- Dr. Barnali Deka
The last few months have been full of festivity and action packed in our tristate DC/VA/MD asomiya community, socio-culturally. As Mother Nature followed her routine of making our region full of color and greenery once again and seasons changed from bitter cold wintry days to days of cherry blossom, tulip blooms and leaves sprouted on trees, the zest and fervor picked up once again, to prepare this time for Rongali Bihu.

While a number of us were still not done cherishing the mouth watering, finger-lickingly delicious authentic asomiya dishes that every asomiya household around here prepares to serve on Bhogali Bihu, a.k.a Magh Bihu, the time was now ripe to shift focus and make every effort to make Rongali Bihu truly colorful. “Otikoi senehor Mugare Mohura, Tatukoi senehor Maku Tatukoi senehor boghagor bihuti, Napati kenekoi thaku”. Bohagi Bihu has been celebrated for a long time in the DC metro area, but it was since 2005 that the community has gathered at rented halls, schools and churches annually, in the colorful and invigorating month of April to celebrate Rongali Bihu. This year too, the Sally K. Ride Elementary School in Germantown, MD was chosen as the venue. The size of the community is fortunately ever growing and we are blessed to have plenty of child artistes too who are shining bright already and are inspiring their peers to diversify their artistic skills as well. We gathered despite heavy downpours for the first Bihu meeting in early March at a Library in Virginia, with tea and snacks of course. The outcome was a committee where several people were nominated to shoulder responsibilities to hold the bihu celebrations with a cultural show and a sumptuous feast. Others, who had carried out such activities in the past, were eager and willing to guide and recommend along the way. In the month that followed, a flow of ideas, sharing of suggestions and weekly practice sessions ensued. Everyone showed up diligently with potluck items, without fail, and the commitment displayed by every performer and every parent to make the performances flawless was very inspiring to continue this endeavor in the future. The spirit was so infectious and the enthusiasm so contagious that it revealed the fun loving nature and passion of asomiya raiz when it comes to celebrating Bihu. Everyone’s efforts were highly commendable! Luckily, this year the auspicious occasion of Holi, another colorful festival of Indians that symbolizes the onset of spring, the victory of good over evil and the spirit of togetherness, harmony and tolerance, coincided with one of the practice sessions. Everyone was in the mood to make the most out of it. Hence, we had our regular practices of the group performances complemented with some impromptu singing, dancing and playfulness with Aabir/color powder in an eco-friendly way, conserving water and dinner comprising of puri, sabji and halwa, amongst other delectables. The children, I have been told had this experience, within our asomiya community for the first time this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Something, like Diwali, we would like to continue celebrating as part of our Indian tradition.
Meanwhile, a group of community appointed food connoisseurs, was fervently researching restaurants, trying out lunch buffets for several weekends just to ensure that the food menu on Bihu day is ultimately, also a fulfilling experience for our palatal desires. What was also noteworthy was the fact that every asomiya soul living in the USA, was all aroused and alive once again, this time of the year. This came to light as all families were vigorously searching for appropriate songs, music tracks, outfits for their kids to sing and dance and the adults were coordinating with their peers to perform solo and duets themselves. Yet others were churning out comical skits and well choreographed dance performances by pressing their creative juices. These ardent and relentless efforts for a whole month by everyone, kids and adults alike, led to a cultural show and event that was indeed a huge success. The Bihu evening was vibrant with kid’s games, trivia related to asomiya culture and history, kids and adult choruses, a Jeng bihu by little girls only, a kid‘s assamese modern dance, several Bollywood and solo Bihu dances, a skit, a magic show, a puppet show and melodious renditions by several of our singers here. The enthusiasm and sincere role playing by all the performers in the skit called “House for sale” made it quite a realistic experience for many. The choruses were conducted by Rabin Goswami, the group dances choreographed by Anjana Bordoloi, Smita Baruah and Barnali Deka and the skit was written and directed by Arundhotee Goswami. The evening ended with a magnificent Husori performance by Krishna Hazarika, Pallav Bora, Hitesh Kalita, Rajeev Baruah, Dhrubajyoti Deka and Puneet Rathode and singing of O’Mur Apunar Desh.

The event wouldn’t have been as delightful and entertaining without the emcees, Smita Baruah, Sukanya Borah and Dhrubajyoti Deka keeping everything on an even keel. The at least, fifteen course dinner with appetizers, desserts and home made laroo, pithas and cake was all arranged by the food committee consisting of Alpana Baruah, Saurabh Raybaruah, Nipika Patgiri and others which left us all fully contented undoubtedly. Amidst all this, I missed the “Koni Juj”/egg fighting, which is traditionally played and is a lot of fun. There are a number of emerging ideas still to make the Bihu celebrations here even more fun and reminiscent of Bihu as it is celebrated traditionally and we hope to incorporate those ideas in the future. In the end, we do deserve a pat on our shoulders for coming this far. All the blood, sweat and grime was well worth it and we will continue reinforcing these values, these pursuits so that the future generations can proudly say they are asomiya in their heart and fully cognizant of what asomiya culture is despite being Americans in this fundamentally secular country. The profound impact, the impression and positive influence all these activities will surely have and has had on the minds and constitution of the little ones growing in this environment, is conspicuously evident in the quality of their performances. Not only were they clearly vocalizing rich asomiya words but also danced to asomiya modern songs, with actions in perfect sync with words they probably heard only during the Bihu practice sessions. It has all been made possible largely because of the active participation by one and all and no doubt because of the presence of several artistically inclined individuals and good Samaritans amongst us, in our small community who volunteer their time and energy annually for this cause. As prabashi asomiya raiz, we miss a lot of events connected to asomiya culture, our dear people and everyday happenings in Axom, but these efforts here annually during Bihu and Assam conventions, connect us, bind us and allow us to weave together, everyone, every moment into a gamusa, if you will, with colorful patterns and designs that commemorate asomiya culture, food and gaiety.