NY/NJ Bengali

Bangla E-Zines

July 23, 2008 on 10:03 pm | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

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 Bangla E-Zines…

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Cartoon of the Week: Quality of Art

July 22, 2008 on 11:08 am | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

Long time ago, I used to draw cartoons for some magazines like Proma (published in Kolkata), Udayan (published from NY), Sangbadik (also published from New York) and News India Times. I would like to share some of them with you. This cartoon was published in Proma few years ago. It is a take on art valuation. Let me know how you like it. In future weeks I’ll post one cartoon a week, from my old archives.

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Barack Obama’s Strategy for a New World

July 16, 2008 on 11:07 am | In Generic, Social | No Comments

On 15th of July, 2008, Barack Obama laid out his foreign policy strategy in very clear and specific terms. He talked about how he would end the war in Iraq, how he would like to combat terrorism and end the oil based conflicts by reducing our (as well as other nations) dependency on oil. His plans call for getting back the world’s confidence in America, to get back some of its lost credibility by working together with the nations of the world to combat terrorism, reduce oil dependency and control climate change. He even talks about his willingness to sit down and talk to Iran about resolving the nuclear crisis.
All this may sound quite idealistic, but I guess at this point of time this idealism gives some hope to make things right. Any idealism can succeed if it is supported by the people. Let’s hope that Barack gets the support he deserves and brings in the change he envisions.
Watch the speech in this embedded video.

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Bangamela - The Festival for the Midwestern Bengalis

July 10, 2008 on 4:24 pm | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

Just as the excitement and euphoria of the recently concluded BangaSammelan (Toronto) dies down, Bengalis living in the middle western states are preparing to get into a festival of their own - Bangamela.

The 10th annual Bangamela 2008 will be held in Columbus OH this year from July 18 to 20. The event is hosted by COBCA (Central Ohio Bengali Cultural Association). Just as Bangasammelan (NABC) is franchised and sponsored by CAB (Cultural Association of Bengal), Bangamela is managed and controlled at the high level by MABA or Mid America Bengali Association. Without going into the details about the genesis of Bangamela, it suffices to say that the Bengalis of the mid west felt that they needed to have a festival of their own, a festival that is located closer to where they live and is easily accessible compared to NABC that tends to get most of their attendees from the densely populated (with Bengalis) east and west coast states. Continue reading Bangamela - The Festival for the Midwestern Bengalis…

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CAB Honors Pronoy Chatterjee

July 3, 2008 on 11:57 am | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

The Cultural Association of Bengal (CAB) every year honors a group of people for their outstanding contribution to the society. This year, one of our closest friends, Pronoy Chatterjee has been awarded the “Distinguished Service Award” for his contribution towards promoting and nurturing Bengali literature in North America. His award letter reads,

You are one of the foremost literary personality in the United States who has helped the cause of propagating and nurturing Bengali culture in North America, the goal the Cultural Association of Bengal cherish. You have done so as founder of NJPA and through years of association with Kollol of Jew Jersey, Ananada Mandir and other well known organizations. Your contribution to literature and work on arsenic cleaning in water is also well known.
In recognition of your dedication, we have the honor to award you the “Distinguished Service Award’ during the 28th North American Bengali Conference.

Pronoy Chatterjee is an ardent author, has written two novels (a review of one of his books appear in this blog) and has been an editor or several Bengali magazines including “Kallol Sahitya Sambad”, “AnandaLipi”, “Ananda Sangbad” and many others. He has that magical ability to inspire people around him to be creative, to develop their literary skills that have been dormant in them, and to enrich the lives of the community members through their creations.

My heartiest congratulations goes to Pronoy-da for this well deserved award.

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

June 24, 2008 on 11:06 am | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

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.

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Gas and Us

June 19, 2008 on 12:15 pm | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

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.

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Saving Gas

June 19, 2008 on 12:39 am | In Generic, Social | 1 Comment

One of the key advantages of living in the United States was cheap gasoline and the joy of driving. But it seems that it will soon become a luxury of the past. Gas prices are going through the roof, and we are all suffering. The trouble is, the fundamental requirement to live in the suburbs is to be able to drive a car. We do not have a rickshaw stand nearby where we can walk to and hop into a human driven (absolutely green) vehicle and merrily coast to the local grocery store. It will be a major human rights issue if someone even dreams of such an entrepreneurial venture. Hence we have no other option other than trying to save on gasoline costs. Continue reading Saving Gas…

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California Natyamela 2008 and Taconic Parkway

June 12, 2008 on 2:49 pm | In Arts-Culture, Asides, Generic | 1 Comment

Recently we (ECTA) had the opportunity to stage our new play “Taconic Parkway” at the California Natyamela 2008 held at the Amador Theater in Pleasanton, CA. Last year when I was visiting California to see the staging of my play “Ron” by the local group ENAD, I met Pradosh Sarkar who invited me to participate at the 2008 Natyamela, their fourth year of the festival. Pradosh Sarkar, a playwright and director himself, is a key member of Sanskriti, the group that organizes the Natyamela. In the previous years they limited their invitation only to the local groups, but Pradosh told me that he wants to make an exception in 2008 by inviting us from New Jersey. And I had no option but to accept the offer when he also assured me that they would take care of the expenses. However, Pradosh reminded me that they have a time limitation and each play must be limited to an hour, give or take ten minutes. This was a challenge for me since the plays we had in our repertoire all exceeded this limit. But I thought that this may be a perfect opportunity to work on a new play that was brewing in my mind for some time. After I came back, I started to work on the script and soon developed a one act play named “Taconic Parkway” which perfectly fits the bill for the California Natyamela 2008. It had three characters, and was limited to an hour and ten minutes. Continue reading California Natyamela 2008 and Taconic Parkway…

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Vijay Tendulkar : A Real Indian Playwright

May 30, 2008 on 4:48 pm | In Arts-Culture, Generic | No Comments

I was deeply hurt to hear the news of the death of Vijay Tendulkar, one of the greatest playwrights of Indian theater. It was only last year, at the South Asian Theater festival, I had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Tendulkar. It was an experience that I will never forget. He was physically frail, but his will was as strong as any young man. It was this will and his love for theater that brought him over here, few thousand miles away from home, to see how are we doing our theater. During his speech at the opening ceremony, the way he protested against the non-issuance of visa to one of the participating teams demonstrated that the fire was still burning within him - the fire that led him to write the plays that changed Indian theater.
Continue reading Vijay Tendulkar : A Real Indian Playwright…

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