Skip to content Skip to navigation

Rongali Bihu celebration in Raleigh, North Carolina – April 30, 2011

By AT News |

The Assamese community in Research Triangle Area of North Carolina USA (Raleigh-Durham-Cary-Morrisville) celebrated Rongali Bihu in Morrisville on April 30, 2011 in a familial atmosphere reminiscent of the bihu celebrations of the past in Assam. With spring birds filling the morning skies with their welcoming songs after a long winter, frolicking between the lush and verdant new leaves on trees all around, and colorful flowers providing welcoming playground to “bhomoras” and humming birds alike – this typical North Carolina spring day was a perfect backdrop for a Rongali Bihu celebration.



It was a day of coming together for this small community to celebrate “atikoi moromor bohagar bihuti” to connect their past heritage to the present - to celebrate the bond of kinship through the re-living of the traditions that live on in every Assamese heart.



Nasoni takuri ghura di ghure! Audience dancing to Bihu song Bihurenu Birina sung by the group in the background.



Surrounded by colorful gamochas, jaapis and Xarais beautifully arranged by Namrata Chetia Borah and her team to create an authentic Assamese décor, the day began with a cultural program in which everyone joined in with great enthusiasm. The program started with an introduction by Pulakesh Barua and Rathin Dev Choudhury followed immediately by the sonorous and soulful sound of a devotional song by Rathin and Meenakshi Dev Choudhury, professionally and reverently rendered with the accompaniment of harmonium by Rathin Dev Choudhury and Tabla by Dibyendu Goswami. It was followed by a children’s program, a very sweet rendition of Lakri ki Kathi, a hindi song by 8 year old Vansh Gogoi and a delightful dance by Ayana Chakrabory, Tanisha Gogoi, Eesha Barua, Rohini Sharma that brought smiles to everyone’s faces. Sudip Das’s rendition of ever popular Bhupen Hazarika favorites Bristirna Parore and Mur Gaan Houk enthralled the audience with uncanny similarities to the originals in vocal range and sound. The popular Axomia song Nahar Phoole Nuxuai was sung in a chorus with the accompaniment of keyboard (Pulakesh Barua), harmonium (Rathin Dev Choudhury) and Tabla ( Dibyendu Goswami). A beautifully choreographed dance to a popular Bollywood number was performed by Namrata Chetia Borah, Sriparna Chakraborty, Geetanjali Sharma, Sarika Gogoi and Shrabanti Barua. The highlight of the program was the bihu song “Bihurenu Birina” led by Rathin Dev Choudhury, Sudip Das, Deboo Gogoi and Pulakesh Barua and joined in by the audience in zestful singing and dancing to truly bring out the spirit of the event. Impromptu Hindi songs by Namrata and Sriparna afterwards drew encores from the audience before the cultural program came to a close.



Besides the musical program the event also provided ample opportunities to learn and recall important aspects of Assamese culture and heritage. Fun filled trivia questions presented by Devraj Borah throughout the program kept everyone engaged, including the children, who also enjoyed a variety of special games and competitions organized by Sudip Das.



Namrata Chetia Borah, Sriparna Chakraborty, Geetanjali Sharma, Sarika Gogoi and Shrabanti Barua dancing to the tune of a Bollywood song.



The day’s program came to an enjoyable closure with a delicious lunch that included mouth-watering delicacies cooked and catered by Babi Das and beautifully presented with lots of support from the volunteers. The menu included many authentic Assamese traditional dishes, such as doi, chiraa, boda sawol, mithai, kolor pitha, machor tenga, hahor (duck) mangsor aanja, matidalir tenga,kharor torkari, xukan machor chutney, and kathal sabji.


Chiranjit Deka
Communication Secy, Raleigh Bihu Committee NC



Photographs by: Prasenjit Khanikar

Comments

hunnn...'s picture

Submitted by hunnn... on Wed, 04/07/2012 - 14:52
past and present ....and still time to come.....

Pages

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Two rhino poachers arrested

Two poachers who are suspected to be involved in the recent rhino poaching in Kaziranga National Park, have been arrested during a joint operation by police and forest department in Sonitpur district on Sunday.Police and forest department officials, nabbed the duo from North Bank of Brahmaputra at Bishwanath Ghat.They have been identified as Aamir Islam and Moina Das and were suspected to be involved in the recent killing of rhinos and removal of horns in the park.

Jeevan Kite Festival at Guwahati

Dr Buljit Buragohain selling Robab Tenga at the on going Jeevan Kite Festival at the bank of the Brahmaputra river, Guwahati.

Inclusion of Sankaradeva in NCERT

Ref : SSS/2013/M-1Date : March 1, 2013 To, Prof. P. Sinclair Director, NCERTNCERT Campus, Sri Aurobindo Marg,New Delhi-110016Subject: Inclusion of life and works of Srimanta Sankaradeva in NCERT curriculumRespected Sir,Many leading persons as well as organizations of Assam have been consistently demanding the inclusion of life and works of the great saint, social reformer, litterateur and cultural maestro Srimanta Sankaradeva (1449-1568) in the NCERT curriculum. The matter was raised in Parliament also in 2006. It was in response to such demands that NCERT included one paragraph about Srimanta Sankaradeva in the history textbook for class XI. (Themes in Indian History, Part II, First...

Violence mars 100 BTAF bandh

A fresh orgy of violence marred the 100 hour long BTAD bandh which started from Friday morning crippling normal life in the entire area.Peoples' Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement called the bandh demanding talks with NDFB(P) at the political level with the Union Home Minister and also to press for a separate Bodoland.An unidentified body was recovered from Bagansali area under Kokrajhar police station while bandh supporters set ablaze a motorcycle in Kokrajhar town.All shops, business and commercial establishments educational institutions and markets remaining closed. Vehicles also remained off the road but trains operated as per schedule.Security has been tightened throughout...

DNLF militant arrested in Dima Hasao

A suspected Dimasa National Liberation Front group was arrested at Hatikhali in Dima Hasao district on Friday.Identified as Son Khelma, the militant was nabbed when he came to collect extortion money from a bank in the area.The DNLF had about four years ago abducted at gun-point four surveyors for a Chennai-based private company from Khelma Basti village under Langting police station of the district. Later they were rescued by extremists of another insurgent outfit Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel faction) after an encounter between the two groups and handed over to the police.

Another rhino killed in Kaziranga

Despite round-the-clock vigil, rhino poaching refuses to die down in the Kaziranga National Park. Carcass of yet another rhino was found on Friday inside the world heritage site.Poachers killed another rhino in the park on Thursday night and fled with its horn. The incident took place at Arikati area inside the park under Agoratoli forest range. Forest guards found the body on Friday morning, with the horns missing.

Major blast averted in Guwahati

Guwahati had a narrow escape from a huge explosion when police recovered a powerful bomb on Tuesday morning in the city.The bomb was planted inside an abandoned bag which was kept in front of the Refinery Gate in Noonmati. On spotting the suspicious object panic stricken local residents called up police in the morning. Noonmati police arrived in the spot with sniffer dogs. Bomb disposal squad arrived on the spot and defused the bomb.

Explosion in Jorhat: 2 injured

Two policemen have been injured when suspected ULFA exploded a powerful grenade in Jorhat on Tuesday.The explosion took place on Friday wee hours at Kenduguri areas near the town. Two policemen on checking duty on the road sustained serious injury. They have been indentified as Kesav Gogoi and Bolin Sonowal who have been rushed to the Jorhat Medical College Hospital. Police called it a handwork of ULFA militants who struck to avoid police checking. Later police recovered some explosives from the spot.   

Akhil gives ray of hope for farmers

It’s a ray of hope for farmers. Courtesy the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti. Led by Akhil Gogoi, KMSS has kickstarted a few ‘fair price’ stalls for vegetables in Guwahati pulling huge crowd. The two shops at Chandmari and RG Baruah Road Tiniali are being expanded till Ganeshguri on Tuesday after procuring the produce in bulk from farmers in Barpeta Road where they had been deprived of their due remuneration due to large-scale presence of middlemen and illegal syndicates in the trade. The stalls seems to have drawn overwhelming response from the citizens who made a beeline to the stalls to get vegetables at half the price sold in the city markets. ON Monday alone, over a hundred...

WB fund flows to Dispur

The World Bank will help Dispur improve public service delivery and governance of government departments. The government and World Bank are set to initially provide technical assistance, which will be later followed by financial assistance.The government departments that would be covered under the programmeare in the areas of business process re-engineering, digitization ofrecords, capacity building, human resource management, strengthening of institutions, and electronic service delivery adoption of innovative administrative practices.