By Nirmali Bauah, Westerville, OH
 

Bhogali Bihu was celebrated at Manas Indian Restaurant (Party Hall) on 26th of January. Although it snowed the day before, people around Columbus were very enthusiastic to come to the Bihu. After having authentic Assamese snacks (tilor laroo, narikolor laroo, dai seera, and pitha) along with Samosa and tea. The function began with a welcome address by Himanshu Ojah followed by a speech by Nishanta Baruah, a second generation Assamese-American, who described his feelings about Bhogali Bihu. Few lines from his speech (the full speech is given at the beginning the newsletter):
“Having been brought up as an Assamese in America, I have often compared my two cultures, the one of my heritage and the one of my birth. I have always thought of Bhogali Bihu as the “Assamese Thanksgiving.” We don’t follow the same customs and give thanks as directly as is required inherently by Thanksgiving, but the similarities are uncanny. Bhogali Bihu is a celebration of the Harvest Season in Assam. It is a celebration of life. Without the harvest, there would be no food through the winter, and a lean winter would lead to a lean New Year.”…much more
Anil Thakuria spoke a few words and conveyed greetings to all.
The Columbus group performed “Joy raghurananda” lead by Nirmali Baruah, participants were Himanshu, Sujatha, Parveza, Manoj, and Anamika. Mafu Haque sang a few songs of Mukesh, Digbijoy Nath entertained with bihu and Assamese modern songs. A DVD of “Tribute to Assamese Music“ was shown during lunch time. Lunch was excellent, patha mangsa, tandoori chicken, veg. biriyani, masar jol, Dail, paneer curry, gulab jamun, etc.

Krishanu Kaushik came with his family from Detroit, MI to extend an invitation to the 2013 Assam Convention to be held in Detroit, during July 4-6, 2013. Krishanu, Priyanka (Chumki) and Isha and Prayas entertained the crowd with music and dance. Samba Aripaka danced with a bihu song by Papon which was a nice performance. Sujatha Ojah sang couple of Bengali and Hindi songs with her melodious voice.
Our thanks to the following people for their contributions to snacks and decorations:
Manoj and Anamika Deuri, Nikhil and Nirmali Baruah, Himanshu and Sujatha Ojah, Shouvik and Parveza Ahmed, Anil and Paraja Thakuria, Sara and Brandt Lancione, Tiffany and Nishanta Baruah, Janice and Hemen Das, Biswadeep and Joyeta Sen. We also thank Nishanta for conducting the function. Special thanks to Manoj Deuri for managing the finance, and Shouvik and Parveza for taking initiative for this celebration. We thank all the people who attended the function and made it successful.
A special guest from Assam, Monica Borah (Janice Borah’s mother), attended the function.
A DVD “Mist of Magic of NE India” was played by Nirmali Baruah, which was very much enjoyed by the crowd.
Mukali bihu dance was performed by all the attendants. It was lot of fun and brings us sweet memories of Bhogali bihu in Assam. Only thing we missed was a “Meji” that was not possible inside a hall.
The function ended with our Jatiya Sangeet, O’ mor aponar dex.
Joi Ai Axom!