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Report
of the Holi Program on March 23, 2002 |
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Contents |
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General Overview |
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Melana |
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Bhajan on the theme of Krisna's
Ranga-kheLa |
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Stage Management |
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Cultural Program |
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- Gitinatya: Babrubahana (by Children)
- Children Talent Show
- Drama: Suna Harini (by Adults and Children)
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Dinner |
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Memories: Video Recording and
Photographs |
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Cleaning |
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Note:Hoii program was arranged
by JOGA, Jagannatha Organization for Global Awareness at Murugan
Temple Auditorium, 6300 Princes Garden Parkway, Lanham, Maryland
20706
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General
Overview |
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Our Hori celebration in DC area
is over, but the memories will last forever. Every year it's
becoming better and better. This year the pleasant spring
weather added a special charm. About 60 families with representatives
from 8 states, Michigan, Masachusetts, New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia and Maryland participated
in the event. Although the program started late as our Jagannath
temple priests couldn't reach on time, that didn't affect
our mood. We all adapted ourselves and enjoyed.
A community event needs each and everyone's cooperation to
be timely and effective. Although we couldn't become timely,
but everybody's cooperation made the program enjoyable and
effective. The kirtan dancing during the Hori procesion, the
Arati and classic Odia bhajans, our talented performers of
the shows, our highly motivated volunteers for the audio system
and stage management, our young and vibrant MC, and our dedicated
volunteers who coordinated, cooked and distributed food, all
of them added charm to our function.
Many friends met each other after a long interval, many children
had grown up, and were looking different, many singles were
married and they joined with their spouses, and it was such
a great pleasure to see them talk, laugh, put abira on each
other, interact and enjoy.
What is life anyway? It's about communication, feelings
and interaction. It doesn't matter whether the interaction
is frequent or infrequent, but it matters whether it adds
a special charm or causes unnecessary tension.
We thank you all who volunteered, who drove long distance
to participate in the function, who worked hard to perform
and present a cultural item, and whose presence and smile
added special charm to our function and to our memory.
Another great fact was the greatness of the temple people.
It's becasue of their help and friendly attitude that we
celebrated Holi in this temple for the second year in a
row and we wish to continue our Holi function every year
in the same location. Although our function went beyond
time, they were very coopeartive and nice. We felt the brighter
side of the human nature, and that is caring, considerate
and noble nature.
Most of the credits go to Anshuman Das and Lalit Behera
for the stage decoration. The decoration items were prepared
by Illa and Arun Ojha, and Naresh Das.
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Melana |
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The first part of the
program was "Melana". Three "bimanas"
had arrived for the procession. They are: |
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- 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.
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The bimana's entered the auditorium with kirtan and playing
of color. The crowd was cheerful. The Kirtan Dance continued
for about half an hour until the temple priests arrived. Naresh
Das, Rasananda Behera, Pratap Dash, Indu Mishra, Nrusingha
Mishra, Ajaya Mohanty, Padmanabha Pradhan and others entertained
the audience with their devotional Kirtan dance. The deities
were carried by Anshuman Das of New York and Sumant Misra
of New Jersey. After all the bimana's reached the auditorium
stage, Kanan Mishra, Bandita Mishra, Kalpana Panigrahi and
Bijoylaxmi Dash did the "Arati". Temple priests
Mahashakti Dasa and Nrusigha Chaitanya Dasa sang Arati songs
while everybody in the audience were invited by Kanan Mishra
and Bandita Mishra to do the "bandApanA". Kanan
Mishra had taken charge of the Arati and she invited everybody
with personal affection to do the "Bandapana".
Bikash Mishra and Sharmistha Mohapatra were at the registration
desk distributing the program schedule, name tags and the
bhajan patrika.
They were also selling T-shirts. The T-shirt with JOGA loga
was the idea of Brahmapriya Sen. His intention was to have
Ranga-kheLa with an uniform identification.
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Welcome
Speech
Kalpana Panigrahi delivered the welcome speech. She
welcomed everybody on behalf of Jagannath Organization for
Global awareness, also known as JOGA. In her speech she told
that, JOGA, the meaning of which is addition can be used for
many things. But the one which is very significant for spiritual
world is bringing together human soul with supreme soul. There
could not be better celebration than Holi for this Joga purpose.
She told that for our Holi function Supreme Lord was with
all of us in his beautiful biman to play in the festival of
color. She thanked the families for bringing Bimanas and participating
in the function.
After her welcome speech, Kalpana Panigrahi invited Asha Sahu,
Deepa Parija, Meera Mohapatra and Bigyani Das to sing the
Welcome Song. Mahashakti Das accompanied them in Harmonium
and Surendra Ray in Tabla. The song "Aji Asichhi Asichhi
Hori" welcomed the audience to enjoy life as much as
possible since every moment of life is precious.
After the welcome song, she invited Nrusingha Chaitanya
Dasa of Baltimore ISKCON temple to coordinate the Bhajan
program.
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Bhajan
(Krishna's Ranga-Khela): |
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Bhajan Program
was moderated by Nrusingha Chaitanya Prabhuji. He gave many
touchy introductions about Lord Krishna's different acts.
His descriptions took the people to Gopapura and some of us
felt as if we are visualizing Lord Krishna's Ranga-Khela in
Gopapura.
Bhajan started with Mahashakti Dasa. The bhajan was "kinAdare
prANasangini subhuchhi kadamba-bane" by Jayadeva. After
that Deepa Parija sang the bhajan "duti kahibu go, prANabandhunku
etiki". Mahashakti Dasa then sang the Hori Bhajan "Brundabane
Aji Asichhi Hori go prANamitaNI". The last song was again
Poet Jayadeba's "Rati-sukha sAre" which was presented
by Mahashakti Dasa.
The songs were presented with the help of Surendra Ray and
Mahashakti Dasa on Tabla and Harmonium, and by Naresh Das
on singles (jhAnja).
After the songs, Kalpana thanked Nrusingha Chaitanyaji and
welcomed Hosensu Sahoo to introduce MC Smriti Nayak.
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Stage
Management |
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The stage management, lights and sounds
were taken care of by Brahmapriya Sen, Sanjaya Sahoo and Padmanabha
Pradhan. Sanjaya managed the audio system with excellence
and care. Brahmapriya Sen and Padmanabha Pradhan not only
managed the stage, but were instrumental in other types of
managements such as controlling the children. |
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Cultural
Program |
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While introducing
the MC Smriti Nayak, Hosensu also welcomed the newly married
couples, Bikash and Dipti Misra, Debi and Lipi Singh, and
Anup and Smriti Nayak.
Smriti, the Masters of Ceremony for the cultural program
first invited Hemant Biswal to pledge for the Educational
Program carried out by JOGA.
Hemant Biswal talked about the Teacher's Refresher Course
organized by JOGA in Orissa and he invited others to join
in this effort and contribute towards the improvement of
Educational System in Orissa.
Then MC Smriti Nayak started the program.
The first item was the Odissi Dance presented by Mrunali
Das and Shriya Chhotray. Mrunali and Shriya both learn Odissi
under the guidance of Dr Chitra krishnamurty, the director
of Odissi dance school Nrityalaya. They presented the dance
"Mangalacharan" with the prayer to Lord Jagannatha
and Lord Ganesha.
The second item was presented by Sikha Mishra. Sikha is
a student at Johns Hopkins and she performed a Thillana.
She took Bharatnatyam lessons for 4 years under the guidance
of Sudha Chandrasekhar. Her parents Raj and Sandhya Mishra
live in Michigan. The dance was a traditional piece that
is one of the requirements for the arangetram, the graduation
degree in dance. The song was in Tamil, with a small part
in hindi.
The third item, a Kathak Dance was presented by Srotalina
Nayak. Srotalina has learnt that item from Tina Sharma of
India School, Bethesda.
The fourth item, a devotional dance was presented by Asmi
Panigrahi. Asmi learns dance from Shila Rajasekhar of Ellicot
City. This item she has learnt from Revati Kumar, her previous
teacher.
The fifth item "Muzra" was presented by Minu
Pradhan. A 15 minutes dance was created by plugging in many
Hindi Film songs including Umrao Jaan's famous gahzals "bas
ekbAr merA kahAn mAn liziye".
The sixth item was a Sambalpuri dance presented by Prerana
Pradhan. Prerana learns Bharatnatyam. But this dance she
has learnt herself watching a Sambalpuri Dance Video.
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Gitinatya:
Babrubahana
This drama was the shortest version of the 40 minutes Gitinatya
"Babrubahana", the audio cassette of which was
made with well celebrated singers and actors in Orissa.
Babrubahana was the son of Ullupi and Arjuna. During their
stay in Forest Arjun had married the sisters Ullupi and
Chitrangada of Manipur. After giving birth to Babrubahana
Ullupi had died and Chitrangada had brought up Babrubahana.
After Mahabharat war Pandavas were making the holy ceremony
of horse sacrifice and that horse was passing by different
kingdoms. Arjuna was with the horse. If anybody imprisons
the horse, he has to fight with Arjuna and win to claim
victory. Babrubahana had imprisioned the horse. He didn't
know that Arjuna was his father. The minister tried to explain
Babrubahana not to make Arjuna his enemy, but he didn't
listen. Babrubahana and Arjuna met at the battle field and
Babrubahana killed Arjuna. With Chitranganda's devotion
and prayer Lord Krishna arrived and gave back life to Arjuna.
The performers were Satish Mishra (Arjuna), Siddharth Mahapatra
(Babrubahana), Bagmi Das (Chitranganda), Rajashree Mishra
(Mantri), Suman Ojha (Lord Krishna) and Shashwati Das (Bidusaka).
The children did excellent job showing their understanding
far above their age level. They had only two practices to
perform in the drama. Thanks to the parents for their encouragement
and hard work.
This drama was very significant which relays the message
that when a son achieves more than a father, it's a father's
credit. Evenif the son defeats the father, it's not a defeat,
but victory.
The costumes for the drama were very luxurious and the
children enjoyed their costumes. They were purchased from
Krishna Chitralaya, Cuttack, Orissa.
If you have watched the drama, then you could have probably
noticed the talents within all these children. All the children
have many talents that stay hidden and they just need a
medium to express it. It's our duty to provide them the
medium. |
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Children
Talent Shows |
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Alok Mohanty from Philadelphia played the Clarinet.
Ayesha Kar from New Jersey sang "Jana Gana Mana Adhinayaka
Jaya He".
Suman Ojha played recorder.
Prerana Pradha played a Hindi Song in the violin.
We missed Swati Mishra and Suraj Mishra's performance as
they were feeling tired after spending the whole day in
their school for activities and then reaching a little late
to the Hori program.
Program by Adults
The adult drama "sunA hariNi" presented
the life and aspirations of a middle class family of Cuttack,
Orissa. The husband, Alekh, wants to adopt the modern lifestyle
and make the children modern. The wife, Sikha, wants to
uphold the best traditional culture. Alekh has a brother
who stays in America. The drama presented their life and
complexities and was performed by Nrusingha Mishra as Alekha,
Bigyani Das as Sikha, Meera Mohapatra as Nanda, Dipa Parija
as Rekha, and Bagmi Das, Mrunali Das and Shashati Das as
Tuni, Muni, Kuni, Alekha and Sikha's children.
The dance item of the drama "Ohre Kancha, Kanchki Gudiya"
was performed by Bagmi Das.
A Hindi Song from Love Story was presented by Dipti Mishra.
Arun Ojha gave final thanks and announced the formal end
of the Hori function. |
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Dinner |
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The
major part of the program, food, was managed by Indu Mishra.
Mahashakti Dasa and his wife cooked the prasad for the
function.
The other people who contributed cooked items from home
are Bandita Mishra, Naresh Das, Meera Mohapatra,and Pratap
Dash. Sikha Sen, Bandita Mishra, Bijoylaxmi Dash and Kanan
Mishra perfectly managed the food distribution.
There was no formal dinner time. Food was plenty and
people were eating all the time.
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Memories:
Video Recording and Photographs |
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Arun Ojha has made
video recordings of bhajan, drama, and the ending. Many people
have taken photographs which will be available very soon.
Also Amit Nayak and Anshuman Das have made some video recordings.
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Cleaning |
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Everybody participated
in the clean up. |
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Author:
This report is prepared by Dr Bigyani Das. |
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