JOGA Holi Celebration on March 10, 2007 Contents General Overview

<strong>JOGA</strong> <strong>Holi</strong> <strong>Celebration</strong> 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 <strong>JOGA</strong> retreat announcements
• Certificates and Recognition
• Essay Competition Results
• Dinner
• Memories: Video Recording and Photographs
• Cleaning
• <strong>Holi</strong> Sponsors
Note: <strong>Holi</strong> program was arranged by <strong>JOGA</strong>, 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 <strong>Holi</strong> 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.

<strong>JOGA</strong> volunteers Naresh Das, Prasanna Nayak, Sangeeta Dey, Lalit Behera and Brahmapriya Sen had
gathered at Murugan temple auditorium on March 9 th , Friday night to start the decoration for the <strong>Holi</strong>
program next day.
On March 10 th , the sun was shining bright. <strong>JOGA</strong> 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, <strong>Holi</strong> 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
<strong>JOGA</strong>. 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 <strong>Holi</strong> welcome song “Jahna hasuchhi jhumi jhumi, Tara
nachuchhi jhumi jhumi”. This song was specially written for this year’s <strong>Holi</strong>..
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 threemonth
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 <strong>Holi</strong> 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.
Talent Show
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 <strong>Holi</strong>
festival.
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 2 nd 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 4 th 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 5 th 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:
Jogasutra and <strong>JOGA</strong> Retreat Announcements:
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)
Announcements in video format were made for <strong>JOGA</strong> retreat and Jogasutra, part II. As <strong>JOGA</strong> will
complete 10 years of <strong>Holi</strong> celebration next year in 2008, we plan to bring the next volume of Jogasutra.
A <strong>JOGA</strong> 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 <strong>JOGA</strong> 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, <strong>Holi</strong>, an international festival). Both the essays are now posted in
.
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
clean up.
<strong>Holi</strong> Sponsors:
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:
Balabhadra Sponsor: Anonymous donor, MD
Subhadra Sponsor: Hemant and Priti Biswal, VA
Jagannath Sponsors: Indu and Jhunu Mishra, MD
Bandita and Nrusingha Mishra, MD
Everybody who stayed till the end participated in the

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