JOGA Holi Celebration on March 10, 2007

Contents • General Overview • Melana • Bhajan on the theme of "Lila Bhajan" • Welcome Speech • Stage Management • Cultural Program

o Children’s Dances, Kabaali and Fashion Show o Basanta Raaga Part I with Odissi by Kakali Rath o Basanta Raaga Part II o Talent Shows o Odissi and Movie Dances o Gitinatya Sri Ganesha o Jogasutra and JOGA retreat announcements

• Certificates and Recognition • Essay Competition Results • Dinner • Memories: Video Recording and Photographs • Cleaning • Holi Sponsors

Note: Holi program was arranged by JOGA, Jagannatha Organization for Global Awareness at Murugan Temple Auditorium, 6300 Princess Garden Parkway, Lanham, Maryland 20706

General Overview National Weather Service had made forecast for the rain. There was fear, but there was also faith on Lord Jagannath’s mercy. It was His function and He would take care. That faith became bold. Lord Jagannath took care and there was no rain until the function was over. More than 80 families had gathered in Murugan Temple for the Holi function on March 10, 2007. The spirit was high. It was because of volunteers such as Julie Acharya Ray, Urmila Sahu, Sulochana Patnaik, Hemant Biswal, Naresh Das, Meera Mohapatra, Pratap Dash, Leena Mishra and Bandita

Mishra etc. that formed a chain to call families personally and invite them. It was a great scene to see so many families, so many little children and experience the friendly smiles.

JOGA volunteers Naresh Das, Prasanna Nayak, Sangeeta Dey, Lalit Behera and Brahmapriya Sen had gathered at Murugan temple auditorium on March 9th, Friday night to start the decoration for the Holi program next day. On March 10th, the sun was shining bright. JOGA volunteers in charge of decoration had again gathered from 2:30 AM to decorate the auditorium. The stage was decorated with Pipili wall hangings, Orissi sarees, Odissi staues, decorative Kalashas and decorative plants. Volunteers in charge of stage management, sound systems, registration had gathered before 3:45 PM. At 4:10 PM, Holi Melana (procession of deities) started. Decorated palanquins, small and big were carried by children and adults. The procession continued from the main entrance side of the temple and continued around the temple finally reaching the auditorium entrance.

Oriyas from 6 states, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and Maryland participated in the event.

This function would not have been possible without the dynamic, high spirited volunteers who personally invited families, who worked hard to perform and present a cultural item, who coordinated and cooked prasad and bhoga, and whose presence and smile added special charm to our function and to our memory.

Special thanks go to Mrs Urmila Sahu. In spite of her health problems due to allergic reaction, she had kept her commitment of preparing bhoga for the function.

As in the previous years, the temple people were very cooperative.

Most of the look and feel credits go to Prasanna Nayak, Naresh Das, Brahmapriya Sen and Sangeeta Dey for the stage decoration. Thanks are due to Abhijit Ray for being so patient with managing the sound system for 4 long hours.

The dedicated volunteers not only made the program so successful, but enjoyable and memorable.

Melana: The first part of the program was "Melana". The "bimanas" that had arrived for the procession are:

• Lord Jagannath brought by Nrusingha Mishra's family from Germantown, Maryland; • Radha-Krishna by Shashadhar Mahapatra's family from Silver Spring, Maryland; • Radha-Madan Mohan brought by Naresh Das's family from Columbia, Maryland;

Sangeeta Dey had created decorated “Asthaana” for the bimanas to be kept. The bimanas entered the auditorium with kirtan and playing of color. Specific “doLa-jAta” songs by Pratap Dash and kirtans by all the devotees filled the air. The families and friends enjoyed doing the bandapana and putting "abira" on each other. After all the bimanas reached the auditorium stage, devotees came to do Arati and bandApanA.

Registration: Alok Mohanty, Priti Biswal and Biju Mishra were at the registration desk distributing the program schedule and name tags.

Welcome Speech: Dr Devraj Sahu delivered the welcome speech. He welcomed everybody on behalf of Jagannath Organization for Global awareness, also known as JOGA. His warm welcome with words of personal feelings provoked emotion in the minds of the audience. He thanked everybody for their support of this program for all these nine years. He also invited

everybody to join hands together and make the community strong.

Bhajan (Theme: Leela Bhajans): Dr Joy Gopal Mohanty moderated the bhajan program. Bhajan started with “Chandana Charchita” by the group. The second song was another beautiful song “Bajuchhi sahi bAjAre”, written by Gopalkrushna Patnaik. This was presented in group with Deepa Parija in lead. The third song was a solo presentation by Julie Acharya Ray. This song “Kaustubha Tule Ki Mala Japibi” was written by Mrs Kalpanamayee Dash of Minnesota. After 3 bhajan songs, the group presented Holi welcome song “Jahna hasuchhi jhumi jhumi, Tara nachuchhi jhumi jhumi”. This song was specially written for this year’s Holi..

The participants were Deepa Parija, Sunanda Holmes, Julie Acharya Ray, Debaki Nandan Chowdhury, Leena Mishra, Maushumi Patnaik, Bigyani Das, Nrusingha Mishra and Prasanna Nayak. Debaki Nandan Chowdhury accompanied them in Keyboard, Surendra Ray in Tabla and Maushumi Patnaik in singles.

Dr Surendra Ray was the music coordinator who had emphasized in commitment and practice that were shown in the presentation.

Stage Management The stage management, lights and sounds were taken care of by Abhijit Ray, Brahmapriya Sen, Satish Mishra, Sidharth Mohapatra, Bikash Sahu and Amaresh Sahu.

Cultural Program: Julie Acharya Ray, the Master of Ceremony for the cultural program welcomed the audience and gave a brief overview of the program.

Children’s Dances, Kabaali and Fashion Show

The first item in the children’s category was a Magalacharan presented by Divya Das. After that the small children from Maryland presented “Kabaali” “Padibani Bandhu Padibani Thare”. The participants were: Suchismita Ojha, Rene Sen, Debanshi Chowdhury, Harshita Balla, Disha Das, Aparna Ray, Adishree Nayak, Anmol Dash, Soumya Patnaik, Neil Sen, Rasesh Behera, Ishaan Dey, Debanjan Chowdhury, and Mehul Behera.

The children from VA presented fashion show item. The participants were: Amartya Mohan Banerjee, Amrita Sahu, Anjali Pattanaik, Ashita Sahu, Akash Raju, Neha Pattanaik, Satwik Bisoi, Sohail Mohanty, and Sarthak Suman Sahu

Basant Raaga (Part I)

The next section of the program was “Basanta Raaga”. The first item was “Ki Sobha Go Kunje”. This item was choreographed and taught by Mrs Jayantee Paine Ganguly. It was a beautiful choreography and presentation by the children. The dancers were Ankita Ray, Mrunali Das, Shashwati Das, Raven Holmes, Lonika Behera and Ciron Gilford. The next item was a Basant Pallabi by Kakali Rath. Her Guru is Sri Durga Charan Ranbir, who follows the style of his own guru Late Sri Deba Prasad Das. Kakali started learning to dance under her guru when she was three years old and she has been giving on-stage performances ever since. A post Graduate and National

Scholarship holder in Odissi Dance, Kakali started out as a professional free-lance artist in the year 1992. A few of her performances have been at the Beach Festivals at Puri and Sun Temple festival at Konark, REC Rourkela and IIT KGP. She has also performed at other cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Chidambaram, and Pollachi. Her performances abroad have been in Kazakhstan and in Germany where she also completed a three-

month course on Body and Dance at the International Women’s University. She performed at the annual day celebrations of Satyam Computer Services at Peoria, Illinois; Oriya Society Convention & Bengali Society Convention in Chicago, the Indian Independence day

celebrations in Oshkosh, Wisconsin & Red River Revel at Shreveport.

Kakali Rath also performed an Abhinaya “Kede Chanda Janelo Sahi .....” an Oriya poem written by the famous Oriya poet “Banamali”. The poet belonged to the 18th century but till today no one has surpassed his mastery over the choice or creation of words while expressing “Bhava” and “Rasa”. As the poet wonders, how such a sweet little kid, Lord Krishna from the Nanda family could achieve the exploits of even the greatest. The dancer presents all those activities to take the audience into a wonder world. Among the episodes presented are: the killing of demoness Putana; Mother Yasoda being enchanted at the sight of the whole universe residing in the small mouth of her son. This marvelous dance item includes many such childhood antics and advenstures of Lord Krishna and was presented as a combination of Nrutta and Natya in perfect harmony for effective expression. Basant Raaga (Part II) Our MC for this program was Tapasi Panigrahi. Tapasi started the program with a love song. The first item was a Holi dance by Asmi and Atman Panigrahi The second item was an Odia song “Emiti Ranga De Lo Sakhi” presented by Bagmi Das. This was a song where the dancer was seeking eternal color that would never disappear.

The 3rd item was the dance “Madhuban me Radhika” from the movie “Lagaan”. This was presented by Ankita Ray. The fourth item was a dance called “Desh Rangila”. This was performed by Rajashree Mishra and Shashwati Das. This was a medley of songs that describes our colorful country India and its playing of colors during Holi festival.

Talent Show The MC for this section was Bagmi Das. In this section we had 4 items. The first item was a song “na jA jamunA re sahi najA jamunA” presented by Dabashis Das, Divya Das (with keyboard), Mrunali Das (in Sitar) and Naresh Das (in Tabla). This was a song composed by Banamali Dasa and was taught by Binod Panda.

Divya and Dev learn Indian classical music at India International School, Fairfax, VA under the tutelage of Humayan Khan. Mrunali Das learns Sitar from Guru Nabaghana Shyam Singh. The second item was violin playing by Amartya Banerjee. Amartya goes to Suzuki school of violin and he played twinkle variations. The third item was also another violin playing by Sarthak Sahoo. He played from his own composition. The fourth item was Piano playing by Alok Mohanty. Odissi and Movie Dances The MC for this section of the program was Susmita Behera. In this section we had 5 items. The first item was is the Odissi performance by Shibani Kanungo. Shibani performed “Kirwani Pallabi”. This was taught to her by her Guru Jayantee Paine Ganguly. The 2nd item was also an Odissi dance that will be performed by Anjana Mohanty. This dance was taught to her by her Guru Chitra Krishnamurty. The 3rd item was a movie song dance “Bhumro Bhumro” by Adi Nayak and Aparna Ray. The song was from the movie “Mission Kashmir”. The 4th item was a Movie Song Dance that was performed by Supriya Patnaik. The dance was “Dus bahane karke legaye dil” from the movie “Dus”. The 5th item was another movie dance “tal se tal mila” from the movie “Tal”. This was performed by Swagata Mohanty. Gitinatya Sri Ganesha

The drama was the story of Lord Sri Ganesha’s birth. Lord Siva was describing Parbati how he was saved from committing a big sin. During the conversation misunderstanding started and Siva ordered Parbati to leave the place immediately and go somewhere else. Parbati left Kailash and went to Kiskindhya Mountain. Narada Muni came and suggested Parbati to do meditation to get back Siva. While Parbati was taking bathe, she created Ganesha from her mind using the dirt from her body. Lord Bisnu gave life to Ganesha and Ganesha was in charge of watching the cave door while Parbati meditated. Siva came looking for Parbati. Ganesh did not allow him go inside. Fighting started and Siva was defeated. Siva sent his followers who were also defeated. Then Siva took help of Bisnu. In

the final battle, Ganesha was defeated and killed. When Siva learned that Ganesha was Parbati’s son, he wanted to give back Ganesh’s life. However, Ganesha’s head was completely destroyed. Siva sent Nandi and Bhrungi to get a baby’s head who would be sleeping putting his head to north. Nanid and Bhrungi got an elephant’s head. Siva gave back life to Ganesha and blessed him to be the Lord who will get first puja. The participants were:

Participants:

Pratap Dash (Shiba), Bijoylaxmi Dash (Parbati), Shashwati Das (Narada), Mrunali Das (Bisnu), Rajashree Mishra (Dharani), Sidhharth Mohapatra (Nandi), Suman Ojha (Bhrungi), Debanjan Chowdhury (Ganesha)

Jogasutra and JOGA Retreat Announcements: Announcements in video format were made for JOGA retreat and Jogasutra, part II. As JOGA will complete 10 years of Holi celebration next year in 2008, we plan to bring the next volume of Jogasutra.

A JOGA retreat is planned to engage small children during summer 2007. The small video clips were made possible by Shashadhar Mohapatra, Debanjan Chowdhury, Rajashree Mishra, Mrunali Das and Shashwati Das. The editing was done by Anshuman Das.

Certificates and Recognition: Certificates were presented to all the children participants.

Essay Competition Results: For the first time JOGA conducted an essay contest among HIGH school students. The objective was two fold: (1) To recognize the young high school writers who will be ready for college this year or soon. (2) To encourage the students to research on the topics relevant to Indian culture, event, monument or personality. There were 9 participants this year from different part of USA (NJ, VA, MD) competed for two prizes: first prize was of $50/- and second prize was of $25. We had a panel of judges from diverse field and well established in education and research line to evaluate the essays and declare the winners. The results were declared today. The winning essay was from Miss Prerana Pradhan, a 12th grader from NJ and the runners up essay was from Mrunali Das, a 9th grader from MD. Both winners choose

to select the topic "The gateway of India" from the three topics (The gateway of India, Jagannath Culture, Holi, an international festival). Both the essays are now posted in

<http://www.jogaworld.org/chirantana/essay_2007.htm>.

Dinner (Prasad) and Snacks (Bhoga): The major part of the program, food, was managed by Sulochana Patnaik and Urmila Sahu as coordinators. The food was prepared by Ila Ojha and Mahashakti Dash of Baltimore Jaganath temple. Urmila Sahu had prepared sweets and bhoga items. Meera Mohapatra had also made sweets. Bandita Mishra arranged fruits. Food distribution was managed by Sulochana Patnaik, Meera Mohapatra, Bandita Mishra, Illa Ojha, Bikash Mishra, Laxmikant Dash and Meera Mohapatra.

Memories: Video Recording and Photographs

Credits for most of the pictures in this report go to Dr Babru Samal, Many others have taken pictures as well as made video recordings. The following links include more pictures. http://www.babru.com/holi067

Cleaning: Everybody who stayed till the end participated in the

clean up.

Holi Sponsors: Balabhadra Sponsor: Anonymous donor, MD Subhadra Sponsor: Hemant and Priti Biswal, VA Jagannath Sponsors: Indu and Jhunu Mishra, MD Bandita and Nrusingha Mishra, MD

Author: This report is prepared by Dr Bigyani Das on April 2, 2007. For any mistakes, additions, suggestions or comments, please contact Bigyani Das.