-  Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah (Outgoing President)
It is always a pleasure to write about a success – and our 31st Assam Convention was a roaring success. Please read some of the contemporaneous comments from ones who attended the Convention, they are “present sense impressions” of the Convention, and thus are presented as statements of truth of the matter asserted – i.e. the success of the Convention! Thanks to Dr. Satyajit and Mrs. Ranu Dutta, Jayanta Lal Barua (Jayanta) took interest in hosting the Convention in Nashville, and it was a delight for us to forego the Cruise and other options under consideration; we opted for Nashville.AANA signed the Contract with the Marriott in September 2009, and we never looked back, except to be prudent, earlier this year, we changed the food requests from the original 250 to 200.

The Host Committee under the leadership of Drs. Atul Sarma and Ranjan Deka – secured the foundation of success with the thousand dollars plus contribution from about seven families. As is said, it is the money which makes the mare go! Food was superb, and we thank Mrs. Anee Deka and Eva Sarma for a job well done. Dr. Ajanta Phookan and Mrs. Khira Barua, admirably organized and marshaled the resources to provide us with successful cultural shows. Shantanu, Mitu and Jhula were great MCs! As always, the community could count on Dr. Babul Borah to deliver as the resident Tablist, he accompanied each artist so superbly! We are going to see more of Chiranjit with his admirable guitar and Krishanu with his “dhole & tal.” Besides these, there were many who contributed so tirelessly. Naturally, it needs an entire community to make a Convention a success like this one. We thank each and everyone for his or her part, each drop together made the flowing river!

Our Association in its General Body Meeting (hereinafter “GBM”) on the 4th of July gave a rousing vote of thanks to Jayanta and his wife Gina for their great help in making the Convention a success. The Association also acknowledged Bryan Williamson and his wife Jenny Williamson’s superb assistance, and truly the “Gamosha” represents our regard and appreciation for his service. We remain indebted to him. We also thank the young Country Music duo – Becca Hadzor and Michael Krejci for opening our Convention with their melodies. The Association also acknowledged the selfless and continued support of the following families: Amiya and Reeta Das, Barada and Nandita Sarma, Atul and Eva Sarma, Satyajit and Ranu Dutta, Debabrata and Jayashree Sarma, and late Jitendra Gopal and Aroona Borpujari. The young artists were great, and Gaurab Sarma, the Youth Coordinator is covering much of the matter in his write up that follows. Dr. Atul Sarma’s report on the Convention also follows. The three young artists from Assam – Mrs. Sunita Bhuyan, Mr. Angaraag Mahanta (“Papon”), and Ms. Abhishruti Bezbarua were splendid! I will simply echo someone who attended our Convention after a long absence -- Assamese culture is in good hands!

Our GBM accepted the gracious invitation from Chicago, and our next Convention – the 32nd Assam Convention – will be in the windy city. The necessary Invitation from Chicago follows in the write up from our Midwest Chapter Vice President, Mrs. Roopa Sharma. We look forward to a great Convention in Chicago. Gautam, Dipak, and Mitu are already at work! Please mark your calendars – the July 4th weekend 2011, in Chicago at the 32nd Assam Convention! The GBM also heard from Dr. Jayanta Chaudhury and a few others about Facebook, and it is already up and running! Please join the facebook and partake of the pleasure of updated information. Dr. Jayanta Choudhury enquired about the history of our organizations, and Mrs. Roopa Sharma asked me about it too.

Briefly, (caveat: as I remember it) here is our story:

Affected by the developments back home, in Assam, the Assamese community living in Houston, Texas in 1980 invited many of us residing in various parts of this country to come to Houston for a meeting to discuss as to what we can do. Dr. Lohit Dutta-Barua took the lead in organizing the meeting, and recognizing his contributions, the General Body Meeting recently, by acclamation, conferred upon him the Life Membership of AANA. We came from various parts of the country and met in Houston. Dr. Amiya Das came from Florida, Dr. Atul Sarma from Louisville, Mr. Himen Barthakur from Massachusetts, Mr. Mahendra Baruah from Oregon, Dr. Hirak Patangia from Arkansas, I, Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah from Washington, DC, and Mr. Barada and Nandita Sarma from Austin,Texas. The Houston community had about a dozen families – Dr. Bijon and Roopa Sharma, Mr. Rabin and Zina Mahanta, Mr. Rajen and Ajanta Barua, Mr. Manomohan and Bina Hazarika, and a few other families whose names I now forget.
As a result of the meeting, we the assembled, decided to form an Assam Association of North America (AANA) to do our social, and if needed, political work; and mainly because of Dr. Atul Sarma’s insistence that we raise funds and help the Science College in Gauhati, we decided to form also a non-profit wing to our association, and named it the Assam Foundation of North America (AFNA). As I recall, the model that we talked about was like the B’nai Birth in Washington, DC. We formulated the necessary policies, the By Laws and AANA came into being in 1980.

Our By Laws clearly state that henceforth we will have an annual Convention during the July 4th weekend called the Assam Convention, we will have our GBM during the Convention, a two year termed rotating Executive, regional Chapters, and duly run election every two years. AANA appointed an Ad-hoc Committee consisting of Dr. Atul Sarma (AANA Regional Executive), Dr. Lohit Datta-Barua (AANA General Secretary), and Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah (an AANA Regional Director) and we submitted a report, which was subsequently approved by AANA Executive Committee, and we were given a go ahead for the AFNA formation. We incorporated AFNA in Kentucky – Dr. Atul Sarma, Dr. Hirak Patangia, and Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah as the three incorporators. Later, we expanded the Board of Directors to five – Dr. Patangia left, Dr. Atul Sarma and I remained, and added Dr.Debojit Barua, Dr. Lohit Datta-Barua and Dr. Bijon Sarma, and applied for and secured the necessary IRS 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) status and the recognition for exemption from income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
During our Convention, we started publishing the magazine Luitor Pora Mississippi (“LPM”-- I believe Dr. Sanjib Barua of Bard College suggested the name), and also a little collection of writings of our community members titled Enajori, initiated by Dr. Brojen Bordoloi. The host committee used to publish the LPM, but I believe 1994 onwards, the Asom Sahitya Sabha, North America (ASSNA), a unit earlier formally established under the leaderships of Dr. Kripanath Borah, Dr. Dilip Dutta, Dr. Brojen Bordoloi, and others to be part of our Convention (where each AANA member is also a member of the ASSNA), was entrusted with the responsibilities of the publication, although AANA pays the cost. (Enajori was discontinued!). And we all three are sponsors of the Convention, AANA our parent organization, AFNA our non-profit wing, and ASSNA, the literary wing. A few of our Conventions have had surpluses and all the Convention surpluses go to AANA. Starting our Conventions in rented Church halls, school auditoriums, and community centers, we have traversed a long way to the present-day Conventions at reputable hotels.

Being 31-years old, our Association has now gathered traction! We have not lost faith in the aspirations that motivated us to form this Association and the Foundation. We remain anchored in the belief that we can do good, albeit in a small, measured ways in keeping with our capabilities and resources. We are not embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, achievements, and of course our purposes -- our successful Conventions speak for themselves. Onward we march on!