- Courtesy Dr. Dwipen Bhagawati, edited by Debabrata Sarma

The Assamese community of the North West area celebrated the Bhogali Bihu on January 14, 2012, despite the bad weather with icy roads. This year’s Bihu gave the North West community an opportunity to remember our beloveds Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and Dr. Mamoni Raisom Goswami, whose recent demise saddened us all..
The event was started with Debabrata Sarma lighting the incense beside the portraits of Bhupen Hazarika and Mamoni Raisom Goswami followed by a minute of silence.

Debabrata Sarma then presented pictures of an old autographed mini magazine, Bindu edited and published by Hazarika in 1970, and handwritten notes, pictures, reminiscing the several days his family spent when Hazarika visited the US in 1993 for the Assam Convention in Washington, D.C. He fondly recounted how Bhupen Hazarika treated everyone with love and cooked shrimp and eggplant pass midnight after returning from a visit to the Atlantic City Casinos. Dr. Sarma also played a recorded tape for about 5 minutes of the 43 minutes of tape recording of Bhupen Hazarikia’s narration at his New Jersey home about his journey to the US by sea in 1949 and his life’s journey all way to receiving the Dadasaheb Phalke award.

A longtime resident of this area Arati Baruah read her article related to the life and contribution of Bhupen Hazarika, which she had authored, and was published earlier in an Assamese Daily “Ajir Asom”. In her very engaging reading, she raised a pertinent question of how the Assamese people as a nation failed miserably to recognize invaluable life-long contributions of such artists during their life time, why the burden of caring for Dr. Hazarika during his terminal illness was left to only close family and friends, why no public effort was evident to organize financial support for care of his health during the last stage of his life.

In the same vein, another member of the local Assamese community, Sangita Phukan, who by family relation is a niece of Mamoni Raisom Goswami presented an up close window into Goswami’s life from the perspectives of both an ardent admirer and a beloved family member. Her presentation was followed by various cultural activities performed by several community members paying tribute to the departed souls. Little Ananya Bezbaruah nicely sang an Assamese song and her father Angshuman followed her with singing a couple of songs. Young Sachetan Sengupta played a piano number while Bhushana Deka recited a poem. Ranjan Baruah and Jonali Saikia also entertained us all by singing old Assamese favorites.

The video recording of Dr. Hazarika’s cultural evening at the 1993 Assam Convention in Washington, D.C., was played on the background during the rest of the evening.
The event of that evening came to an end after the consumption of a sumptuous meal that included many home-cooked traditional Assamese dishes. This was also an occasion to get to know new Assamese people who have recently moved to this area.

Thanks to the organizers for making the arrangements for the evening with plenty of food and the audio visual equipment. Thanks to Susanta Sengupta for the photos and Minakshi Bhagawati for putting the photos together.