Kallol of New Jersey is one of the biggest organization of Bengalese in the east coast. From July 7-9th, 2000 we will hold a mega cultural festival well-known as North American Bengali Conference(NABC) at Atlantic City, New Jersey. It will be attained by approximately 10,000 Bengalee from all over the world. An annual event held under the auspices of Cultural Association of Bengal, New York all over North America since 1981.
At a party Dr. Amitava Bagchi, then President of Kallol, invited me to attend the meetings of the Executive Committee which he opened to all members. I attended most and contributed here and there. A significant one was having non-vegetarian foods in Durga Puja, a religious festival for the worship of strength and power to conquer the evil forces. In the past 20 years of tradition we had vegetarian foods. This change was opposed but later accepted by some conservative stalwarts.
At an AGM he asked me to run for an elected office and being new in the community I declined. He then appointed me as an Election Commissioner. Under our supervision the President Mr. Susanta Roy and the rest of the Governing body were elected.
I was a follower of Mr. Mono Ranjan Sen, a respected community leader of many accomplishments and the current Deputy Mayor of Jersey City. I was a volunteer for his cultural activities. In 1997 it was apparent that we will not be able to hold the biggest event Durga Puja. Some top executives went for vacation. However, the problems got resolved and we had only two weeks to organize. At that time of need I was the General Secretary and we celebrated it with much fan fare that usually takes several months of preparations.
Since I had good contacts with other groups I was able to get their helps when needed. I selected the caterer, sound system manager and new artists and spent considerable amount of time. I also looked for hall, a priest, and advertisements. However, on the first day, I had a computer class from 1- 9 PM and due to heavy rain missed it but participated on the next day.
Assistant Secretary(2000)
I am honored to become an Executive Committee member of this Prestigious organization. CAB organizes the annual mega event, NABC in North America since 1981. It is attended by 10,000 people from around the world. The diversity, richness and its popularity is ever growing. From Dec 27th 1999 to January 9th 2000, to welcome the new millennium, we held a spectacular event, Biswa Banga Sammelan, at Calcutta which encompassed all aspects of our rich culture and areas like scinece, industry, history, sports etc. Kolkata, has been decorated to welcome the event. CAB has over 10,000 books at over 25 libraries. We also publish a fortnightly Sangbad Bichitra.
After attending three NABC, I was overwhelmed and wrote to the President, Dr. Tapan Sarkar of CAB to thank them for the magnificient work. I also encouraged all Bengalese to participate in Indian events particularly the India Day parade.
I called Dr. Sarkar about India Day parade. We took part in the parade. Mr. Pranab Das, Treasurer and Secretary of CAB, and a long-known friend whom I met at Mr. Mono Sen's house, invited me to a picnic at which I was inducted to the Executive Committee and became a co-editor of our Newspaper, Sangbad-Bichitra.
My first assignment was to write an article and a poem on Christmas in the Dec 98 issue which was well received. I helped it upgrade its mailing by higher-class to enable readers get the latest news on time. In 1999 I had the added responsibility to organize the India Day parade. To make it attractive we had famous leaders of Bengal like Rabindra Nath, Netaji Subhas and Swami Vivekananda, folk-dances, drums etc. Please participate, have fun and offer your homage to the motherland and the martyrs of freedom. Bande Matarm! Jai Hind! Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka Jaya hey.
