Orissa Society of New England (OSNE) celebrated the Ganesh Chaturthi on Sunday September 18, 2204 in a church in Hopkinton, MA. More than 100 people braved the weather and the rain to make it one of the most well attended event in recent OSNE history. As one entered the church, one could not help but notice Arun Panigrahi at the reception desk. Arun is a second generation Indian who has been attending these events for a long time. In the 90’s, Arun used to attend the event with his parents who used to live in Westboro. In 1997, all of them moved back to India and he did his Plus 2 in India. In 1999 he returned back to US to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. Last year after he moved back to Worcester area to attend medical school, Arun started attending the OSNE events on his own initiative.

The program started with 2:00 pm with Ganesh puja. Sankar Padhy conducted the puja. Sankar is a computer engineer by training and works for Staples. He conducted this puja for OSNE as a service and as his personal responsibility after their usual priest was unable to do it. However, this is not something new to him as when he was 16 years old; he used to work as an assistant to the priest for the Kali Temple in Sambalpur, Orissa.

The puja was followed by a cultural program. The emcee for the program was Jaya Mahapatra, an Odissi dancer in the Boston metro area. Some of the items presented were a Ganesh Vandana by Abritee Dhal of flute and Ankan Dhal on violin, poem reading by Dolly, Oriya bhajan by Amrit Padhy, Bharatanatyam dance by Abritee Dhal, a Hindi song by Anish Padhy, dance by Shilpa Mahapatra to the song ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’, Vande Matram by Sneha and Rashi, song by Gayatri. No program today can end without a Bhangra, which was performed by Shayel, Ankan, Yameen, Abritee and Rashmi.

OSNE has a tradition of introducing all the new members, attendees and their guests. This honor belonged to Pradeep Dhal, President of OSNE. After this two members were specially invited to talk about their organizations. Amaresh Mahapatra talked about THRIVE, which was started in 1999 by Monalisa Patnaik. It has set up a school in an adivasi village, 80 km from Bhuvaneshwar. It currently enrolls 55 children. Thrive, thru its annual fund raiser here, funds its entire operative budget of about $7,500 which includes uniforms for students and free lunches. (www.wethrive.org)

Mihir Rath, who used to live in MA but now resides in Buffalo, NY, talk about his organization Asian Indian Community Foundation of Western New York, whose primary focus is to promote awareness and undertake relief efforts in the areas of disaster relief, literacy, and child and family welfare. It raised $30K for Kargil, $50K for Orissa Cyclone, $50K for Gujarat Earthquake and $30K for Attack on America. Its long term goal is to raise $100K to buy 40 acres of farm land. The income from farming will be used to self-sustain Lutheran Mahila Samity. (aicfwny@yahoo.com)

The event ended with a sumptuous home-made dinner. The entire executive committee must be commended for keeping the program on time and making every effort to make everyone feel at home!

|