Bengali Association celebrates three day Durga Puja Festival

Suresh Bodiwala

CHICAGO: Bengali Association of Greater Chicago (BAGC) conducted its three-day Durga Puja Mahotsav last week. The celebrations continued for three days that included Puja, Arati and Pushpanjali.

BAGC is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting literature, art, music, and the rich religious and cultural heritage of South Asian Indian community for past 44 years. In addition to three days of Puja and all its special features, they also had an array of cultural programs with some legendary artists from both the USA as well as from India

This  Celebration was all about Durga Maata Puja as done by Shree Rama (Akal Bodhan) before going to the war with King Ravana.

Durga Puja, covered Pushpanjali in the Evening and cultural performances by local and external talents, which included likecurtain raiser (JaloPradeepJalo), Musical Comedy Show (KichuHaasiKichuGaan) and performance by a Chicago based band DhoomK2. Mahasaptami and Mahashtamicelebrated on Saturday, October 9^th,included morning and evening prayers along with a BAGC Youth Production on Environment Awareness (Sabuj Prithvi) in the evening followed by a musical retrospective to legendary Bengali Music Directors and a musical performance by Debarpan Dhar with his melodious voice.

MahanabamiDashami, celebrated on Sunday,10th October, which isthe conclusion day of the Puja Ceremony includes beautiful Bisharjon, Sindhur Khela and DhanuchiNach during the day and cultural program in the evening. The cultural program in the evening included drama “TritiyoNayan” by Chicago NatyaGoshthi (CNG) and fusion dance “Rhythm of Fire ”.

The three-day event also included two grand concerts at Hemmens Cultural Center, Elgin’ Il; with two celebrity vocalists and their teams. All three days had booth for free mandatory covid testing provided by Amita Labs and every attendee followed mask mandate for all indoor events.

During the first concert, the fusion queen Vidya Vox along with Shankar Tucker and other team members created the musical magic with her refreshingly unique and contemporary voice. Vidya the gen z sensation who has over 7 million youtube subscribers and close to a billion views sang in a variety of languages including Rongobati her first Bengali song and kept the audience dancing during the entire show. The master of the ceremony for the concert was Prachi Jaitly. The second show had a team of vocalists from India led by Music Legend Music Director Jatin Pandit.

Jatin Pandit was accompanied by his son RaahulJatin and other artists like Nauzad, Malancha, and Sonia Keshwani who also graced the event being the emcee. The team enthralled the audience with all the hit numbers of Bollywood. The auditorium was packed during both the concerts.

Jayanta Mukherjee, addressed the audience during the concert and briefed everyone about the BAGC and its initiatives. The executive committees received huge appreciation from everyone for working tirelessly for the last two years to keep the BAGC activities going amidst all the challenges. He also assured of his continuous contribution to the association in the upcoming years as well.. The success of the event was also made possible by the generous sponsors and patrons. Media partners of the entire event were Asian Media USA and Asian Media Broadcasting.