e-bagazine A Bengali Association of Greater Atlanta Publication: May 2010 In this Issue... Rabindranath Tagore 7 May August 1941

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1 A Bengali Association of Greater Atlanta Publication: May 2010 In this Issue... Editorial A Graduation Wish The Class of 2010 Akshay Tritia Mother's Day Tagore's Birthday Poems of Tagore BAGA Celebrates Kobi Jayanti Rannaghor Rabindranath Tagore 7 May August 1941

2 e-bagazine This issue is dedicated to the High school GRADUATING class of Graduation represents moving from the sheltered life of school into the real world. It's a scary move, but one that every child has to take and a parent has to overcome. In 1999, when one of my friend s daughter graduated from high school I was unable to appreciate the big deal made about graduating high school. When we were growing up in India, passing high school or graduating from college was WHAT YOU DID naturally. Nothing Great about it to have a huge celebration!!! But after a number of years when my son was almost ready to graduate, I understood just like many other parents do, why it was indeed a big deal. Once they go to college, and live outside the home it s never the same again as it had been during the past 18 years. They start discovering themselves, and their views start differing so much from yours. In other words they become independent. They make new friendships and slowly turn into strong young men/women. So le us wish all the 2010 graduates success in all their endeavors. North view High School Chandni Ghosh Brookwood High School Devdan Mitra Brookwood High School Rahul Mojumdar Mojumdar Centennial High School Sayan Chatterjee Parkview High School Emory University Shayan Rakhit PEACE ON EARTH. Princeton University Ahona Chatterjee Munmun Sen Editor Wheeler High School Shinjini Das For all BAGA 2010 High School Seniors We wish for you a joy-filled transition from the shelter of school to the wide world of your accomplishment and success. We wish for you new, stimulating friendships, while you cherish old friends, who provide continuity and comfort. We wish for you a smooth path on your journey to your chosen destination, and much delight in all your adventures while reaching your goal. May life strengthen you in everything you do Congratulations! e-bagazine Alo (Roshni) Dutta Subhendu De Chattahoochee High School Samrat Sinharoy 1 Susmita Gorai Soham De Norcross High School May 2010

3 Sunday, May 9th 2010 Akshay Tritiya, also known as "Akha Teej", is traditionally the birthday of Lord Parasuram, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Akshaya Tritiya falls on the third day of the bright half of Vaishakh month (April- May), when the Sun and Moon are in ecstasy; they are simultaneously at their peak of brightness, which happens only once every year. Akshaya Tritiya is one such momentous occasion, which is considered one of the most auspicious days of the Hindu Calendar. Hindus believe that every work starts with the blessings of God. It is believed that any meaningful activity started on this day would be fruitful. The word "Akshaya" means imperishable or eternal - that which never diminishes. It is believed that by doing a good deed on Akshaya Tritiya one can earn Punya for life. The day also marks the beginning of the "SatyaYug" or the Golden Age - the first of the four Yugas. In the "Puranas", the holy Hindu scriptures, there is a story that says that on this day of Akshay Tritiya Vedavyas along with Ganesh started writing the great epic Mahabharata. Ganga Devi or Mother Ganges also descended to earth on this day. The history of Mother's Day is centuries old and the earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. Another historical record of a society celebrating a Mother deity can be found among the ancient Egyptians, who held an annual festival to honor the goddess Isis, who was commonly regarded as the Mother of the pharaohs. During the 1600's, the early Christians in England celebrated a day to honor Mary, the mother of Christ. By a religious order the holiday was later expanded in its scope to include all mothers, and named as Mothering Sunday. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British and was first suggested after the American Civil War by social activist Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic. She began promoting the idea of a "Mother's Day for Peace" to be celebrated on June 2, honoring peace, motherhood and womanhood. Howe's idea was influenced by Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker. It was Jarvis' daughter, Anna Jarvis, who finally succeeded in introducing Mother's Day in the sense as we celebrate it today. Anna felt children often neglected to appreciate their mother enough while the mother was still alive. As a result of her efforts the first mother's day was observed on May 10, Anna's dream came true when on May 9, 1914, the Presidential proclamation declared the 2nd Sunday of May to be observed as Mother's Day to honor the mothers. Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. 2

4 25th Baisakh usually falls on the 7th, 8th or 9th of May. It is the birthday of the great Indian poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore was born in Calcutta, India into a wealthy Brahmin family. When he was young his short stories were published monthly in a friend's magazine and he even played the lead role in a few of the public performances of his plays. His life took a huge turn in 1912 at the age of 51 when he was accompanying his son to England. On his long sea voyage to England he began translating, for the first time, his largest selections of poems, Gitanjali, into English. This year is the hundredth anniversary of Gitanjali. He made handwritten translations in a little notebook he carried around with him in England. Upon their arrival in England, his son mistakenly left Tagore's brief case with his notebook in a London subway. Fortunately, an honest person turned in the briefcase and it was recovered the next day. Tagore's friend in England, a famous painter he had met in India, Rothenstein, learned of the translation, and wanted to see it. Reluctantly, Tagore let him have the notebook. The painter could not believe his eyes. The poems were incredible. He called his friend, W.B. Yeats, and finally convinced Yeats into looking at the hand scrawled notebook. The rest, as they say, is history. Yeats was enthralled. He later wrote the introduction to Gitanjali when it was published in September 1912 in a limited edition by the India Society in London. Both the poetry and the man were an instant sensation, first in London literary circles, and soon thereafter in the entire world. His spiritual presence was awesome. His words evoked great beauty. Nobody had ever read anything like it. A glimpse of the mysticism and sentimental beauty of Indian culture were revealed to the West for the first time. Less than a year later, in 1913, Rabindranath received the Nobel Prize for literature. He was the first nonwesterner to be honored with this prestige. In 1915 he was knighted by the British King George V. This year marks the 100th anniversary of The Gitanjali. This year 25th Baishakh is the 149th birth anniversary of the greatest poet of Bengal Rabindranath Tagore ( ). I doubt if there would ever be a comparable genius in literature who had mastered all the genres of literature equally. We have seen geniuses like Shakespeare, Shaw, Ibsen who shine in drama, Shelly, Byron, TS Eliot or Yeats in poetry, Chekov, Tolstoy in novels but Rabindranath Tagore is the exception who wrote with equal energy and depth in poetry, songs, story, novel, and essays. He wrote over one thousand poems; eight volumes of short stories; almost two dozen plays and play-lets; eight novels; and many books and essays on philosophy, religion, education and social topics. Aside from words and drama, his other great love was music, Bengali style. He composed more than two thousand songs, both the music and lyrics. Two of them became the national anthems of India and Bangladesh. His stories have always been an important source of script for Bengali films. His dance dramas gave a new dimension to creative art. Sir Tagore renounced his Knighthood. Although he was a good friend of Gandhi, most of the time Tagore stayed out of politics. He was opposed to nationalism and militarism as a matter of principle, and instead promoted spiritual values and the creation of a new world culture founded in multi-culturalism, diversity and tolerance. He had his own thoughts on education from which he developed his own center of education Viswa Bharati in Santi Niketan, West Bengal. He is the only person in history whose songs are at the same time the national anthem of two different countries Bangladesh and India. Here are a few poems of Rabindranath Tagore. (See next page.) 3

5 t ш, uc ш, j k, p å p ш х i хn kd к, к u х ucch u, s ш ш ш ш к a s s, c å ш s i g, к ш ; к n å n - s å к, i s к... '', 72'', nd k Are you aboard on this stormy night On your journey of love, my friend? The sky groans like one in despair. I have no sleep tonight. Ever and again I open my door and look out on The darkness, my friend! I can see nothing before me. I wonder where is your path! By what dim shore of the ink-black river, by what far edge of the frowning forest, through what mazy depth of gloom are you treading Your course to come to me, my friend 4

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7 Saturday May 15, 2010 BAGA welcomes you to celebrate Kobi Jayanti on Saturday May 15, Venue : Shamrock Middle School (6:00 PM - 10:00 PM) 6 :00-6:15 PM : Welcome speech by Swami Brahmavidyananda 6:15-7:00 PM : Youth accreditation 7:00-8:00 PM : Cultural program - Gane-e O kabitai amader jibanchabi 8:00-9:00 PM : Dinner 9: PM : Rabindrasangeet by Debangana Sarkar Besan Burfi Ingredients: 1cup besan, 1cup ghee, 1cup - milk powder (khoya), 1 1/2 cup - sugar Melt ghee and fry besan in it till a nice smell comes out. Transfer the mixture in another vessel and mix with milk powder. Make thick sugar syrup Drop the fried besan mixture in sugar syrup and stir it. Transfer it to a greased plate. Cut into diamond shaped pieces. Besan burfi is ready. Instruction for submitting manuscript to e-bagazine Please your typed manuscript to hellosutapa@gmail.com your submissions cannot be more than 30 lines (using font size of 12) or 400 words whichever is higher. As always, the editors reserve the right to publish or not to publish a submission. All submissions must be original and not published or have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Cantaloupe Smoothie Ingredients 1/2 ripe cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks, Almonds- 2 tbsp, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup vanilla fat-free yogurt, 1 cup crushed ice, 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste Combine cantaloupe, sugar and almonds in a blender and process until smooth. Add milk and ice cream or frozen yogurt and ice and blend well again. May decorate with whipped topping. Makes about 4 glasses. (it is tasty!!!!) Credits for this issue... Sources: Editor: Munmun Sen; Layout: Dr. Raktim Sen; Webmaster ( Santanu Bose; e-bagazine is a Bengali Association of Greater Atlanta (BAGA) publication. The views expressed in this publication are of the respective authors/artists and are not necessarily those of BAGA or the publication s editors. 6