- Dr. Gautam L. Baruah
Dear Raiz,
The passing of our beloved Bhupenda has struck all of us dumbfounded with inconsolable grief and has created the biggest void in our lives. As we take the first hesitant and uncertain steps into an unknown world, let us remember the musical, literary, genial and humorous stalwart from Assam through our own personal interactions with him. This fall newsletter is a modest attempt to rekindle some of the memories of the great times we had with Bhupenda. He was one of the greatest sons of Assam but the whole of India knew and loved him. He brought our great and variegated Assamese ethos and culture into the homes of people all over India and the world.This was really reinforced recently when my Sindhi colleague at the office started singing Dil hum hum kare… when I mentioned to him that we were organizing a Shraddhanjali for Bhupenda in Chicago.
We, as a community should be justifiably proud of our success in promoting our rich and diverse culture throughout North America. Our annual Assam Convention is dear to all of us and all of us are requested to ensure its success by participating in it and passing on the message to friends and relatives. We once again thank the Raiz for the fantastic response to the 32nd Assam Convention held in Chicago this July.
We need a similar or even bigger response for the 33rd Assam Convention to be held in Calgary, Canada during June 30 – July 01, 2012. Please save these dates and stay tuned for more information in future newsletters. Organizing a continent wide annual event like the Assam Convention is complex. To facilitate this process the present executive has taken up the following goals as their topmost priorities:
- Generate a simple one page guidelines document to organize our convention
- Boost AANA membership to 200
- Establish a new ‘home’ for AANA – AANA’s website
As we are dedicating this newsletter issue to Bhupenda, we will publish other community news in the next issue.
Best wishes for the Holiday Season!
Warm regards,
Dr. Gautam L. Baruah
President, AANA
