Bangla-O-Biswa, a premier non-profit cultural organization serving the Bangali diaspora in the Greater Boston area celebrated the biggest Bengali festival “Durga Puja” with grandeur, joy, style and class on October 3rd, 4th and 5th at the Littleton High School.

Bangla-O-Biswa was formed in the spring of 1982 and since then has been dedicated to foster the cultural heritage of Bengal.

Bangla O Biswa took pride in organizing this year’s Durga Puja and has provided the Bengali community at Boston a wonderful weekend to remember. The schedule started on Friday, October 3rd with Puja preparations. Preparations included setting up the Idol with a customized artistic background prepared by a local artist from the Bangla O Biswa membership committee. As the cultural program rehearsals were in progress in the auditorium and the aroma of the Bengali food being cooked in the kitchen of the High School spread the air, “Pujo” was in Boston.

Saturday’s schedule started with the Pujo, done by Swami Vedantananda from Bharat Sevashram Sangha, New Jersey. Everyone was given a chance to offer prayers and flowes (pushpanjali) to Maa Durga and Prasad was served followed by a delicious Bengali Khichri lunch. Children participated in the “Sit and Draw” competition. The cultural program started at 3 PM and local artists performed in front of a full auditorium at the High School. Close to 75 kids performed in a Dance and Song drama – “Bangla to Boston” depicting the journey of these kids from a village in West Bengal, India to Boston in US. This was followed by a performance from a Washington based group – “Ta Thoi” who paid a tribute to the renowned Bengali director “Riturarno Ghosh” with a collage of dances choreographed to songs from his various movies and video montage of him reminiscing about his films. The audience was thrilled with this performance. It did not end here and continued with a beautifully sewn playlist of songs sung by a few local artists. What followed was an awesome performance from a few of the local artists when they put together a “Dance Drama” depicting the dreams and the life of a little girl who has her own way of thinking different from the rest. The audience was flabbergasted with the short play presented by “Ebong TheatriX” (a group from Washington D.C) where they adapted Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala. After an appealing cultural evening, a delicious dinner was served. Soon after the dinner, Bangla O Biswa presented their featured artist “Somchanda Bhattacharya” who sang some melodious numbers beautifully. The programs wrapped up at around 11 PM on Saturday.

Sunday followed with equal energy and devotion with Puja and Prasad. A delectable lunch was served that consisted of a number of Bengali delicacies. Sunday’s main attraction was Lopamudra Mitra, which was an afternoon to remember. Lopamudra is one of the premier singers in the Bengali music industry today with an unique voice and combines classical Bengali music with folk songs. In many ways, she maintained a relationship with the audience evolved from an involved partnership between the listener and the singer during her stage performance where she created an enthralling body language through which she 'speaks', 'lives,' and 'becomes' the song.

The event ended with Dhaki Nacch, Sindur Khela and wishing Bijoya to everyone. With best wished for the next year, Bangla O Biswa concluded another successful Durga Puja.

|