June 2007 - Assam.Org

Rongali Bihuin LondonLondon’s recent annualRongali Bihu saw a recordnumber of attendants with themajority of new comers fromthe younger generation.Almost 200 adults and scores of childrenfrom across the United Kingdomdescended on North London to celebratethe Assamese new year.Guests of the London Bihu commitee,which organised the event, were greetedwith jalpan, such as siradoy, pitah andlaroo, as they arrived at the St AndrewsChurch Hall, where artists from Britainand India held a cultural festival.Dr Jiten Borkakoti, the president of theLondon committee, used his welcomingspeech to call for the younger generationto use Bihu as an opportunity to learnabout Assamese culture and to get toknow their fellow brethren.“We, as the first generation in the UK,are now getting old and want to knowthat when we are gone our children andnew Assamese that have come to thecountry are there to support each other,”explained Dr Borkakoti. “That’s why wewould urge you to start using Bihu as achance to network with followAssamese in your generation and tolearn about your heritage.”The latter was already taking place withyoung girl Anya Das exhibiting hertalents as an Indian dancer and teenagerReema Kakati performing the Kathak.The young local talent was counterbalancedwith the enchanting classicalvoice of Assamese guest artist MandiraLahiri, from Kolkata, who wasaccompanied by tablist Rajkumar Misra.The informal and relaxed atmosphereset the right conditions for the youngergeneration to mingle, leading to sometaking their newly formed friendshipsto local pub The Wishing Well to cementtheir relationships away from the pryingeyes of their parents.But as the evening turned to night, theabsconded young adults were back forBihu Bhoj, a typical Assamese feast,followed by a general Bihu dance towork off those calories.Again the increased inclusion of theyounger generation was clear, withmany on the dancefloor with theirelders.As the dancing continued, one youngadult, who wished not to be named, said:“This Bihu and similar Assamese eventshave been key in ensuring that we, assecond generation Assamese, stay intouch and remember our roots.”“The message to us is clear, with so fewAssamese in the UK, all from themotherland are a family within the UKand so we should always be there foreach other.”By Nina Goswami, a second generationAssamese in London. Nina is a lawyerand a former Sunday Telegraph andSunday Times journalist, now a reporterfor a legal magazine here in London.The piece is about London Bihu whichtook place in May 6 th 2007|By Nina GoswamiDulari Tahbildar, daughter of Umesh C. & Pronoti Tahbildarof West Windsor, NJ graduated with Master of City Planningdegree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) on June 8, 2007 . As a part of the requirements for thedegree, Dulari wrote a thesis on a Case Study of Civic engagementand Planning “from below” to promote EducationalEquity in Post-Katrina New Orleans. Dulari currently lives inSomerville, MA where her husband, Keith Catone is finishinghis Ph.D at Harvard Graduate School of Education.Dr. Namrata Gargee Choudhury, daughter of Niren andShakuntala Choudhury of Bridgewater, NJ recently receivedher M.D. degree from New York Medical College, Valhalla,NY. She received her Bio-Engineering degree from theUniversity of Pennsylvania in 2003. Among her manyhonors, she was the 1st Prize Wnner of the MedicalStrudent's Clinical Vignette Award presented by theAmerican College of Physicians. During April, 2007, shecompleted her internship at Sankar Netralaya, Guwahati - apremier eye hospital of North-eastern India. Namrata juststarted her residency at Northwestern University's Children'sMemorial Hospital in Chicago, IL.Page 3 * POSOOWA, June 2007