Kala Kendra, NJ, Studio by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee
Edited by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee and Indranil Mukherjee
Music and effects by Partha Sarathi Mukherjee.

And please remember to come to ECTA’s mini theater festival on June 28th and 29th at the Edison Valley Playhouse, in Edison, NJ. If you like the above play, I am sure you’ll love the plays at the festival.