Pronaam-Post Convention_2016_v3

RONAAMVolume 37
No. 04
Issue 132
Quarterly publication from AANA ASSNA AFNA

Proof Readers: Geeti Das, Ranu Dutta, Anjana Bordoloi
Picture Credits: Shonit R Das, Geeti Das, Gitasree Apte
Graphics and photo collages designed by: Chayanika Mohan

AANA-ASSNA-AFNA: Executive Committee [2015 -2017]
Greetings from the Editor and the Presidents
37th Assam Convention 2016 Memories
Accolades and Thank Yous
Invitation to the 38th Assam Convention 2017
News from Assam and Beyond
Regional News
AFNA & AANA Donation and Membership Forms
CONTENTS

AANA
President - Ranu Dutta
Vice-President - Arup Goswami
Secretary - Anjana Bordoloi
Treasurer- Suranjoy Hazarika
Board of Governors - Manoranjan Bezboruah
Jib Talukdar
Gautam Lal Baruah
Hiren Sarma
IT Team- Prantor Bora & Geeti Das
http://aanahome.org/
AFNA
President - Pallav Saikia
Vice-President - Jib Talukdar
Secretary - Lipika Deka
Treasurer- Sarfaraz Taher
Asst. Treasurer - Ritesh Chakravarty
Chairman of the Board- Krishanu Kaushik
Board of Directors - Enakshi Baruah,
Binoy Bordoloi,
Ankur Bora,
Niren Choudhury,
Sarfaraz Taher,
Debojit Bora
Legal Agent - Atul Sarma
Webmaster- Chiranjit Bordoloi
http://www.assamfoundation.net/
ASSNA
President - Dina Sultana Ahmed
Vice-President - Anu Prova Borah

MIDWEST-CENTRAL
VP: Enakshi Baruah
Secy: TBD
CANADA-WEST
VP: Mallika Rahman
Secy: Geetashree Apte
MIDWEST-NORTH
VP: Chiranjit Bordoloi
Secy: TBD
SOUTHWEST
VP: Rita Kataki Sarma
Secy: Rabia Khatoon
CANADA-EAST
VP: Uma Talukdar
Secy: Manas Sarma
MIDWEST-EAST
VP: Anil Thakuria
Secy: TBD
SOUTH
VP: Pallabita Bhuyan
Secy: Sangeeta Borah
AANA Regional Representatives
NORTHWEST
VP: Debabrata Sarma
Secy: TBD
NORTHEAST
VP: Pallav Bordoloi
Secy: Aabir Das
ATLANTA
VP: Ganesh Deka
Secy: TBD
MIDWEST-GREATPLAINS
VP: Sabina Zeenat
Secy: TBD
NEW ENGLAND
VP: Parthajit Baruah
Secy: Shantanu Das
CAROLINAS
VP: Nilakshi Phukan
Secy: Chayanika Mohan
MID-ATLANTIC
VP: Zharna Bezbaruah
Secy: TBD
EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE

From the Editor’s Desk
Dear Away-from-home-Family,
Here comes another news-laden Pronaam. As the post-convention news articles began pouring in, along with
the equally glorious pictures of the get-together, the blues of missing this annual affair this year reignited. My
friends are sorry witnesses to my pleading messages to keep me constantly updated with the on-goings of the
Convention; and oblige they did. I lived the event through the watsapp pictures and videos of my friends.
As I composed this edition of Pronaam, I relived those memories once again from varied perspectives. Through
the words of a woman; who relocated to this country many decades ago, built a new family and social circle, I
saw the Assam Convention become an integral part of her Assamese-American existence. Through the words
of a young man who grew up with the Convention and attends it every year still, I saw the nostalgic recollections
that the Convention induces. I understood his hopes for the future path of the Convention. Finally, the words
of a little one reflected the importance this event has in their upbringing. These memories would mold them
into the adults they become tomorrow. I urge you all to read these three essays. Through them you will be
able to glimpse into the essence of the Convention, of its place in the Assamese-American diaspora. You will
understand the important role the three organizing bodies- AANA, AFNA and ASSNA, plays in knitting this
community together, keeping our culture alive in this distant land and passing on this priceless heirloom to the
future generations. These essays are but a small sampling of the Pronaam smorgasbord. From the convention
updates to the tidings from our Assam to the regional news, there something for everyone’s palette. Dive right
in and have you literary fill.
If you have never attended a Convention before, the words and pictures of Pronaam might fill you with a
yearning to make the trip to next year’s convention in Toronto. As for the regular attendees, you know what
the magic is. The tug is such you attend it once, the imprint lasts forever.
With warm regards on a crisp fall evening,
Chayanika Mohan

Greetings from the AANA President
Dear Raiz,
We are thrilled to bring you this Post Assam Convention 2016 edition of PRONAAM, the quarterly newsletter of AANA-
ASSNA-AFNA. It was great to see many of you at the 37th Assam Convention held in Seattle, Washington. And for those
who could not make it, you will be able to get a glimpse of it by going through the reports and collages of pictures. We
like to thank Chayanika Mohan, the editor of PRONAAM for putting together this wonderful edition. Also our thanks
to Anjana Bordoloi for her efforts for coordinating with AANA Regional Chapters. I would also like to acknowledge the
Regional Offices for their effort and contribution for the newsletter.
Our heartfelt thanks to the Seattle Host Committee under the leadership of Dr. Debabrata & Mrs. Joyashri Sarma for a
fantastic convention. Our hats off to the whole Seattle community for putting together such an enjoyable convention
from food, seminars to a very well run cultural functions. The children’s performances were one of the best I have seen so
far. Congratulations to the deserving parents. The guest artists Zubeen Garg and Bornali Kalita enthralled the audience
with their melodious renderings. Sometime, with all the fun and excitement we take it for granted the amount of time
and effort it takes to run a convention of this caliber with 400+ attendees. We appreciate your hard work and dedication.
We are really grateful to the Seattle Host Committee.
Our two sister organizations, Assam Foundation of North America(AFNA) and Asom Sahitya Sabha North America
(ASSNA) along with Assam Association of North America(AANA) work ceaselessly to promote Assamese culture,
literature and social uplift and pass it on to our younger generations. That is one of AANA’s primary goals. To that end, I
humbly request you all to join our family, help us grow and contribute to our noble causes.
I take this opportunity to welcome several new life and annual members into our fold. The 38th Assam Convention will
held in Toronto, Canada during the Fourth of July weekend and please mark your calendar and follow the updates through
these future newsletters and FB. See you next year in Toronto.
Best wishes and warm regards,
Ranu Dutta

Greetings from the AANA Secretary
Dear Readers,
“Rhitu ahe Rhitu jai…”
The summer ended and we are welcoming fall season graciously. Now we are looking forward to upcoming festivals for
next three months. This summer was very exciting time for me. My parents were visiting from Assam and they witnessed
the Assam Convention this July. We had a successful Assam Convention 2016, in Seattle Washington with an extravaganza
cultural nights and other day activities. The guest artist from Assam Zubeen Garg and Barnali Kalita gave us immense
entertainment and we are thankful to them for being part of us.
I want to thank you all who have participated and supported us in the Assam Convention Fashion Show. We received lot of
applauds from the audiences and my friends from North America/Assam who viewed the video of the Fashion show later.
The AANA General Body was a big success in the Convention too and the meeting minutes is published in this Newsletter.
Enjoy the Post convention Newsletter.
See you all soon!!
Love and regards,
Anjana
Anjana Bordoloi

Greetings from the
ASSNA President &
Vice - President
Dear Friends,
First of all, we like to express our sincere THANKS and APPRECIATION to Dr. Debabrata and Juri Sarma, Satyajit and Latha
Nath, Dhiraj and Pompy Goswami, and rest of the Seattle Host Committee members for their hard work and personal
sacrifices in meticulously planning and managing the 37th Assam Convention, July 1-3, 2016, Seattle, Washington and
making it a grand success. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Thanks to all the attendees at the ASSNA Annual General Body Meeting at the Convention on Saturday, July 2, 2016.
Thanks to Anjana Bordoloi for singing the opening Borgeet and setting the stage for an Asom Sahitya Sabha gathering
and meeting. Thanks to Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah, former President of AANA and ASSNA for opening the 2016 Luitor
Pora Mississippi magazine, a product of our year-long work. Thanks to our own second generation Mitra Kalita, winner
of 2016 Pulitzer Prize, America’s top journalism honor, for her graceful presence with traditional Assamese outfit and her
brief inspirational remarks. Thanks to Mr. Hiren Sarma, Ms. Malika Rahman, Ms. Alpona Barooah, and Mr. Harekrishna
Sarmah for their thought provoking speeches/recitations. Our sincere appreciation to Professor Prashanta Bordoloi from
Kaziranga University, Assam for his presence and opening his 16th book, which is an English translation of an Assamese
book on Jyotiprasad Agarwalla by Dr. Eva Hazarika. Finally, our love and appreciation to our little sister Geeti Das for
helping us on logistics and her sweet daughter Nimisha Bora for closing the meeting by singing the “O’ Mor Aponar Desh”
song.
Hope you all had a chance to look at the 2016 Luitor Pora Mississippi magazine and read it. If any of the current AANA
members has not received it yet and any nonmember would like to purchase one for $20.00, please contact AANA
Treasurer Mr. Suranjoy Hazarika at suranjoy@yahoo.com. We would appreciate your comments and suggestions after
you read/review the magazine.
It is time to start writing for the next Luitor Pora Mississippi 2017 magazine to be released at the 38th Assam Convention
at Toronto, Canada. We request all young and adults to start writing. Details on submission will follow.
With warm regards,
Dina Sultana Ahmed, President
Anu Prova Borah, Vice-President

Greetings from the AFNA President
Dear friends,
Warm greetings from AFNA. Hope we all enjoyed the summer.
The current executive team of AFNA has been entrusted to continue for another term, so here I am with you again.
First of all, thanks everyone who attended our GBM in Seattle and those who came by to our booth. Your feedback,
encouragement and contributions matter so much to us. And thanks for your vote of confidence on us.
I would also touch upon few highlights from our GBM and representation in the Assam Convention 2016:
• AFNA Youth Leadership Council has been kicked off. We have our next generation volunteers stepping up to get
involved with AFNA & charitable work in Assam. Please reach out to us (info@assamfoundation.net) if your high
school going kids want to be part of it.
• We had guest speakers from Xomidhan & Foundation for Social Transformation in our GBM. Especially excited to see
our mentoring program taking shape with partnership of Xomidhan to add value to the AKADAMICS program.
• AFNA booth at the convention received high number of visitors and was encouraging to see it being manned
throughout the convention by our regular volunteers and youth volunteers.
• Raised or received pledges $3935 from 30 donors. Apart from the total pledged amount, I am excited by the number
of donors we attracted. Many of them committed to volunteering in our projects.
Disaster relief, preparedness and building capacities in communities to withstand such calamities have been a focus area
where AFNA has been contributing. During the summer, Assam was hit with flood once again. In July it displaced more
than 2 million people and had devastating effect on Kaziranga National Park. Though AFNA did not contribute directly
to the flood relief efforts this year, we collaborated with the campaigns run by AID & Kalaguru Artiste Foundation for
flood relief in Assam. AFNA has also stepped up to make a token donation towards the flood victims in Louisiana and
earthquake victims in Italy.
Bridgewater Township in NJ has continued its partnership with AFNA to celebrate Arbor Day as a yearly event. On Oct
15th, we will be part of the hosts for the Tree 4 All autumn festival in the Chimney Rock Park, Bridgewater. This will be an
opportunity for us to showcase bio-diversity and eco-tourism opportunities in Assam and the work done by AFNA. We
had planted trees and unveiled a plaque in honor of Forest Man of India, Jadav Payeng in the same event last year. If you
are around NJ/Bridgewater on the date, do plan to be a part of this event.
Our volunteers and donors help us continuing the work we do. We are lucky to get a steady stream of volunteers being
part of our team. But there are a lot of work to do and we need more volunteers and financial contributions. You can start
being a part of this by joining our monthly volunteer calls and figuring out the project that is close to your heart. We are
just an email away (info@assamfoundation.net). You can also be in touch with ANFA’s work by visiting our website and
Facebook page.
Thanks,
Pallav Saikia

Assam Flood
Victim Relief
Fund
Assam Association of North America (AANA) has
donated $2,000 (1.28 lakh Indian Rupees) through Kalaguru
Artiste Foundation in Assam for relieve drive for the Assam
Flood Victims. We have received an acknowledgement
letter of appreciation from Zubeen Garg on behalf of
Kalaguru Artiste Foundation and it is also attached.
We have also uploaded several pictures of the actual relief
fund work and distributions. Flood relief pictures can also
be found on Zubeen Garg’s offi cial Facebook page (See
images below).
We sincerely thank the Kalaguru Artiste Foundation for
all their effort in the relief fund and for coordinating with
AANA so we can contribute.
I want to thank Anjana Bordoloi for taking the lead for
Assam Flood Victims’s fund raising efforts. Besides AANA’s
donations, Anjana single handedly raised another 2.17
lakhs Indian Rupees for the relief fund through various
sources like FB, Assamese communities in USA and her
office. She also coordinated with one Indian restaurant in
her area to donate 35% of one day’s lunch buffet collected.
Very commendable indeed. We thank you for all your hard
work for this relief effort. Keep up the good work.
Ranu Dutta
President, AANA

CONVENTION
MEMORIES

AANA GBM
Anjana Bordoloi
General Secretary, AANA
Sunday, July 3rd – 9:30 am -12:00 pm
Number of attendees (including AANA members and
guests) - 53
Everybody gathered in the conference room sharp on time.
We had the quorum to start the AANA yearly General Body
Meeting, 2016 in the 37th Assam Convention, Seattle on
time. The President of AANA Mrs. Ranu Dutta greeted
everybody and conveyed her welcome and thank you
message to the participants.
There was a minute of silence observed to pray for the
departed souls during the year.
Report by AANA President:
3. Mrs. Ranu Dutta reported that the financial statement
for Las Vegas Convention, 2015 is distributed among
GBM attendees. Ranu Dutta, on behalf of all 3 Co-chairs
of Las Vegas Convention were very happy to report that
this convention brought in $9,905 of surplus money
from AC 2015. There were a big round of applause from
the attendees.
Out of that surplus, $1,500 were donated to AFNA for
charity causes, and $750 were paid to AFNA for CPA
audit fees that left $7,600.
Lohit Datta-Barua and family donated $5,000 to AANA
for Assam and her causes.
Mono Bezbarua suggested that Savings accounts or
CD to be opened for Lohit Datta-Barua and other
memorial fund reserve account or any amount that
AANA do not need immediately for the near future.
1. The President of AANA, Mrs. Ranu Dutta, expressed
that AANA has total 61 Life members. Krishanu Kaushik
from Detroit who is an active person in the community
work has recently joined as AANA life member. It’s an
accomplishment that 30 members joined AANA since
last year.
Action item: AANA Executive to form a committee, and
President Ranu Dutta suggested
Lohit Datta-Barua to take the lead or with suggestions.
4. Ranu Dutta recognized Chayanika Mohan for her
dedication towards PRONAAM.
2. The President also expressed that the Labanya Borra
Scholarship will be distributed in the Convention
Cultural night same day which is a proud moment for
the AANA. She thanks Labanya Borra’s relatives for
this generous sponsorship to encourage the young
generations.

AANA General Body Meeting

Report by AANA Vice President:
Report by Prantor Bora:
The Vice President of AANA Mr. Arup Goswami thanked
everyone in the room for joining the General Body Meeting.
His message was for all the Regional VPs/Secretaries to
contribute more towards AANA Newsletter PRONAAM.
He requested regional VP’s to be more active in the AANA
activities. Mr. Arup Goswami presented a slide deck to
report the AANA members what was his initiatives in the
last year and his plan for next year as a VP of AANA.
Report by AANA General Secretary:
Anjana Bordoloi thanked all the AANA members and
executives for giving her the opportunity to serve the
Organization as the General Secretary. She reported that
she worked closely with the AANA executives and other
regional VP’s/Secretaries. She is promoting AANA within
other community events like Independence Day/ Republic
Day, Diwali. She has been showcasing Assamese Culture
on Embassy of India. She works towards PRONAAM with
Chayanika Mohan. She does facilitate meeting with the
AANA executives and Regional VPs/Secretaries.
Report by AANA Treasurer:
Mr. Prantor Bora provided the Information Technology
Related Report. He talked about the modernization of
AANA tasks. A committee needs to setup for modernization
ideas and handling task. There was a discussion on selling
the directory.
Action Item: A committee needs to setup for modernization
ideas and handling task.
Report by ASSNA President Mrs. Dina Ahmed:
For LMP (Luitor Pora Missippi) there was a good commercial
contribution this year. Mrs. Dina Ahmed thanked all the
contributors for LMP. The conveyed special thanks to the
Vice President Anu Borah who was not available to the
health issue. For the future LPM she requested everybody
to send the articles right before the deadline. There was
a discussion on the table to make LPM online. Due to the
printing cost the LMP price should be 20 USD and further
discussion is required on this topic. A new responsibility
is set for the regional VP to distribute the LMP to the
respected members of the particular region.
Action Item: Finalize the LMP cost to 20 USD. Action item
owner is AASNA members.
Mr. Suranjoy Hazarika distributed the transaction summary
report in the GBM. Final Financial report will be shared
in the GBM, 2017. He acknowledge that the Lohit Dutta
Barua and Family donated 5000 USD for the AANA fund.
The financial statement has been approved in the GBM.
Monoranjan Bezbaruah suggested that AANA should open
a savings account or CD for the Lohit Dutta Barua and
family funds.
Action Item: The President Ranu Dutta needs more
direction on how to utilize the LDB Funds. A committee
needs to be formed.
Report by Mono Hazarika (AANA Governing Body):
1. Mrs. Aradhana Satin is elected for Board of Governors
for this year. General Body Meeting agreed with this
decision.
2. Mr. Mono Hazarika mentioned that the proposed draft
of amend constitution has been sent for review. Lohit
Dutta Barua requested to provide the updated report
soon after the convention. Mr. Mono Hazarika said that
the good email distribution list needs to be decided to
share the amend constitution. Mr. Mono Hazarika and
Jib Talukdar read the high level of the constitution and

has been second by Lohit Dutta Barua and accepted by
General Body Meeting members.
Action Item: Hold the Competition for the logo by AANA
Executives.
Action Item: Updated copy of the Amend Constitution
will be signed by the AANA President Mrs. Ranu Dutta
and Board of Governors.
3. Financial Review Committee has been formed and the
members are below. Aabir Das second the nominations
and agreed by the GBM members.
a) Dilip Deka
b) Biren Choudhury
c) Suranjoy Hazarika (AANA Treasurer)
Service Award:
Report by Jib Talukdar on the 38th Assam Convention, 2017
Toronto:
On behalf of the host committee Mr. Jib Talukdar invited all
the members to be part of the 38th Assam Convention, 2017,
Toronto. He reported that the hotel has been finalized and
committee has been formed. Website is also ready to be
published. Decision for the guest artist has to be made. Mr.
Jib Talukdar has been updating the AANA President Ranu
Dutta on all the major decision points. Also, he mentioned
that the $4,000 USD security deposit had been paid from
his own pocket towards the hotel reservation.
AANA executives recognized 4 families who received
service awards due to their dedication towards AANA. The
families are listed below:
1. Pallabita and Debojit Bhuyan
2. Mallika Rahmen and Ashif Saikia
3. Gitasree and Kaustubh Apte
4. Bibhash and Deepika Barua
AANA Membership Criteria:
In order to be the member of AANA the main criteria is to
reside in USA or Canada. GBM Member agreed that nonresident
of North America can’t be the member of AANA.
Old Age Home by Dilara Baruah:
Please contact Mrs. Dilara Baruah to know more about the
Old Age Home in Jorhat.
Assam Convention 2018:
Mr. Monoranjan Bezbaruah and Mr. Anis Ahmed proposed
to organize a virtual Assam Convention sponsored by
AANA in North Carolina. However, The President of AANA
expressed that the decision has to be made later.
Meeting was adjourned at 12 pm by the AANA President
Mr. Ranu Dutta. She again thanked all the attendees and
wished all a successful year.
AANA Logo:
Anjana Bordoloi suggested to modify the AANA logo.
There will be a competition held to choose the right logo
and result will be announced in Assam Convention GBM
Meeting. There will be a prize distribution for the winner.

ASSNA GBM
Dina Sultana Ahmed
President, ASSNA
GBM excerpts from the ASSNA President Dina Sultana
Ahmed’s greeting note:
“ Thanks to all the attendees at the ASSNA Annual General
Body Meeting at the Convention on Saturday, July 2, 2016.
Thanks to Anjana Bordoloi for singing the opening Borgeet
and setting the stage for an Asom Sahitya Sabha gathering
and meeting. Thanks to Dr. Monoranjan Bezboruah, former
Presidents of AANA and ASSNA for opening the 2016 Luitor
Pora Mississippi magazine, a product of our year-long work.
Thanks to our own second generation Mitra Kalita, winner
of 2016 Pulitzer Prize, America’s top journalism honor, for
her graceful presence with traditional Assamese outfit
and her brief inspirational remarks. Thanks to Mr. Hiren
Sarma, Ms. Malika Rahman, Ms. Alpona Barooah, and Mr.
Harekrishna Sarmah for their thought provoking speeches/
recitations.
Our sincere appreciation to Professor Prashanta Bordoloi
from Kaziranga University, Assam for his presence and
opening his 16th book, which is an English translation of
an Assamese book on Jyotiprasad Agarwalla by Dr. Eva
Hazarika. Finally, our love and appreciation to our little
sister Geeti Das for helping us on logistics and her sweet
daughter Nimisha Bora for closing the meeting by singing
the “O’ Mor Aponar Desh” song.”

ASSNA General Body Meeting

AFNA GBM
Contributed by - Lipika Deka
GBM excerpts from the AFNA President Pallav Saikia’s
greeting note:
• AFNA Youth Leadership Council has been kicked off.
We have our next generation volunteers stepping up
to get involved with AFNA & charitable work in Assam.
Please reach out to us (info@assamfoundation.net) if
your high school going kids want to be part of it.
• We had guest speakers from Xomidhan & Foundation
for Social Transformation in our GBM. Especially
excited to see our mentoring program taking shape
with partnership of Xomidhan to add value to the
AKADAMICS program.
• AFNA booth at the convention received high number
of visitors and was encouraging to see it being manned
throughout the convention by our regular volunteers
and youth volunteers.
• Raised or received pledges $3935 from 30 donors.
Apart from the total pledged amount, I am excited
by the number of donors we attracted. Many of them
committed to volunteering in our projects.
AFNA’s First annual Essay Competition
AFNA launched our first ever essay contest this summer as
a part of our new initiative “To promote global cooperation
and collaboration among young people of Assamese origin
to work for the betterment of Assam”. We are very happy
to see the interest and participation from our children of
Assamese origin for this contest. Our new initiative is now
called Youth Leadership Circle of AFNA (YLCA) and we
have enthusiastic young volunteers working on making
this group active among all the young people of Assamese
origin in United States.
We started our essay contest this year with a good number
of participants and we are very happy to see the inspiring
ideas of our younger generation. The topic for the essay was
“How can the North American youth of Assamese origin
contribute to Assam?” The winners of the contest were
announced at the Assam Convention of North America
in Seattle, July 2016. The first place winner is Krishangi
Kaushik from Michigan and the second place winner is
Sabriyah Taher from Minneapolis. The first prize was $250
and the second prize was $150. We want to congratulate
our winners for their thoughtful essays and thank all our
participants in our essay contest. We are happy to share the
two winning essays with you here. All of the participating
essays are published on our AFNA website:
assamfoundation.net/
http://
Three volunteer judges: Roopa Sarmah from Chicago,
Geeti Das from Minneapolis and Poonam Barua Borah from
Ann Arbor, Michigan evaluated all the essays we received
independently using the same rubric. We are grateful to
our wonderful judges for sparing their valuable time to
judge the essays and provide thorough feedback on every
essay they reviewed. AFNA will continue this tradition of
annual essay contest and if you would like your young ones
to participate next year please keep an eye for our next
contest that will be announced by end of May 2017.
The video of the award ceremony can be found at the
following link:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=awm0wKbT_bs

AFNA General Body Meeting

Essay Competition First place winner - Krishangi Kaushik, Michigan

Essay Competition Second place winner - Sabriyah Taher, Minneapolis

Dr. Kamna Das Memorial Award
Deva Borah
Dr. Kamna Das: Jan 4, 1951 - Dec 15, 2010
The Assam Association of North America (AANA) established the Dr. Kamna Das
Community Service and Mentoring Excellence Award in 2011 in the memory of
late Dr. Kamna Das (January 4, 1951 – December 15, 2010) who was a pillar for
the Assamese Community in North America and who helped launch countless
American dreams.
The 2016 award was awarded to:
Ms. Geeti Das & Mr. Prantor Bora
In recognition for their dedication, service and leadership to Assamese community in North America in particular to
AANA for providing all IT related functions including the robust AANA Website and its maintenance, comprehensive
Assam Convention Website and providing guidance to the young team of PRONAAM, just to name a few. The award was
presented and given by Mr. Aabir Das and AANA Executive Committee at the Assam Convention, Seattle, Washington
on July 3, 2016.

Labanya Borra Memorial Scholarship
Contributed by - Deva Ranu Borah Dutta
President, AANA
Mrs Labanya Borra: Mar 14, 1929 - May 15, 2015
Assam Association of North America has established the Labanya Borra Memorial
Scholarships with generous and commendable sponsorship from the Saharia
Family of late Labanya Borra to memorialize her contributions to the Assamese
community in North America over four decades and her lifelong dedication to
Assamese literature that she demonstrated through her professional work and
stewardship at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
The 2016 Awards were awarded to:
The Scholastic Accomplishment award of $1,000 was awarded to Ms. Olivia C. Amezcua.
The Literary Achievement award of $600 was awarded to Neer Raybaruah.
Since Neer with his busy schedule was not able to attend the convention, Anjana Bordoloi accepted on his behalf.
The awards were presented by Ms. Joyshree (Joy) Das, daughter of Mr. Pradip Das & late Krishna Das, a relative of
Saharia family with the presence of AANA Executive.
The award is sponsored by the Saharia family of Late Labonya Borra.
AWARDS

2016 Assam Convention Survey Report
Prantor Bora

The 36th Assam Convention
Roopa Sarma
Kissed by the blue waters of Puget Sound, guarded by
mountains and covered with lush evergreen trees, hilly
Seattle in the Pacific Northwest is a stunningly beautiful
city. Seattle reminds many of us of our Shillong! So, in
2015 Assam Convention in Las Vegas, when Dr. Debabrata
Sarma and his team invited the Assamese community to
Seatle, Washington, for the 37th Assam Convention in
2016, the entire audience cheered in joy.
Thus, the preparations began... We received periodic
updates from Dr. Debabrata Sarma and Juri Sarma. Prantor
Bora and Geeti Das of Minneapolis, besides managing the
entire registration process, created a beautiful convention
website and kept us informed and excited.
People started arriving the hotel Marriott in lovely Bellevue
downtown (close to downtown Seattle) a few days before
the convention. A few families went to visit Vancouver - the
beautiful city across the border in Canada, some folks took
the ferry to the Victoria island and its stunning Butchart
Garden, some went to the nearby majestic Mount Ranier...
And some like us who had been to that area before, decided
to hang out in the city. The Chihuly Glass Museum and
Garden of Glass in downtown Seattle was mind blowingly
beautiful. And who can come to this city and not go to Pikes
Place Market one more time? The hotel was conveniently
located surrounded by many restaurants from fast food to
family style Thai food to gourmet Sushi place - all within
walking distance. The bus stop was just couple of blocks
away which made it a breeze to go to downtown Seattle.
Three days of convention flew by quickly! Many
commented, the 37th Assam Convention in Seattle,
Washington was one of the best conventions they have
attended! Our sincere gratitude to Dr. Debabrata Sarma
and Juri Sarma for working hard diligently for almost a
year to make the convention a grand success. We owe our
thanks to Satyajit and Latha Nath for working tirelessly
in stage and time management - which, people agreed,
they perfected. Latha Nath and Sujata Talukdar gave us
an excellent cultural show. Thanks to Dhiraj and Pimpee
Goswami for taking charge of the registration, Dibakar
Goswami for helping them and Sangeeta Goswami for
taking charge of children’s activities and keeping them
engaged in delightful ways.
We are thankful to the entire host committee for giving
us all a wonderful three days. A big thanks to Ranu Dutta,
President AANA, who kept her eyes vigilant so that
everything goes smoothly.
It was heartwarming to see not only the happy adults and
the children, but also the visiting parents and grandparents
from Assam having a great time and getting to know one
another... On the final day’s lunch and dinner, everyone was
under the same roof enjoying the downtime and informal
get together.
AANA, ASSNA and AFNA general body meetings were
conducted effi ciently and productively by Ranu Dutta,
Dina Ahmed and Pallav Saikia, Presidents of the respective
organizations.
Below, some glimpses from the cultural program:
The guest artists were Zubeen Garg and Bornali Kolita from
Assam. Zubeen, with his amazing voice sang from his heart
and mesmerized the audience. Bornali brought the house
down with her beautiful voice. They both gave their all and
we couldn’t have asked for more.

Young adults Emielyn Das (California), Neor Bhuyan
(Canada), Aditya Nath (Seattle) and Prerana Sarmah
(California) - these teenagers have amazing voices. We
were spellbound!
Young Nimisha Bora (Minneapolis), Ashwin Hazarika
(Maryland) and Sangeet Borkotoky (Bay area) - each sang
Assamese songs so beautifully with perfect pronunciation.
Great job children and kudos to their parents.
After a long time, we got to witness a Bhaona again!
‘Shakunir Pradisodh’ was acted beautifully by the vibrant
group of Calgary, Canada. Surely, a lot of hard work and
dedication went into it. We are most appreciative of the
young actors who have never seen a Bhaona before!
We applaud Saeed Rahman, Ronit Bhattacharya, Rishi
Goswami, Omkar Apte and Doni Sarma. Their enthusiasm
was almost infectious!
The Bihu dance by the Seattle Bihu dancers was absolutely
brilliant! Excellent choreography. Please see it for yourself:
https://youtu.be/Fo_ABuc0cMw
A big crowd pleaser, ever popular Fashion Show was
conducted efficiently by Anjana Bordoloi with our beautiful
and handsome gals and guys.
The above is only an overview. It is not possible to name
everyone and every event; but truly, every event of the
convention was of high standard.
AANA and ASSNA honored Sanghamitra Kalita on
receiving the prestigious Pulitzer prize with her CNN news
team.
There were several competitions:
The winner of the essay competition sponsored by AFNA
was Krishangi Kaushik.
Seattle team bagged the first prize in Anima Chakravarty
Memorial chorus competition.
Krishna Das Memorial Children chorus competition winner
was Minnesota children team.
Olivia Amezcua was awarded the Labanya Borra scholastic
achievement award. Please listen to Olivia’s inspiring
speech:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gNdLMEBenGs
This year, the prestigious Dr Kamna Das Memorial Award
for community service and mentoring was given to Prantor
Bora and Geeti Das. Ever since this young couple became
the members of AANA a few years ago, they have been not
only doing their own duties diligently, but also selflessly
helping many others in every aspect. We appreciate
their sincere contribution to the community and hope
many other young people will come out and follow their
footsteps.
For a long time, the Assamese community in USA wanted
an Assam Convention in Seattle. Now we can say, “Seattle,
you delivered - wonderfully”.

The Opening Note

Generation Wow

My take on the Convention
Aabir Das
Every year, the Assamese Diaspora of North America
convenes at the Assam Convention, during the 4th of July
weekend to celebrate our Assamese heritage as well as
celebrate the birthday of our new home, the USA.
As many of you already know, the convention is sponsored
by three sister organizations. AANA, our socio-cultural
organization aimed at promoting Assamese culture in the
North America and to introduce and involve “kids” born and
brought up here to our traditions and customs. AANA also
is the thread which has held the national diaspora together
by creating and upholding the Assam Convention since
its inception in 1980. AFNA, our charitable foundation is
geared to showing that although expressing our culture
is a beautiful thing, we need to take advantage of the
fact that we are economically better off than many of
our brethren and sisters back home and should give back
in the way of flood relief, building schools, community
building and whole array of other programs that will
help to enrich Assam. In addition, AFNA is committed
to community building and humanitarian assistance in
North America. Our third organization is ASSNA, which is
the North American chapter of the Asom Sahitya Sabha,
back in Assam, geared to cultivating and promoting the
Assamese language, through teaching mechanisms to the
youth growing up here and promoting Assamese literature
throughout our diaspora.
Once again, this year in Bellevue, Washington, (outside of
Seattle), we all got together to celebrate and propagate our
“Assameseness” per say. Within the larger Indian diaspora,
Assam, its land, culture and language is marginalized,
for a host of reasons, be it, lack of exposure, or distance
from the heartland of India and the convention allows us
a national platform to showcase how rich our culture is.
Due to the extensive migration and indigenous peoples of
Assam, there are a plethora of cultural media which make
Assam both unique and diverse. This was on display from
Borgeets, devotional Vaishnavite songs to Bhaona, a oneact
play depicting scenes from both the Ramayana and
Mahabharata, the two main Hindu epics, to Ghazal and
Quwali, which are devotional Islamic songs, to Bollywood
dances and Bhangra, and of course Bihu, the celebratory
dance associated with Bihu, the rice growing and harvest
festivals of Assam.
As someone who has grown up within the institution of
the Assam Convention, (the first one I attended was in
New Jersey in 1984) and as someone who is half Assamese
and half Punjabi and a New Yorker, I always say that the
conventions must represent the array of identities that
we attach ourselves to. Especially, as within the diaspora,
there are members of our community who are from all
over India, not to mention Caucasian, African-American
and Hispanic Americans. It is nice to see that Broadway
show tunes, hip-hop and Flamenca dances are part of
our cultural program now to showcase this aspect of our
community. As we move forward and continue to have
more hyphenated Assamese – (fill in the blank) Americans
in our community, we need to be a platform that is open to
a variety of answers to the age-old question of “What does
it mean to be Assamese”.
There will be a lot of people writing about how the
convention was beautiful and fun, and it is and always will
be, but my observations are a bit different in that we need
to adapt to this ever-changing make-up of our community.
When we first started, our community was made up of folks
who came here for graduate school or to start their career
and almost every family was made up of both parents
being Assamese. Now, with the continued diversity, that
is becoming and will continue to shift to families that
are mixed. Therefore, I think we need to include, things
ranging from Assam Trivia, which we have done in the past,
to Dhoti and Mekhla Sador wearing workshops, to what is
a gamosa, and when is worn or in what capacity is it used?
As members of AANA, we must realize that this is a
fantastic forum for us to show every aspect of Assamese
culture, while making it fun and enjoyable, thereby making
it relatable and enticing for all members of our community.

One way of doing this is to continue to use social media, be
it Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, to share videos
of how to make Pitha, Laroo, Masor Tenga as well how to
wear traditional garments, are there certain colors to be
worn during Bihu as opposed to a funeral for example?
These are things that many of us are not aware and we just
either play it by ear or go by whatever knowledge we have,
based on seeing our parents or aunties or uncles.
I want to thank the host families of the Seattle, Vancouver,
Portland areas who have worked so hard to put together
such a beautiful convention. The location was ideal as
there were plenty of restaurants to choose from when
picking where to eat lunch from for example and the fact
that it was near a major transit center, allowed people like
myself, going from New York, to not have to rent a car and
use the bus system to travel to and from the airport and
go into downtown Seattle and experience the harbor and
amazing sites such as the Chihuly Museum.
In closing, I want to reiterate the need for AANA to realize
that the make-up of our community is vastly different than
it was 15, 20, 25 years ago and implement fun, informative
events during the convention to appeal to these newer
members of the community, whose perhaps grandparents
are Assamese, but parents are half-Assamese, half another
ethnicity, so Assamese isn’t spoken at home and many
cultural norms which many of us take for granted, are not
introduced at home. To this point, I also hope that we
extend the convention from 2.5 days to 3 days, to allow
for extra time to incorporate these workshops or events as
well as allow each of our three organizations a morning to
have a complete General Body Meeting (GBM). Due to the
overlap of meetings (simply because we have 2 mornings
and 3 organizations), I and many others have to choose 2
out of the 3 organizational meetings to attend and this is
not right, it has the potential to cause divide and is not fair
to the organizations, without which, none of this would be
possible. In addition to the overlap, we have one yearly
GBM and 1.5 hours is not nearly enough to have substantive
discussion and we end up tabling important matters
that need to be discussed. If each organization had the
morning to themselves, the GBMs could be 2.5 to 3 hours,
(i.e. 9:30 AM – 12:30PM), allowing for important, necessary
organizational matters to be discussed and agreed upon.
Furthermore, the hotels give us the group block rate a few
days before and after the July 4th weekend, so extending it
to 3 days, 4 nights, would not increase the cost of the hotel
rooms for our community members.
I urge all members to start planning for Toronto now, so
that issues related to time-off, high airline tickets and
other issues related to last-minute decision-making can be
avoided. Also, as much as our founding members continue
to enrich us with their experience and knowledge due to
their extensive membership to AANA, newer members
should talk to members of their local regions and seriously
consider coming forward to host a convention. In order for
this to continue, we need to share this responsibility and
now with technological advances, it has become easier to
be a host region and of course AANA and all of us members
are behind you.
Thank you for listening and I hope that all of our members
are doing well and are having a great start to Fall.
Youth Achievements
Riddhiman Das, creator of Eye-Verify, a software biometric,
that allows security through identification of users retinas,
has been acquired by a larger company for a substantial
amount. Riddhiman was honored by President Obama
as an inventor and entrepeneur and is a young member of
our Assamese-American community who deserves to be
recognized and congratulated.
Sid Mahanta, originally from Sugarland, TX, now residing
in Washington D.C. has become an editor for Atlantic,
a publication which covers news and analysis on issues
related to politics, business, culture and technology, both
nationally and internationally. Sid has been associated
with AANA from birth and is the son of Jeena and Rabin
Mahanta, one of the original members of AANA, since
1980.

Rhythmic Renditions

Walk the Walk

Convention Blast Through My 10 Year Old Eyes
Nimisha Bora
Ever since my summer vacation started, my Mommy
would continuously say, “The Assam Convention starts in
less than a month!” And every time I would hear her say
that, I would get more and more impatient for that very,
very special day to come.
My wonderful journey begins by waking up at 4:30 early in
the morning. As soon as the lights flickered on in my room,
I quickly jumped up and my brain immediately told me that
today is finally the day I was waiting for. I soon got ready for
the taxi to arrive at our driveway. And when it did come, I
would be Daddy’s little helper for the suitcase lifting. I step
into the car and set the handbags between me and my 6
year old brother, Taj. I stare out the window and say in my
mind to my dogs, (who are at one of Daddy’s work friend’s
house) “Bye, Bootlu and Tingting, I’ll miss you -- a lot.”
After a delicious hot breakfast at the airport, our whole
family was excited to board the airplane. Soon, I felt the
plane speed up, and again, I said in my mind, “See you
soon, Minnesota!” After a couple of hours in the air, Taj
peeked out of the window and looked at the beautiful
mountain ranges and said with surprise, “ Hey look, there’s
Mt. Everest! ” Mommy and I both had a real good chuckle.
As soon as the wheels of the airplane touched the Seattle
grounds, I was overfilled with joy. So overjoyed that I could
just hear Washington, Seattle welcoming me.
My parents have been talking about Maina ba who
picked us up from the airport. I could already see so many
differences between the two states in the 15 minute drive
to their house. Especially, the beautiful Evergreens that
cover most of the land. We stayed at Minakshi Jethai,
Dwipen Jethu and Maina ba’s house the first 2 days. It
was too much fun, food feast, movies, board games and
sightseeing in and around Seattle during the starting Partho Gogoi of our
vacation. On July 1st afternoon, Minakshi Jethai drove us
to “The Assam Convention Marriott”, Taj and I like to name
our hotels wherever we go.
As soon as we stepped into the hotel, Taj and I started
looking for our friends. When daddy told us our room
number (#524), we just couldn’t wait to see how it looked
inside. As soon as we got to the 5th floor, Taj and I went
zooming everywhere! But Taj was running so fast in the
hallway that he ran right past our room without even
noticing. Once Taj finally found the room and opened the
door with his very own access card, he immediately said,
“Whoa, this place is AWESOME!!!”
Performing at the Assam Convention was a blast! It was
actually more than a BLAST! The famous Sangeet from
California (our ex-Minnesotan friend) kicked off day 1 of
the Convention followed by Taj who energized the crowd
by singing the best-ever “Bishwo Bijoy Nojuwan” and his
fiery ‘Joi Aai Axom’ at the end.
The next morning, Saturday July 2nd was a very exciting
day because I have all four performances that day. I love
helping my parents in the morning meetings like passing
out papers and greeting people. If you’re a kid like me, the
meeting just sounds like random chit-chatting, but if you
are an adult, it must be some really important business.
At the end of the meeting was most interesting because I
sang the Assamese State Anthem, “O’ Mur Apunar Dexh.”

All the compliments and patting on the back makes me as
proud as I can be.
The next performance that was on the list was my solo
song “Buku Hom Hom Ko’re”. I just love the melodious tune
of this song, don’t you? Anyways, when I was backstage,
I would continuously hum the song so I can be 100%
confident, and my performance was my beautiful result.
The next part of the story is the best and most memorable
part of this Convention. Why don’t you try to guess this
one? 5 kids - all wearing beautiful and matching Assamese
outfits, backstage praying and doing a group hug imitating
football players huddling. We get up on stage, 5 mics placed
in front of us, and we did the best, we possibly could do.
Did you guess it? That’s right! It was the Children’s Chorus
Competition. After performing the Assamese version of
“We’re in the Same Boat Brother” that is “Aami Ekekhon
Nao’re Jatri”, you wouldn’t believe how anxious we were
all to know the results of the competition. Another thing
I did that day was emceeing for my friends and emceeing
with my friends as well. What a busy and most awesomest
day ever!
On Sunday evening (July 3rd), the competition results were
going to be announced. Our stomachs started to feel funny.
The announcement goes - 3rd position: Vancouver, Canada.
Phew, that’s not us! As soon as they announced 2nd prize
goes to San Francisco, California, all of the Minnesotans
jumps up so high and shouts “Yay, we WON!!!” Taj couldn’t
control his excitement that he was about to go on stage
when they were giving certificates to California. Next when
we were on stage (Pinky, Aarhi, Atharva, Nimisha and Taj),
we felt the proudest when receiving our certificates and
Mommy got a $500 check to share among the 5 performers.
Holding the huge golden trophy made us all feel like holding
on to our gold medals from the Olympics. What an exciting
moment we all had! And to celebrate that hard work, our
Convention gang all joined in a Scream Choir in the hallway
directed by Isa ba from Michigan. It wasn’t too loud. It was
so loud that we could have even damaged our vocal chords.
Well, there are more surprises for our Minnesotan friends
and family. Our teenager friend, Riyah (Sabriyah Taher)
won the 2nd place for the AFNA Essay competition. I’m
telling you, she is going to be a famous author someday
soon! Usually, when I am on stage, Mommy and Daddy
takes my video and photos. But now this time, when my
parents got a huge award for helping out North America, I
had to take a video for them. (I call it Reverse Recording). I
am proud to see our fellow Minnesotans constantly getting
on stage.
The lunch, dinner and snacks were just so delicious! Even
though we made an ONLY Kids table, Mommy and Daddy
broke the rules because Taj’s mouth had more words coming
out than food getting in. I asked a question to Ashwin (MD)
and Sangeet (CA). “Who do you think is the best Assamese
singer in the world?” Ashwin immediately replied Zubeen,
and Sangeet’s answer was Bhupen da. They kept arguing
for a while, until Sangeet surprisingly sang one of Zubeen
Garg’s famous song, and Ashwin followed by singing
“Manuhe Manuhor Babe” in a fairly high pitched voice. The
whole table laughed our heads off. What an interesting
conversation!
Everyone knows that 3 days isn’t enough time to socialize
with our friends. So whenever our gang felt like it, we’d be
running wildly, jumping around and also screaming in that
special hallway that was the KIDS ZONE only! Our gang
was becoming quite popular. Let me introduce them: From
CA - Sangeet, Aalphool, Neoli, Kobita, Shruti; From MD
- Ashwin; From WA – Lana, and from MN - The FINAL 5 -
Pinky, Aarhi, Atharva, Nimisha and Taj.
Zubeen and Bornali were making the crowd go crazy! We
were all dancing around having a disco ball until about 2 AM.
Taj slept around midnight on the chairs in the auditorium
itself. Mommy was so busy dancing with Roopa Jethai and
Ashwin’s mom, and Daddy was so busy taking pictures of

Mommy, that Taj rolled off the chairs and was sleeping on
the floor. Somesh uncle had to come running from behind
and save Taj. Even though it is past 2AM, you may think
our party’s over, but our sleepover stage has just begun
(which Pinky and I have been planning our hotel sleepovers
for almost over a month now, and finally it was happening
that night). And when I say “Sleepover”, I mean chatting
till 4:30am until I literally have to pull my eyelids up to keep
me awake. And I can see with my eyes half open that Minti
Aunty, Geeta Aunty and Mommy is still chatting, laughing
and eating spicy Biriyani at 3:30am, and Somesh uncle and
Parvez uncle is drinking their evening/morning tea.
On July 4th, after the Convention Blast was over, it was
finally time to say goodbye to all our friends and telling
them either “We’ll see you back in Minnesota, or “I’ll see
you at the next Assam Convention.” But my parents are
cool! We get to stay a day longer! Daddy introduced us to
our new rental car. Just looking at the amazing car, Taj and I
already had a bag full of names for it (We like naming cars).
Our own cars in MN are named ‘Majesty’ and ‘Highness’.
And finally….Drumroll Please…...“Auto Plus” which is a
pretty sleek name for a Chevy like this one.
Daddy took us to a mall near the hotel to celebrate the Red,
White and Blue spirit. The coolest thing about this Seattle
mall was having a TESLA showroom. This bright red Tesla
was jam packed with technology and it was hard to wipe off
our smiles when we were inside the car, touching, feeling
and testing all the cool features.
After a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, there was
one more final Convention wrap-up party. First, I thought
this party would be boring until I saw Neoli with her dog
outside the mystery person’s house. My parents told us
that we are visiting the main organizers of the Convention
- The famous Sarma family from Seattle, and that we need
to be nice, behave well, and thank them from our hearts
for hosting the wonderful Convention. It felt good to see all
the familiar faces once again. Us kids were going extremely
wild again, running around, doing gymnastics and playing
with the dog, Lianna. Neoli is Emeilyn’s (the new Broadway
star) younger sister, and I told Emeilyn that I am her biggest
fan. Bornali Aunty was at the party too, which means we
took a gazillion more photos and selfies. The party ended
around midnight, and I gave Neoli one big hug, and told
all the Uncles, Aunties, Kokas and Aaitas that I’d be seeing
them in Toronto next summer.
The next morning when we went down to check out, me
and Taj were so excited to drive to a new country, Canada
- especially with our Auto Plus, but at the same time, we
were very sad to say goodbye to our Assam Convention
Marriott. After 4 hours of either reading, eating, napping
or staring outside at the beautiful view, I woke up from a
little power nap, and it took me a couple of blinks to figure
out where we were. We were about to cross the US border
- “Yay! We’re in Canada now!”
Our first stop was the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park at
Vancouver that was so naturally thrilling. The bridge was so
wiggly and jiggly. Smiley faces appeared in my head when
we were strolling through the Rainforest filled with treetop
adventures, ponds, trails, majestic greens, and the high
and narrow cliff walk. Wow, what an adventure! The next
day was a 12 hour bus tour within Vancouver city and then
to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Our bus drove us
onto this humongous ferry that carries up to 420 vehicles.
I like to call it a ship. We enjoyed a delicious brunch while
sailing on the Pacific waters. The blue skies, the sweet
smelling flowers and the summer breeze of this beautiful
and unique island of Victoria were really special. Wherever I
get some open greens, I would practice my cartwheels and
front flips to get my energy going. Our next trip was to the
world-famous Butchart Gardens. Well, it’s more than just a
garden. It’s the Royalty of all gardens. Usually, Daddy isn’t
a huge fan of flowers, but you should have seen him posing
in the middle of flowers with mommy who is a natural
poser (and sometimes fake too).

Our third day in Canada was our ride to the peak of
Vancouver, the Grouse Mountain. When Daddy told me
the 2010 Winter Olympics was in this winter resort, I felt so
thrilled to explore it. The sky ride was totally vertical, but
so smooth that we could hardly feel anything. But if you
look down below, you will get the floppy stomach feeling.
On top of the mountain was another exciting world and we
were the coolest natural explorers ever.
The next morning was time to say goodbye to Canada. But
our vacation isn’t over yet. We still have Oregon, Portland
to explore. After a refreshing long nap, my eyes open and
we are driving in the middle of a tall, dense forest that I have
never seen one like this before. After about a few minutes
of singing and staring outside at the gorgeous forest, I hear
the GPS say, “Arriving at Mt. Rainier. “Mt. Rainier? Isn’t that
in Washington?’ I asked. Daddy looked at me in the mirror
and smiled and said, “Yep, it’s a surprise for Mommy since
we didn’t get to go earlier due to foggy weather before the
Convention.” Boy! Is Daddy good at setting up surprises!
As I gazed through my window, something catches my
eye immediately. Something huge, tall, silvery, snowy and
majestic. I screamed my lungs out, “MT. RAINIER!!!!!!!”
We hiked to the foothills of Mt Rainier, and played with the
snow. Taj also tasted some. Mommy hiked up the Rainier in
a dress and flip flops as she was totally not aware of Daddy’s
travel surprises. After a gazillion more selfies and photos
with the best view of the snowy point, and thanking Daddy
for making our Washington trip complete, we drove a few
more hours to our final destination, the Portland Marriott.
Our Portland trip was relaxing. We spent half a day at the
Oregon Zoo, drove around the city, and a family pool party
at the hotel in the evening before packing our suitcases for
the next afternoon flight. Did I tell you that the best part
of the Portland Marriott was the yummy bowl of suckers
at the lobby? My favorite flavor was Vanilla Chocolate and
Taj’s was Strawberry Milkshake. Even other hotel people
were talking about these special suckers in the elevators.
As we check out on July 10th morning, I drool and take my
last sucker, and we drove down to drop off Auto Plus. I gave
one final thank you hug for driving us a safe and memorable
trip. And here we are again now at the airport, finding our
gate. After a heavy lunch at a Seafood Bistro, we boarded
and took our seats in the airplane. As I fasten my seatbelt,
I take out my journal and pencil, and then my story writing
brain became active. I started to scribble a few lines about
our two week vacation. But that didn’t last very long. I
got distracted with my movie watching buddy, Taj sitting
right next to me. So it was a theatre party for the kiddos
without popcorn. As soon as I feel myself in the air, I say
once again in my mind, “Thank You Assam Convention...
and Minnesota (Bootlu – Tingting) here I come.”
(P.S. - I selected a few of my favorite photos and asked
Mommy to add them in my story so you can see from our eyes
how much of a fun Convention blast we had!)

My Convention Story
Taj Bora
Hello Readers!
My 6 year old brother Taj wrote this story at a morning
meeting at the Convention. I think it was the ASSNA
meeting. He was finding the meeting not quite interesting.
So he took out a few stuff from his backpack that Mommy
packed for him (in case he got bored). There was Tic Tac
Toe book, Hangman, Dot to Dot and his summer journal.
Since there was no playing buddy with him, he took out
his summer journal, wrote a few lines and ran out to play
in the hallway. Actually, half the stuff in the story did not
happen yet. So he acted like a vacation mind reader and
wrote down everything for the next 2 weeks since he knew
our family travel plans. Mommy was happy that he finished
his summer homework given by his Kindergarten teacher.
Hope you like his 1st ever published story. I like it too!
- Message from big sister, Nimisha Ba

Culturally Yours

Memories from America
Harekrishna Sharma
Contributed by - Geeti Das
A warm message from a guest from Assam who had attended the Convention

Between Chai and Chats

The Party That Never Ends

The successful completion of the 37th Assam Convention is another colorful feather in our Organization’s cap! The
venue in the 1 year old Bellevue Marriott could not have been better; the host committee, in particular the two
families -- Debabrata Sarma’s and Satyajit Nath’s -- the “Lai Khuta” of the arrangements--gets all our compliments
for a job well-done!
Onward, we look forward to the next Convention in Toronto, Canada. The Toronto Host Committee reps were all
excited as evident from their formal Invitation to us all during this Convention. Toronto, as indications show will be
another very well attended Convention.
On wards, AANA, with its non-profit wing and the literary wing, marches on!
- Monoranjan Bezboruah
Assam Convention 2016 in Seattle was one of the best conventions I have attended. This convention really raised
the bar very high.
We are truly grateful to Dr. Debarata Sarma and Juri for overall planning and managing everything so meticulously.
They worked extremely hard for a year to make the convention a success and all their efforts paid off. Thank
you Satyajit and Latha Nath, Dhiraj and Pompy Goswami for working so hard to make AC2016 a grand success.
As Ranu Dutta mentioned, this was the best stage and time management ever! The convention website was
excellent.
For two straight days, both the guest artists Zubeen and Bornali kept us spellbound. We couldn’t have asked for
more!
The Bihu dance by the Seattle group was the best I have ever seen. Emylin Das’s American anthem, Borgeet and
‘You raise me up’, Aditya Nath’s Borgeet and Neeyor’s Canadian anthem were of really high standard. Krishangi
and Prerana sang very well. And we know, young Nimisha, Ashwin and Sangeet have bright future ahead.
A big thanks to the Seattle Host Committee for giving us an absolutely wonderful time.
Warm wishes,
Roopa Sharma
I echo the sentiments expressed by Mano da and Aradhana baideo. Fully supported by the 4 Lai-Khuta - Dabu da, Juri
bou, Satyajit da and Latha - the Seattle team did a wonderful, wonderful job! We got everything that we went there
for and much much more!
I just want to add that Seattle excelled in three aspects, more than any other convention I attended:
1. Time Management for the cultural program (although overall time allotment was not good for AFNA)
2. Quality of stage
3. Quality of sound
It was a fun-filled, memorable and successful Assam Convention 2016! As Satyajit da wished in his address (from
Rasaraj Lakshminath Bezbaruah’s poem) - “... ’ !”.... We will always cherish the beautiful
memories we created in Seattle 2016...Special thanks to the main artists Zubeen and Bornali for creating such magic
on both the evenings!!! Here’s a short video of one of my favorite magic moments created by the duo: https://youtu.
be/SZmb6WygnnQ
Well done Team Seattle! We are looking forward to Toronto next year!
Regards,
Krishanu Kaushik

Dear Juri, Sharma, Lata and Satyajit
We were quite impressed with all the personal
sacrifices you and your families made to host the
37th Convention so very successfully. Needless
to say your sacrifices resulted in over 400 people
enjoying themselves without a worry. The venue,
the logistics, and everything else were just superb.
Please know that we are very grateful to you all for
the enormous efforts and times you spent so that we
can have a good time
With heartfelt thanks,
Robert and Aradhana Baruah Satin
New Jersey
I agree with all below. I would add a couple more items to
Krishanu’s list where Seattle excelled all the way -
Quality of the cultural evenings specifically the dance
medleys.
Rendition of the National Anthem from a 12-year old who is
soon-to-be a Broadway star
Alerts/emails right on mobiles with daily schedules/cultural
program agendas
Guest artist performance on both nights. This is atypical,
invited artists mostly perform on the final night .
Fashion show led by Anjana. Well timed and well-rehearsed.
Aditya Nath’s Borgeet. A second generation kid, who we have
known since he was born in NJ, has become a 6 feet 4 inch tall
guy. His impeccable Assamese pronunciation and rendition
were impressive
It was a great convention all around.
Thank you!
Kabita Das
I echo your sentiment Kabita.
I was mostly impressed with stage management and time management for the three days program. Everything ran on time
which we have not seen in any other previous conventions. Thanks to Satyajit and the young man, his last name is Rajkhowa.
I forgot his first name, he ran the stage like a clock.
Our hats off to Debabrata da, Juri, Satyajit, Latha, Dhiraj and Pompi and the rest of Seattle host committee.
Dhiraj and Pompi lived in Austin before they moved to Portland. They are like our own kids.
I also want to recognize Aditya Nath for his rendering of Paw a pori hori borgeet. He sang from his heart with perfect prounciation.
We were deeply moved.
Satyajit is neighbor of Dada’s from Shillong so we feel more proud.
Emylin Das for US national anthem, Krishangi with her semi classical Assamese song.
I do not want to leave out any more names but the children’s cultural program on Saturday afternoon was the best so far. We
were totally proud of them. Kudos to the parents.
It was a great convention with just a few families taking care of things so we can enjoy.
I can tell that Juri and Debabrata da were on the phone with me almost every other day so I know what a stressful event this was
for them. But they came out with flying colors.
We are ever so grateful for your self dedication to make this event a grand success.
Hope you all organizers take some rest now that you deserve.
Satyajit and Ranu Dutta
Austin, TX
ACCOLADES

It is great to hear about the perfect Assam Convention and all the fun and excitements in Seattle. Our deepest
appreciations and heartiest congratulations to the lead organizers and the host committee for their sacrifices and
success, also the executives of AANA, ASSNA, and AFNA for their leaderships and cooperation!!!
It is wonderful to see that the Assamese community in North America and its leading organizations AANA, ASSNA,
and AFNA are really coming together in passing our culture and heritage to the younger generations and serving
themselves and our motherland.
Our best wishes to the Toronto community for organizing another glorious convention in 2017.
Warm Regards,
Anu & Deva Borah
To Assam Convention 2016 Team,
We do agree it was a wonderful convention! I know how
much dedicated service is needed to put up such a show. Host
committee led by Dr. Debabrata Sarma, Juri, Satyajit, Latha and
others did a wonderful job.
I may also add that the executives and volunteers of the
sponsoring organizations provided excellent support to make it
happen for the greater Assamese community of North America
and Canada with families and friends to enjoy.
Best wishes for the next convention at Toronto,
Dear Deba Sarma/ Satyajit Nath:
So happy to learn about the great convention. I
know what kind of efforts are necessary from my
experiance. Kumkum and I missed the convention
very very much.
Barada Sarma
Bibhash and Rani Barua
Naperville, IL
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation and thanks to Assam Association North America for recognizing our
Grand Daughter Olivia for her scholastic achievements and presenting with the Labanya Bora memorial scholarship.
Exactly thirty years ago in July 1986, our Daughter Safina Boruah (Olivia’s mother) received a scholastic award from
Assam Foundation of North America. The copies of award certificates are attached here for our community to see.
The point we are trying to make is that all those who are not members, become members of this organization, so
that, their children and grand children come to know their roots. We have been associated with AANA and its sister
organizations AFNA and ASSNA from their inception in the early 80s, participating in activities when possible over
past 40 plus years. Again, our thanks to all the office bearers both past and present and wish a continued success of
the associations.
Habibur Boruah
Dilara Boruah

Dear Members of the Seattle Host Committee,
Thank you once again for hosting a beautiful and
memorable Assam Convention that we are still
reminiscing after 2 weeks now, and will sure go on
for a few more weeks.
The Venue at Bellevue Marriott, the Cultural
Extravaganza, the invited Guest Artists, the
Children’s Activities, the Food and Socializing,
the Stage and Time Management, and the overall
Program Management were all outstanding. We
all understand how much of time and dedication it
takes to host an event of this magnitude. In short,
the Seattle Assam Convention was absolutely
spectacular and went above our expectations.
Thank you once again for letting us create such
sweet memories in Seattle!
Let the celebration continue...and we will see you
and your families in Toronto next summer....
FYI - We will soon be sending out a POST
CONVENTION SURVEY to all attendees with
the goal that our Organizers would receive your
helpful feedback to continually improve our Assam
Conventions.
Thank you,
Prantor & Geeti
Dear Seattle Host Committee Members - 37th Assam
Convention:
‘Thank You’ for your diligence, tireless work, countless
hours spent in hosting a successful Assam Convention
that everyone who attended left your city with very
sweet memories to reminisce!
The choice of venue, menu selection, registration
process, time management, invited Guest Artists’
performances, the cultural programs performed by
local artists, and must mention - performers ages from
three to seventy-five years..., the activities for the
children, and of course the opportunity to socialize -
all under one roof, and get a chance to do bit of sight
seeing as well, was an unforgettable experience!
There is not doubt its a pretty daunting and challenging
task to plan and execute an event of this magnitude
and although its a collective effort of local volunteers
hosting the event. However, it is fare to say taking
extra miles by some members, with continued support
and advice of AANA Executives, and for those ‘unsung
heroes’ who dedicated their time and expertise, that
this was possible, and that speaks quite a bit about
members in the community and we feel very fortunate.
Once again our heartfelt thanks again to starting
with Debabrata and Juri Sarma for leading the event,
with the help and support of Satyajit and Latha Nath,
Dibakar and Sangeeta Goswami, Munin and Sujata
Talukdar, just to name a few, in carrying out this year’s
event so successfully.
With regards and best wishes~
~Jeena and Rabin Mahanta
The words of praise highlighted on these pages of Pronaam are just a small sample of the hundreds of heartfelt
accolades that poured in for the hosting committee. To read more such messages please log on to:
http://aanahome.org

Host Committee Acknowledgements
Dear Friends,
We were completely overwhelmed by your nice comments
and the numerous phone calls. Thanks to all the attendees
for your gracious presence at the convention.
Thanks to our guest artists, Zubeen Garg and Bornali
Kalita for their excellent performance for all three days of
the convention. Their performances, along with the local
North American artists and highly talented children made
the cultural program one of the best ever presented in a
convention.
have been possible without the help of some very dedicated
families and individuals.
Satyajit and Latha Nath worked tirelessly and was
responsible for the excellent time and stage management,
a talking point from everybody. Amit Rajkhowa and
Amarjyoti Deka helped in the stage management in a most
efficient manner.
Prantor Bora andGeeti Dasmanaged the whole registration
process and the Convention web site. Both of them worked
day and night to keep everybody updated with the progress
of the convention.
The opening ceremony started with a procession led by the
San Francisco Bay Area team and completing with a Husori.
Someswar Barkataki and Krishanu Kaushik rendered a
convention oriented Husori ending with a blessing. Thanks
to you all.
Thanks to Mr. Mahendra Baruah who lighted the ceremonial
lamp, Dr. Girin Das who unfurled the American flag, Dr.
Aravind Phukan who unfurled the Canadian flag, and Mr.
Rupesh Saikia who unfurled the Indian flag.
Thanks to Emielyn Das, Neor Bhuyan Tikku, and the Bay
Area team for singing the National Anthems of USA,
Canada and India respectively. Thanks to Aditya Nath for
singing a beautiful Borgeet in the opening ceremony.
The successful completion of the convention would not
DhirajandPompi Goswami managed the whole registration
process. Dibakar Goswami and Julie Gogoi helped at the
registration desk. Aradhana and Robert Satin helped with
the registration package preparation.
Sushant and Rinki Sengupta helped in many ways. Rinki
helped with the complete requirements of serving the
snacks. Rinki also greeted the guests with Gamosa. Sushant
helped as the event photographer. Sushant and Rahul
Sarma helped with video graphing most of the cultural
program.
Sujata Talukdar and Sonia Lall Choudhury helped with
the Cultural program agenda and Emcee list preparation.
Sujata and Latha managed the cultural program from
backstage for all the three days. Thanks to Sujata, Latha
and Sonia.

Sangeeta Goswami gave a new direction and meaning
to children activities. The children liked it so much, none
wanted to leave. Thanks to Sangeeta and Dibakar for the
complete arrangement bearing all the related cost.
The host committee wanted to involve as many children
and adults from the attendees to take part as emcees. It
was great success as all the emcees did a superb job. Special
thanks to Santanu Borah for his excellent compeering of
the performance of the guest artist on both days. Thanks
to all the emcees.
Thanks to Gayatri Goswami and her husband Debabrata
Sharma for preparing the logistics of the guest artists,
Zubeen Garg and Bornali Kalita and looking after them
all the time in the convention. They along with Krishanu
Kaushik and Barnam Bora helped the artists perform well
on the stage.
The stage, registration area and red carpet photo area
decoration would not have been possible without the help
of Kumud and Kabita Das, Krishanu Kaushik, Isha Kaushik,
Priyanka Kaushik, Robert Satin, Prabalika Goswami, Rahul
Sarma and Lohit Datta-Barua.
The Vancouver team, Pinky Mahanta, and Babli Senapati
helped with the Indian sweets for the snacks served at
the convention. Dipali Phukon kept our tradition alive by
serving homemade Pitha with the snacks.
the children activities.
Iftikhar Ali and Amlan Chakrabarty helped with the
publicity, Iftikhar printing the Bellevue area maps free of
cost. Rajiv Choudhury, Pinki Mahanta, Sonia Lall Choudhury
and Dhiraj Goswami contributed to the tourist attraction
information of their respective cities. Our thanks to you all.
There was constant help and suggestions from Ranu Dutta,
Krishanu and Chumki Kaushik, Roopa Sharma and Dilara
Boruah.
The convention could not have been planned well without
the generous donations received from several individuals.
Dr. Girin Das took the complete responsibility of bringing
Bornali Kalita. Other donors are Joy Shri Das, Aroona
Barpujari, Satyajit and Latha Nath, Krishanu and Chumki
Kaushik, Hiren and Usha Sarma, Roopa Sharma, Debabrata
and Juri Sarma, Ranu and Satyajit Dutta, Arup and Manashi
Goswami, Suranjoy Hazarika, Anjana Bordoloi and Krishna
Hazarika, Dil and Dilip Deka, Pallabita and Debojit Bhuyan,
Rabin and Anuradha Mahanta, Geeti Das and Prantor Bora,
Meghna Das Gogoi and Manoj Gogoi. Chirayu Borooah
provided the tea packets you found in the registration
packet. Our thanks to all the donors.
Thanks to all others for their help if we have missed any
names.
To give a brief glimpse of the convention for those who
missed, the Calgary team presented a Bhaona the Sakinoor
Protishood. The acting, the costumes and the presentation
was excellent.
Sachetan Sengupta, Reda Ali and Neda Ali helped with
ushering in the guests lighting the lamp and unfurling the
flags. Reda and Neda also helped Sangeeta Goswami with
Thanks to Anjana Bordoloi for presenting the most popular
Fashion Show in a highly professional manner. Thanks to
Geeti Das for helping Anjana.
THANK YOU

Congratulations to the Seattle team for winning the
Anima Chakraborty Memorial Chorus competition and the
Minnesota team for winning the Krishna Das Memorial
children chorus competition.
As the Bihu dance competition teams dropped out at the
last minute for unavoidable reasons, one of the would
be competitors, the Seattle team, presented a very well
received signature Bihu dance.
In the seminar, Dr. Aravind Phukan and Prof. Prashanta
Bordoloi presented the problem of soil erosion of Majuli, Dr.
Satyam Sarma presented facts on heart and exercise, Dona
Bhattacharyya presented a stress reduction technique and
Satyajit Nath presented the work of ASHA for education, a
nonprofit organization.
AANA and AFNA presented new awards introduced for the
first time. AANA and Asom Sahitya Sabha felicitated Ms.
Sanghamitra Kalita on receiving the Pulitzer prize with her
CNN news team.
Send an email to dsarma@msn.com if you want to add
your videos. We have also provided links to photos shared
by Sushant Sengupta, Amar Deka, Bhaskar Khaund and
Debabrata Sarma.
Video link:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkCz-IFm06wUgv5fZjVaKaRZJzA9cw
Photo Links:
https://drive.google.com/drive/s/1gwFiKcdADW9VhgyO7
LsuocaaKwB6eRZxiyp3jDMU2hk
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AlbRy_o8xTd4g4Rtq0JhJNt_YeLZlg
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AnKT_VeSO-IWifp6FcTvLheDBUtdrg
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AkCz-IFm06wUg49PL3mJkC-pD_eATg
Thanks to the NorthWest community for all the help and
support.
Sincerely,
Debabrata and Juri Sarma
37th Assam Convention Host Committee Chairman and
Event Coordinator
We are presenting below few photos of the convention. We
have also collected some videos from several sources and
placed them in a shared link for all to see and download if
anybody wants to create a video of selected performances.

In Memory of
Prafulla Chandra Baruah
Contributed by - Sunita Baruah Dass and
Sangita Baruah
Prafulla Chandra Baruah was born in Nazira, Assam in
1938 to Trilochan and Sadari Baruah. He was the beloved
oldest brother to four sisters and two brothers, all of whom
adored and looked up to him. Everyone remembers him
as a happy and intelligent boy, always smiling and caring
for his siblings. It’s fitting that his name, Prafulla, means
“happy”! From an early age, he knew that he wanted to be
an engineer and was single-minded and industrious in his
efforts to make that goal come to fruition.
Due to his academic achievements, he was awarded an
Assam government scholarship that allowed him to study
Mechanical Engineering at the highly regarded Jadavpur
University in Bengal. Some of the words his college friends
used to describe him were: loyal, fun-loving, generous,
meticulous, and hardworking. He was also known as quite
the dancer across the college campus, and earned the
nickname “Professor Twist” when his students caught him
mid- dance move!
After completing his undergraduate degree, Prafulla was
awarded a Government of India scholarship to complete
his Master’s degree in Engineering at the University of
Manchester. He was excited to begin a new adventure, but
sad to be leaving his family. The journey took several weeks
by boat and he was fortunate to make several excursions
along the way, including to the Great Pyramids of Egypt
and the Suez Canal.
In 1965, after completing his degree, he returned to India
to teach at Guwahati Engineering College. Very fortunate
for him, he had a lively student in his class named Arup Das
who happened to have a very pretty and charming and
single older sister! Arup played matchmaker and when
Prafulla met Manjula for the first time, it was love at first
sight. They were married in 1967 and lived in a quaint little
cottage on the grounds of the college. This December
would have been their 50th wedding anniversary.
Two years later, Prafulla was sponsored by the University
of Manchester to complete his PhD in Mechanical
Engineering. He and Manjula made a new home for
themselves in England, where two daughters, Sunita and
Sangita, were born. The family had a wonderful life there
surrounded by great friends with whom they created many
special memories.

In 1984, after having worked at the University of Manchester
for 15 years, Prafulla got a job as a senior research engineer
at General Motors in Michigan. It was hard for the family to
move away from the life they knew, but they eventually fell
in love with their new home and the wonderful new friends
they made over the years. Prafulla later became “Koka” to
two amazing grandsons, Karsin and Ajay, whom he adored.
Prafulla had a genuine love of learning which remained
with him until his last days. He had a sharp mind and was
always trying to learn something new. He would spend
hours poring over Sunita’s and Sangita’s college textbooks,
and asked for an almanac for his birthday every year! He
was knowledgeable about many different topics, and
thoroughly enjoyed lively discussion and debate with his
family, friends, and colleagues.
Prafulla was an exceptional father. As our dad, he was
loving, kind, and funny. He offered great advice while also
allowing us the space to make our own decisions. With his
actions, he showed us how deeply he cared for our family.
We will miss him dearly, but we know he is still happy and
his spirit will remain with us forever.
Our family is greatly moved by the outpouring of love and
support from so many dear friends during this diffi cult
time. We thank everyone and are profoundly touched by
your kindness.
From the AAMI community:
June 20th, 2016 was a very sad day for our close-knit family in Michigan when we lost our most beloved and respected
Prafulla da. He was a stalwart of our community and a guiding light for all of us. He was loved by one and all for his
simplicity and genuineness. The second generation children were particularly fond of him as he took special interest
in their lives and their activities. He will be deeply missed by each one of us. We offer our most sincere and heartfelt
condolences to his wife Manjula, daughters Sunita and Sangita, son-in-law Ashwani Dass and grandsons Karsin and Ajay.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
TRIBUTE

We, the Convention Committee in tandem with the AANA Executive are indeed very excited to announce the
following updates for the Assam Convention 2017 (
) to be held in the great city of
Toronto from 30th June to 2nd July, 2017.
We take this opportunity to cordially invite each of you and your families/friends to the Assam Convention 2017.
Preparation for the convention is on in full swing.
Venue for the Convention is Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, 801 Dixon Road, Toronto.
Hotel room booking is now open and can be booked by calling phone number 1 866 932 7058 or via the following
link.
https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/AF26AB
Guest could reference the group name “Assam Association of North America AANA” or the group code
“AF26AB” or “AC2017”
The booking has to be done by May 31, 2017. However, please do note that in case of rooms being filled up
before May 31, 2017, booking at the special convention rates will be closed earlier. We encourage you to book
the hotel room as soon as possible.
The convention website is under construction and will be online before Sep 30, 2016. Starting October 1, 2016
we plan to regularly update progress on AC2017 preparations via the website, as well the AANA parent website
and on Facebook.
As always, this is a big undertaking for the host families and we know without your support and blessings we
will not be able make it a success. We humbly solicit your whole hearted participation, and request you also to
help in please spreading the news so that we can reach as many families as possible.
If you have any suggestions and/or comments for the convention committee, please do not hesitate to forward
the same to the Convention Committee members/Convention Chairman (2009jtalu@gmail.com, phone 905
556 1335) as convenient. Joy Ai Asom!
Jib Talukdar
Chairman
Assam Convention 2017

NEWS FROM

Discovering my Assamese Self - The Journey
Minti Deka
Growing up in Assam, I never would have imagined my
identity would evolve in a distant land….but it did…and
that too in a very distinct way. 70’s and 80’s Guwahati,
Convent school, lots of relatives, celebrations, fun times…
and academia as a very strong backdrop. That may be a
typical childhood for many of us growing up in Guwahati
during that time. In the absence of the kind of social media
and all things internet we have today, it was limited to our
music schools, listening to the radio and “cassette tape
recorders” and “record players”, learning some Satriya
dance (did not last as it got tough…!!). Peppered in there
was Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew along with Carpenters,
Boney M, Abba and the Beatles!! It was a different world
where technology did not play such an integral role. Today
when my son tells me “I learnt that Bihu from YouTube”
or “can you please download Pandora”…. it reinforces the
feeling that we grew up in a different world…!
With very limited resources and not even a good local
Assamese TV channel, our days were filled with Jyoti
Sangeet,Rabha Sangeet, Xuror xaat-xori, Geeti malika etc.
Bhupen Hazarika and Jayanta Hazarika were household
names we could identify with. I was lucky to have the
opportunity to work in the All India Radio studios as a
junior artist. As a 3rd grader I remember my first recording
of Jyoti Sangeet, I got paid Rs.20…!! My first brush with
some stalwarts of Assamese music was when senior artists
like Khagen Mahanta and JP Das would coach us for our
performances. At the height of the Assam agitation it was
almost paradoxical how fear and music intertwined in our
lives at the same time. We would tread ever so carefully
around the heavily armed, guarded AIR campus and then
let go of it as soon as we were in the cocoon of the recording
studio! It was a complete transformation where you just
enjoy music and everything else existed in a different
world. It was our new normal. I remember one day coming
out after a daylong recording session to find that our car
and the driver was nowhere to be seen. We didn’t have cell
phones at that time, so the only way I could get home was
with a senior artist who kindly offered to drop me home
along with a few other kids. I was in elementary school and
was tearing up already only to find that something really
bad had happened and there was a curfew about to be
clamped on the city. We were only allowed to walk back
home…so we did and it took us a long time, I don’t even
remember how long. It was one of the scariest days in my
life. But again, that was also part of being an Assamese
from that era, as I slowly started understanding what was
really going on. Days rolled into years, things got better…
music was still an integral part of our lives. Multiple AIR,
Rabindra Bhaban, Bihutoli performances later, it was
time to pack up my bags and start a different journey. In
the meantime numerous new artists had started making
waves in the music world including Jitul Sonowal, Munmi
Bora, Xandhya Menon and Zubeen. The metamorphosis
of life takes us to different places and as I moved on to
Engineering College and then on to the US for my graduate
studies things definitely took a different turn, even though
I was culturally very connected.
While in the US as a foreign student my cultural identity
evolved quite a bit – I was more Indian than Assamese, a
conglomeration of multiple experiences….more Bollywood
than Bihu… It was almost as if I was struggling to make
people understand who I was, what the Assamese culture
was like and that we did not belong in the “jungles” but from

the “land where the sun rises” or warding off that constant
“you are from Nepal right?” I wanted to tell them politely
how rich our culture is and that we are very polished set
of people culturally and socially…that we don’t have dowry
and we don’t live on tree tops…. The broad spectrum of
reactions from a surprised “Oh, from Assam, you are the
first person I have met from that place” or a somewhat
excited “I have heard it’s a beautiful place” to “My dad was
posted there for some time, I know about Assam”, it was
never easy to point them to a simple narrative of who I was
as an Assamese. My explanations all seemed rhetorical,
maybe I was finding my way still….
I was trained to sing ghazals and loved it a lot but somehow
I started drifting almost craving to sing Bihu… probably to
prove how beautiful our culture is and make a point. This
had never happened when I was surrounded by an all-
Assamese crowd back home! The plurality of my cultural
being was starting to evolve very strongly – as an Assamese,
as an Indian…the American identity was still a little further
way. Right around that time I got married and thankfully
to a nerdy “khati axomiya” with Bihu in his heart and soul!
We had also started having small Bihu celebrations with
the wonderful Assamese community in Minneapolis. This
was a rearing ground for many of us to actually hone in on
our cultural identity and discover who we were…at least
speaking for myself. The excitement and the pride we took
in preparing for the celebrations annually was amazing
and got better every passing year. I had performed quite
a bit in my past life but was never so “Assamese” … Bihu
songs, sounds of the dhol and pepa, nasonis decked up
and swinging to the rhythm, our American kids singing and
playing Assamese tunes in their favorite instruments – it
was amazing!!
With each passing year, the pride in being an Axomiya was
reinforced. Even when we would go on road trips in Assam,
we would listen to Bhupen Hazarika, Jayanta Hazarika,
Zubeen, Papon, my old favourites Dipali Borthakur, Pulak
Banerjee etc. When Bhupen Hazarika passed away – it
was like an era had ended, we streamed and watched the
ceremonies live. We got together as a community and
paid a beautiful homage to the stalwart. Our kids sang
Bhupendra Sangeet and so did we…it was unbelievable
to see the interest…speeches, songs, recitations and a
celebration of Bhupen da’s life. It was ingrained in each of
us…..
Every year when we went back home ( and I go back and
forth with home…US and Assam) we would buy the new
Bihu “VCDs” and buy all the movies we could get hold
of like it was going out of fashion!! I would watch each
one of them however silly they were or however blurry
they were – the sound of the Assamese language was so
comforting..!! A lot of this I attribute to my Bihu boliya
husband who has taught me a lot of things truly Axomiya
and continues to do so, painfully sometimes!! I had never
been so involved and so close to Bihu when I was in
Assam, it was mostly watching others on stage or on TV.
As our Assamese community evolved so did I, our Bihu
Dol performances were now elevated to a wider audience
– from our local Bihutoli to the Mega- Assamese meet –
The Assam Convention!! The frantic practice sessions, the
giggles and unabated laughter and fun throughout the
process was palpable! I had never had so much fun – it was
amazing to see how the cultural bar was being raised, for
me, it was rediscovering my identity all over again. The
plurality of my existence in my home away from home was
definitely changing again….now more the Assamese Indian
and then Indian American….interesting to say the least! In
the meantime kids were growing up, they started learning
more and more Axomiya words and tunes and steps, it was
a joy to see the excitement now in their little eyes. For me
personally, I have a totally Axomiya breed at home – both
the boys love Bihu, love to swing to the beats and sing the
latest Zubeen / Papon songs and of course Bihu has no
season in our household!

This summer, as I stood on the side of the stage in the last
Assam Convention listening to my 10 year old singing Bihu
like he had it in his blood and enjoying it thoroughly…I
asked myself…when did that happen, when did I evolve to
be this Axomiya and how did that influence my all American
boy to love everything Assamese so much?.....
The biggest contribution I feel is from our elders in the
Assamese society here in North America who has given us
a platform to perform our culture – Bihu tolis around the
country and The Assam Convention. Social media plays
a huge part – the best example is our very own FB group
founded by some awesome community members! I do still
wonder if the process would have been the same had we
stayed back in India… the longer and harder I think I keep
coming back with a biased answer…maybe not, maybe
this is kindled by a different kind of need to look at myself
and identify with my roots. I see the same desire in many
of my friends, to be more Axomiya here in a faraway land.
It’s intense, the way we seek out creative ways to make
our authentic dishes, the way we crave for the best of the
mekhela sadors, the latest Assamese music we listen to
and how we flock to our gatherings….I can speak for myself
and I know it’s a fierce desire to keep my dual identity alive.
I want to perfect my American self when I am at work or
social gatherings that demand that repertoire, on the other
hand I want to cook the best “masor tenga”, showoff my
muga and pat so gleefully and proudly and most of all enjoy
my traditional music with a hum in my heart. I still stop and
ask when I hear the one liners (Axomiya phokora jujona)
I hear at times, but I will learn…..someday, the process is
very organic!! From Enid Blyton and Carpenters, to truly
loving Zubeen, Papon and Barnali’s of this era, I think it has
been a beautiful journey…!! As I continue down this path
of being an American Indian, the dichotomy will always
remain. I do hope to do my best to respect both cultures
and pass it on to the next generation with a smile on my
face, so they are proud to be who they are and enriched
by their diverse roots – to love Zubeen Garg as much as
they love Justin Beiber!! The 6-CD player in our car will
undoubtedly have at least 5 Assamese CDs and my playlist
will be loaded with Bhupen Hazarika and Bihu as we take
more road trips down the American journey….

How I Saw Zubeen
Sanjeet Deka
Needless to say, my first impression of Zubeen was close
to enigmatic. Upon his arrival at our house, I was quick
to judge his rock star appearance. Surely, his black locks,
tight jeans, and cool shades built his appeal as a musician.
But shouldn’t that make him something straight out of
Rolling Stones rather than an artist from Assam, India?
With these questions in mind, I started a conversation with
the young entertainer, and to my surprise I discovered
that Zubeen has a passionate side towards fine arts. He
has collected a myriad of the world’s finest films, not just
Bollywood films, but classic American and foreign titles
as well. We chatted about various genres and some of his
favorite films. Interesting to note was that in the movie,
‘The Pianist’, starring Adrian Brody (who played a Jewish
Pianist in the WWII era) Zubeen was quick to relate to the
central character in this film. He was able to associate with
the musical premise as well. In addition, his love for movies
has motivated him to a side career in script writing where
he hopes to begin filming and acting in his new movie ‘
Heia’ this fall.
Zubeen Garg’s performance during the 4th of July weekend
at Assam Convention 2004 in Austin, Texas was absolutely
phenomenal. Proclaimed as the Great Communicator of
Assamese music, Zubeen did just that as he bridged the
gap between the Assamese American youth and the adults
on the dance floor with his powerful vocal ability and
entertaining presence.
(Sanjeet is a sophomore at Texas Christian University, Fort
Worth)
As of late, his music has been inspired from recent tragedies
in his family and friend circle. The recovery has been long
and strenuous but he has dug inspiration from these
experiences. As a result, he has channeled his feelings and
emotions to the stage belting out extraordinary Assamese
traditional tunes. What makes Zubeen’s musical presence
so appealing is his incorporation of traditional and modern
music. Since he was a child, Zubeen has emulated the Hall
of Fame rocker Sting of The Police. Hence, one can see
his demeanor and attitude as a direct influence of Sting’s
musical and personal influence. If all goes as planned,
the two will be recording tracks together next summer in
London.

Floods and their Impact on Schooling in
Assam - A Case Study
Satyajit Nath
Based on a news report in September last year, I got involved in helping a school in Assam that was badly impacted by floods. It
was an instructive experience and I am sharing this to spark discussion about the longterm impact of floods in Assam on education,
and what we can do about it. The school I worked with was Bogribari No. 228 L.P. School in Dhubri district of lower Assam. The land
and buildings of the 105 year old rural government school were washed away on Sept. 21, 2015, due to erosion on the river Tipkai, a
northbank tributary of the Brahmaputra. The school served 250 students in classes 15.
It was a long and painstaking process for the school authorities to restore classes for the children. The process took about a year.
During that time, some temporary space was made available by the community,. But it was not sufficient to accommodate all
children. 70% of the children had to stay home and were only given homework. After a year of hard work by the school committee,
a new school building was constructed on newly acquired land, where classes have resumed permanently. Throughout the process,
I consulted with them along with volunteers of Purbanchal Social Circle (an NGO in Assam) while the school committee worked with
the local Higher Secondary school, the Dept of Education (Govt. of Assam), SDO(Civil)(Bilasipara subdivision, Govt of Assam), and
Sarva Siksha Abhijaan (Govt. of India) to acquire the land and the necessary funds.
It should not take so long to restore classes after a disaster, as prolonged lack of instruction affects the education of children.
Unfortunately, this school is not an isolated example in Assam. In a study done in September 2015 covering 84 villages under 11
floodhit districts of Assam, 80% of the schools were closed due to infrastructure damage and only 46% of the schools were likely to
open after 30 days. In other words, students in over half the schools were out of school for multiple months. The cumulative loss of
education over 12 years of their school life is significant, with about 56 such extended disruptions, one each for each severe flood year.
This is indicated in poor assessment results for the state.
As the diaspora, the question for us is: what can we do to work with the government and NGO’s to accelerate recovery and improve
education despite the scourge of annual floods? My positive experience in case of Bogribari No. 228 L.P. school collaborating with
school authorities, government bodies, and NGO’s gives me optimism that we can do more.

Sankardev Tithi Celebrations in New Jersey
Aabir Das
On Saturday, September 24th, 2016, the Assamese
families of the North-East United States celebrated
Sankardev Tithi, the annual death anniversary celebration
and prayer for Sankardev, the Vaishnavite guru and social
reformer of Assam at the auditorium of the Balaji Temple
in Bridgewater, NJ. This year, however, was different and
exciting as Dr. Pitambar Dev Goswami, Satradhikar of the
Auniati Satra, located in Majuli, Assam was invited and
graced us with his presence. He was accompanied with
three bhakats or devotees from the Satra as well.
The day started with a formal Aadoroni, or welcoming
of the Satradhikar with Gayan-Bayan (Khol-Taal) and a
Dunori from the parking lot to the Temple. The procession
was beautiful seeing the community accompanying him in
traditional mekhla sadors and dhoti, panjabi, gamosa. The
sound of the Taal and the Khol brought many members of
Dr. Shankar Borua from Guwahati, a Texas Tech alumni
the community back to these processions back in Assam.
on Film Making has just completed an Assamese movie
Once inside the auditorium, there was jaalpaan consisting
“Khandob Dah - Grief on a Sunday morning” with the
of tea, samosa, and other snacks and time for hellos and
return of beloved Assamese actor Biju Phukan and Dr.
socializing. The program started with a Manglacharan by
Barua himself as the lead actor. If released on time, the
Dr. Pitambar Dev Goswami and a short speech introducing
movie is expected to be sent for selection in Sundance
the program by Dr. Binoy Bordoloi. The program continued
with
Film
Borgeets,
Festival.
devotional songs by both children brought
up in the U.S. as well as by adults who grew up back in
Link to Facebook:
Assam
https://www.facebook.
and settled here. We were fortunate to hear Bhakat
Padmajit comgriefonasundaymorning?ref=hl
Baruah entertain us with his melodious voice when
he sang a devotional song during the event. There were
Official Trailer:
devotional dances such as Nritya and Satriya, performed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn7u6MgNR_Q
by members of the community, which showcased our rich
culture.

The key items in the cultural program was the Naam
Prasanga, a form of prayer started and propagated by
Sankardev, participated by members of the North-east
Assamese community and Bhaona, a one-act play based on
stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The theme
of this year’s Bhaona was “Hara Dhanu Bhanga”, which
depicted the courting of Sita, by Ram and two other kings.
The Bhaona was particularly beautiful this year, because
in addition to the countless weekends it took to practice
and prepare for the enactment, it was participated by
second and third generation Assamese-Americans, which
is precisely the purpose for the creation of our diaspora in
the first-place; to encourage the participation and instill
the feeling of the Assamese identity in our children and
grand-children. The evening ended with a scrumptious
vegetarian dinner consisting of rice, daal, paneer, belahi
ambhol as well as other subjis and finished with dessert
consisting of sandesh, gulab jamun and piyash.
I would be amiss if I didn’t thank the countless members of
our community who worked tirelessly to bring our guests
from Assam, arrange their accommodations, book the
location for the Tithi, participate in the cultural programs,
arrange dinner and a host of other tasks related to making
this year’s Tithi a rousing success. We also are very thankful
that we were joined by friends as far away as Maryland,
Virginia and North Carolina for this event and we thank
all that travelled great distances to be with us during this
year’s Tithi. There are so many people to thank, so it is
not possible to name everyone by name, thus I am doing
a blanket thank you to all that worked towards making it a
wonderful event.
This was truly a beautiful event that showcased our
culture to our children and grand-children as well as to
the Satradhikar and Bhakats, who came from Assam, so
that they can see first-hand the effort and proliferation of
Assamese culture being exhibited here in the U.S.

Sankardev Tithi Celebrations in New Jersey
Suprabha Nath
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The Other Side of the Mountain - Salman Khurshid
Reviewed by - Monoranjan Bezboruah
The author was the most recent foreign minister of India,
under the Congress Government -- which was removed
by the people in the last General Election. The author, as
he says, is now engaged in the practice of law before the
India’s Supreme Court. He is apparently a successful writer
having written two earlier “bestsellers” –Beyond Terrorism:
New Hope for Kashmir (1994) and At Home in India: The
Muslim Saga (2014). He has also written a play: Sons of
Babur (2008).
Recently, he was in the news, as was his colleague from
the Congress Party – Mr. Moni S. Ayer; both of them went
to Pakistan and were asking that country’s “powerful and
the privileged” to do everything possible to remove India’s
present PM –Narendra Modi! His announced discomfort at
Mr. Modi’s mentioning of the persecution and prosecution
of the people of Gilgit, Baluchistan in recent India’s
Independence Day Speech from the rampart of the Red
Fort, Delhi has also generated public discussion.
Apparently, Mr. Khurshid is selecting a nuanced title! After
reading each word of this book, I am not clear as to what
he sees on the other side of the Mountain, or is it that he
sees the other side of the mountain while we do not see it,
or cannot even see it! Or could it be that we have already
crossed the mountain and has not apparently seen in clarity
as to what we left in the other side? The author, a Congress
Party luminary, and one who had proximity to that Party’s
inner sanctum, might also suggest that we failed to see
the other side of the mountain because the din of the last
national Election did not allow us the flexibility to see the
other side of the mountain.
So, one begins with the expectation that one would see,
with the author’s help, the regalia and the grandeur of
the other side of the mountain. The author does, on page
395, list six major achievements of the Congress rule of the
decade (May 2004 to May 2014). In fact, he then claims
that “the UPA became a victim of its own success.” And
he further states: The over 7 per cent GDP growth over
ten years raised expectations exponentially. Also, the
Internet software revolution provided a wide range of
communication and information highways. Unfortunately,
the desire for more and more goodies led to broken
aspirations and the frustration that followed.
He sums up – Successful political movements need an
idea whose time has come, a dream that can inspire and
motivate the common citizen, and faith to become the
master of one’s own fate. Movements that succeed have
these factors in varying degrees.
In Epilogue, he is comforting himself saying that as he looks
back and indeed at the horizon ahead, he is certain that the
job of his Congress Party remains unfinished and we shall
be back to finish it. One marvels at his audacity, for he says,
challenge though is whether we will be content to displace
the NDA, come to power and do what might appear
expedient to remain in power or embark on transforming
our society into a happy and successful twenty-first century
nation? Winning elections and governing India are totally
different as is already apparent from the experience of the
NDA Government at the Center.
He wonders aloud as to whether it could be the beginning,
once again, for the Congress?

If Mr. Khurshid talks about a beginning for the Congress once
again, he may find fellow-travelers. But, to begin anew, one
has to admit one’s mistakes, owns up to them, ask for the
nation’s forgiveness and ask for another attempt to go at it
again. Indian electorate is very astute and merciful, and the
Congress Party has had an inside track with all these years
of hold onto power. The masses of so-called popular “giveways”
that the Congress Party began with men like Munshi
et al was more, cynics contend, for the opportunity to steal
and siphon the great amounts from these public project
outlays! No wonder, black money hordes from every Tom,
Dick and Harry associated with the Government and public
expenditures – Lalu, Soniya, Rahul, Vadra-Priyanka, and
the few who went to the pubic guest houses (Jails)—speak
a volume about such Machiavellian schemes of so-called
public welfare outlays. Unfortunately, a reader, myself
included, finds it very “interesting” that Mr. Khurshid never
even mentions anything or anyone in this regard.
An interesting known- known is that a man and a Careerist
like Khurshid will never be objective and critical of the
“Family” that is presently ruling the Congress Party. (He
unabashedly extols the Mother and the Son to the sky!)
Nowhere is he talking anything even remotely about the
“funny” thing about this Party – how is it that in spite of, or
despite, the presence of the luminaries like himself, Pranab
Mukherjee, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram, this “Family” with
members with no formal education to talk about, is still
running these so-called titans of India’s public arena like
Young High School and Freshmen student Pages in the US
Capitol! One looks so eagerly to see any account of the
shenanigans that these Congress leaders were engaged in,
but Mr. Khurshid disappoints us. He sees none, or spoken
in another way – he pretends to not be aware of any. One
remembers Gandhiji’s apt observation –you can wake up
a person who is asleep, but you cannot wake up someone
who is feigning asleep!
Another aspect of this writing that glares so blatantly at
us is -- the author’s prima facie malice at Prime Minister,
Mr. Narendra Modi! Mr. Khurshid keeps on harping the
erstwhile Congress Party and the vested interests assertions
and innuendos about riots following the burning of the
pilgrims at Godhra by the Muslim miscreants. Hopefully,
the recent arrest of the person who brought the petrol,
locked the train compartments from outside and torched
it leading to the death of those dozens of Hindu pilgrims
will shed better lights on this hideous crime. Although
the Supreme Court of India has spoken on the issue of Mr.
Modi’s entanglements with the riots in Gujrat, Mr. Khurshid
abdicates his responsibility to note it, or write, talk, and
walk the walk, like a lawyer!
Mr. Khurshid becomes a cohort of Dr. Gobbles (who is
famed for the observation that a lie asserted as truth
for umpteenth times, is accepted as the truth by the
populace). The malice aforethought is so apparent, and
so unbecoming of a so-called representative of the India’s
Best and Brightest! He luckily talks again about Ishrat
Jahan, “the nineteen year-old girl student” but stops short
of telling us as to what was her relationship with the three

or more men terrorists she was travelling with, as to where
was she a student at etc. Or about the recently revealed info
about the “doctoring” of the evidence by Chidambaram et
al (the Congress leaders) to hide the terrorist angle of this
young lady and the group she was with. Any discerning
reader would expect more from such an erudite lawyer.
With such omission, Mr. Khurshid appears puny! Can such
a person ever reach the height to see the other side of the
mountain?
Mr. Khurshid also extols another woman who is in the
recent news – Ms/Mrs. Teesta Setalvad. It is “interesting” to
read Mr. Khurshid on this matter. He writes (M)eanwhile,
the hunter has become the hunted as Teesta Setalvad
was sought to be arrested by the Gujrat police. He notes
in the pertinent footnote that on 10 September 2015, the
Union Home Ministry suspended the registration of Teesta
Setalvad’s NGO (Sabrang Trust) for six months. A lawyer
of Mr. Khurshid’s stature is required by common decency to
state as to why this suspension was earned?
Apparently, in India many of these NGOs do not even
comply with the legal and regulatory requirements, and
Ms. Setalvad was not only charged with misuse of these
funds from interested parties from abroad, but also for not
complying with the pertinent laws and regulations of the
country. NGOs are never allowed to get involved in election
campaigning. Not knowing the laws and regulations are
not a legal defense. Intentional non-compliance and open
flouting of the nation’s laws and regulations should never
be condoned. It is appalling that Mr. Khurshid does not
mention this aspect of the problem!
were somewhat lost in interior Uttar Pradesh. Public figures
such Teesta Setalvad, Shabnam Hashmi and Maulana
Fazl-ur Rahim Mujadidi . . . made tremendous personal
efforts to help our candidates but remained considerably
handicapped in terms of local response.
As a discerning reader, I wonder why only these
personalities are so noted. Moreover, with Mr. Khurshid’s
own problems (actually his wife Ms. Louise Khurshid’s)
with the pertinent Dr. Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust about
compliance with laws and regulations, Mr. Khurshid would
be more circumspect in writing about such NGOs in noncompliance
with rules and regulations, and also about their
expenses and reporting. As Aroon Purie’s Letter to Louise
Khurshid that Mr. Khurshid cites as Appendix, vocalizes the
concern – I might add, this is all a matter of public interest
as the government has donated Rs. 1.39 crore to the Trust
from 2009-2011. No wonder, the Khurshids stand still
accused of looting DIVYANG’s (the public Trust) money
and their so-called explanations are not yet believed by the
greater part of the people.
Personalities involved in public matters are expected to
conform to certain given norms and manners. Many are
engaged in taking India forward. The efforts are collective
and benefits accrue to all. In this journey, which Gandhiji
called a Sacred Trust, one has to be a bit more balanced and
a bit more Open and true to facts than what unfortunately
Mr. Khurshid evidences. We look forward to a better Mr.
Khurshid for his own good and for the good of India.
The answer to the above mentioned anomaly ---a lawyer
like Mr. Khurshid not talking about the importance of
complying with India’s rules and regulations by all, including
Setalvad-- is apparent. On page 374 Mr. Khurshid notes
The opinion makers and members of civil society groups
who had worked relentlessly for us in the past two general
elections were unable to get a swift response from us and
even those who coordinated their efforts with New Delhi

Assam Trivia Tidbits
Compiled by - Bapi Utpal Brahma
What is Bushu Dima ?
Bushu Dima is one of the main festival of the Dimasha
Kachari. It is the harvest festival and is celebrated in Dima
Hashao (NC Hills) around January 27th.
The females of this community adorn themselves with Pini
Kampala. What is this community ?
Karbi
What is Doyni Polo ?
Donyi-Polo, literally translated means Sun-Moon, is an
animist religion of the Tani and other Tibeto-Burman
people in Arunachal Pradesh. Sun and Moon represent
female and male energy forces, similar to the yin and yang
of Chinese culture. It has about 3.3 lakh followers in Assam
and Arunachal Pradesh amongst Adi and Mishing Tribes.
This is a delicacy within a significant population in Assam. It
is called “napalm”. What is it ?
Napalm is a Boro delicacy. It is a dried fish fermented with
some herbs and sealed airtight in a bamboo cylinder for
couple of months. It is consumed as a “chutney” with rice
and curry and has a strong pungent taste.
Who was Gurudev Kalicharan and what was his
contribution?
Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma was the founder of Brahma
Faith amongst the Boros in Western Assam. He was an
educationist, a social reformer. He had contacted the
Simon Commission to demand land right and recognition
of the Boro community. He had also requested formation of
a Boro Regiment in the Army arguing that a large number
of Boros were already employed in the Gurkha Regiment.
What is Aronai ?
Aronai is the scarf of the Boro community. It was basically
worn by the warriors before going to battle. These days --
guests are welcomed with colorful Aronai.
The Western part of Assam came under British rule after
this treaty. What is the name of this treaty and which were
the parties involved in this treaty ?
Treaty of Sinchula between British, Bhutan and Bijni
Kingdom in 1864.
What is Rungtuk and Basek ?
Deity of the Rabha Community.
Who was Sambhudhan Phonglo ?
Dimasha freedom fighter who had started armed
movement against the British. Till date the Dimasha
community considers him as a great hero.
This is the traditional drink of a major community and
consumed ceremoniously during Aliya Ligand. What is it ?
It is Aapong of the Mishing community. It is basically a rice
beer which tastes like Japanese Sake.

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Orunudoi is Online
Satyajit Nath
https://books.google.com/books?id=4gopAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT44&source=gbs_selectedpages&cad=2#v=onepage&q&f=false

Kothanodi
A message from the director, Bhaskar Hazarika:
Kothanodi is a National Award winning Assamese film that showcases Assam’s rich tradition of folktales. The film is a dark
adaptation of four stories from the folktales compendium, Buri Ai’r Xadhu (Grandma’s Tales) by Laxminath Bezbarua. The
cast includes eminent artists such as Adil Hussain, Seema Biswas, Zerifa Wahid and Kapil Bora among others.
Kothanodi released in theaters in Assam on September 16th and the outpouring of support and praise from the Assamese
audience has exceeded our expectations. The film has also been positively reviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, Screen
Anarchy, the Hindu and several other publications.
We have made Kothanodi available online for audiences outside India through MovieSaints and we invite you to watch it
now: https://www.moviesaints.com/#!/movie/kothanodi
Kothanodi is a completely independent film that was shot in the island of Majuli on a shoestring budget using personal
funds. The film’s post production was crowd-funded. Anyone who watches this film through MovieSaints will be supporting
Assamese artists directly. And yet, if you don’t like the film for any reason, MovieSaints allows you to take a refund.
We hope you’ll take a chance on this movie. Please share your feedback with us on our Facebook page: https://www.
facebook.com/kothanodifilm

RE

GIONAL NEWS

News from Northwest
Debabrata Sarma
The Northwest community feel very blessed and extremely
happy at the most successfully organized conclusion of
the 37th Assam Convention held at the Seattle Marriott
Bellevue from July 1 to 3, 2016.
On the opening ceremony, Mahendra Barua lighted the
ceremonial lamp, Dr. Girin Das unfurled the American flag
and Dr. Aravind Phukan unfurled the Canadian flag, and
Rupesh Saikia unfurled the Indian flag.
It was the enthusiastic participation of the children and
the adults of Vancouver and Seattle that could showcase
their cultural talents culminating in being the winning
teams of the chorus competition for adults and children.
The Seattle and the Vancouver group of ladies and
children has established themselves as great dancers and
choreographers.
On individual performances, Neor Bhuyan Tiku and Aditya
Nath enthralled the audience with Neor’s Canada National
Anthem and Aditya’s rendering of the Borgeet in the
opening ceremony. Neor also won the hearts of many with
his golden voice singing the Hindi song “Khamushi”.
Latha Nath and Satyajit Nath directed the first prize winning
adult chorus team, Satyajit created the music track of the
song. The participants were, Latha Nath, Gitashri Deori,
Rinki Sengupta, Mayuri Purohit, Mina Borgohain, Minu
Das, Premlata Deka, Amlan Chakraborty, Bitoopan Saikia,
Debabrata Sarma, Ankush Kohar, and Amarjyoti Deka (Jr.).
The Saturday evening Inaugural Dance was choreographed
by Devadashi Kalita. The narration was written by
Devadashi’s parents, Mr. Kamala Kanta Kalita and Mrs.
Jayashree Kalita. The participants were:
Narration: Dwipen Bhagwabati;Sattriya: Dorothy Phukan,
Devadasi Kalita and Priyanka Bora;Gose Gose : Kaustubhi,
Anishikha, Trisha and Naina;Bishwor Chonde Chonde:
Rasmita Khaund, Mapi Bose and Mayuri Purohit;Osom
amaar roopohi : Kaustubhi, Anishikha, and Sahana;Bihu :
Rubee Barua and Tribeni Nath.
The Seattle team worked hard to prepare for the Convention
Bihu Dance competition. As other teams cancelled at the
last moment, the Seattle team could present a Signature
Bihu Dance choreographed by Sanghamitra Borgohain.
The participants were, Sanghamitra Borgohian, Devadashi
Kalita, Dorothy Phukon, Priyanka Bora, Tribeni Nath,
Mayuri Purohit, Rubee Barua,Gitashree Thakur and
Rashmita Khaund.
A beautiful Kathak dance choreographed by Dorothy
Phukan was presented with Bhupen Hazarika’s “Dil Hoom
Hoom Kore…”. The participants were, Dorothy Phukan,
Priyanka Bora and Pooja Senapati.
The Tribe of Zeeba, an energetic dance was performed by,
Devadashi Kalita, Dorothy Phukon, Priyanka Bora, Tribeni
Nath, Mayuri Purohit, and Rashmita Khaund.
Pooja Senapati performed a modern dance choregraphed
by herself.
Angshita Dutta did an excellent presentation of Bharat
Natyam. Angshita performed her Arangetram on
September 3rd. It was an unbelievably perfect performance
with a perfect split. At the end she added a Sattriya dance
she learnt on her own initiative with her guru in Guwahati.
Her Arangetram Guru was really impressed as she never
saw a Sattriya dance. Congratulations Angshita!

Sujata Talukdar sang the movie song, “Dum maaro Dum…”
and Latha Nath sang a Hindi movie song.
Ananya Bezbaruah presented an Odissi dance in the
children section. Rishika Barua sang an Osomiya song
accompanied in guitar by her father, Ranjan Barua.
Sachetan Sengupta played in the piano an Osomiya song;
his brother Sabyachachi also played the piano accompanied
in Tabla by Sachetan.
The Vancouver Canada team excelled in their cultural
presentation both in the adults and children section.
The ladies of Vancouver did a beautiful dance presentation
with a mixture of different dance forms in a high energetic
level maintaining a smooth transition. It was an excellently
choreographed dance; would like to witness more of their
presentations in future conventions.
A duet in Osomiya was presented by Rashmi Acharya and
Kuldeep Kashyap.
The winning chorus ream of Seattle celebrated their
success in a party organized by Latha Nath and Satyajit
Nath at their residence on August 6, 2016.
A very well-choreographed modern bihu dance was
performed by Shreya Sarma and Mahika Sharma.
The children chorus team won the third prize under the
direction of Pinky Mahanta. The participants were, Rowan
Das, Shreya Sarma, Mahika Sharma, Tanisha Debdas,
Vedika Sharma, and Aharon Sarma.
The final curtain on the convention came down with a
celebration party for the volunteers at the residence of
Debabrata Sarma and Juri Sarma on August 27, 2016.
The videos and photos of the convention was taken by
Sushant Sengupta. Sushant volunteered for this very
important assignment.

Minnesota Flavors at the Assam Convention 2016
Geeti Das
Our Assam Convention is something that lives and breathes
with us. As soon as we think about the Assam Conventions,
we all paint happy pictures in our minds about this
beautiful event that ties us all together with a spirit that
is beyond words and expressions. With that being said,
the Minnesotan Assamese sprinkled vibrant colors at the
Seattle Convention this summer.
Although we were only four families attending, we each
had unparalleled level of enthusiasm, and the two sets of
parents (Sarmah Uncle/Aunty and Hussain Uncle) visiting
us from India, made our participation even livelier and
complete. From the Bora family, 6 year old Taj sang ‘Bishwo
Bijoy Nojuwan’ that brought out the little patriot in him;
and 10 year old Nimisha rendered the melodious ‘Buku
Hom Hom Ko’re with her soulful and expressive voice that
got her compliments from many in the audience.
Two and half year old, Arshi was probably the youngest
performer at the Convention. The cutest dance duo from
Atharva and Arshi with their Red, White and Blue spirit
mixed with the Axomiya beats made everyone tap their
shoes to this graceful little dance. Our Zubeen fan, Aarhi
made the star in her appear on the bright Saturday Seattle
afternoon.
Pranab enthralled the audience with his melody from Jitu
Sonowal’s hits, and how we all wished his song would never
end. The Dance Trio made the whole auditorium shake when
Parvez appeared on the stage with his talented daughters
Neeshan and Sabreen, and performed the best hip hop
flavored dance. The Sarmah brothers’ dad, Harekrishna
Sarmah Uncle recited one of his beautiful poems, during
the Asom Sahitya Sabha General Body Meeting, and truly
impressed the audience with his creative flow of poetry.
This was followed by Nimisha leading our Jatiyo Xongeet
which nicely wrapped up the Sahitya Sabha meeting on
that refreshing Saturday morning.
Participation is for fun and that is all what matters. Well,
when it treats you with awards and trophies, joy knows no
bounds, especially when it is the little kids who earn it. Team
Minnesota Juniors came home with full of pride by winning
the 1st place in the Krishna Saharia Children’s Chorus
Competition. Teaching these kids the song with a deeper
meaning “Aami Ekekhon Naore Jatri” was itself a gift to
the teacher. The accomplished performers (from left) – Taj,
Nimisha, Sabreen, Aarhi and Atharva still cherishes their
sparkling moment on the stage while hugging the trophy,
certificates and prize money. One of the proud participant,
Nimisha, loved the whole Convention experience so
much that she penned down her memories in an article
titled “ Convention Blast from the eyes of a 10 year old”,
which is being published in the ‘Children’s Corner’ of this
newsletter. She tries to express the heart-warming joys of
every kid at the Convention. Another Minnesota teenager,
Sabriyah Taher, won the 2nd place in the 1st Annual AFNA
Essay Contest and made us all proud with her original and
constructive ideas on how the North American youth of
Assamese origin could contribute to Assam.
The Convention brought us many happy moments which
we will cherish always. But the most humbling moment
for Prantor and I was when AANA honored us with
the esteemed Dr. Kamna Das Community Service and

Mentoring Excellence Award for 2016. We felt extremely
privileged. Serving the community is the biggest joy, and
we hope to find the same bliss in continuing to serve our
greater family. The Minnesotan Assamese came back
home with smiles, and on behalf of our MN community, we
thank the Seattle Host Committee once again for letting
us capture and create these beautiful memories at the 37th
Assam Convention.
Video Links to the Convention events:
The Award Winning Song from Team Minnesota Jr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alrx5PoQpvg
Announcing the Winner of Children’s Chorus Competition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fz7hwM4Maw
AFNA Essay Contest Winners https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=awm0wKbT_bs&feature=youtu.be

News from the Washington DC Metro Region
Jharna Bezboruah
The Washington Metro Area members had the pleasure
to attend the High School Graduation party respectively
for Neer Raybaruah and Aneesha Goswami. Each is going
to our area’s well-known University – the University of
Maryland for the undergraduate program. It is a pleasure
to note that Neer was one of the winners of this year’s the
Late Labanya Borra Essay Competition for High School
Seniors of USA and Canada. AANA is entrusted with the
responsibility of organizing that Essay Competition, and
the next year’s Essay Competition will again be declared
open in the months ahead. Prize money remains a
Thousand Dollar each in two categories. It is time for the
potential entrants to get set for his or her entry!
As usual, there were guests from Assam, India visiting
respective sons and daughters, and our members had the
privilege of meeting them on various occasions.
Members from this region attending the last Assam
Convention (the 37th) in Seattle, had only praise for an
event well planned and managed. Members are waiting
for our next Assam Convention in Toronto; indications are
that there will be a substantial presence from this region.
With the Summer coming to an end and the Labor Day
being around the corner, our community members are
getting ready for the busy days ahead during the oncoming
School Year.

Summer Community News - Toronto, Canada
Deepali Sarma
Although Mother Nature is still gracing little more heat in
to the fall, it is hard to believe that the beautiful summer of
2016 has come to an end! But we had a great summer. The
ever expanding vibrant Assamese community of Toronto,
Asom Sangha Canada (ASCCA) held their annual picnic
on July 16th in the Mississauga Valley Park this year. Over
80 people, really young, young at heart, and new families
showed up and participated in various activities and games.
Everyone had a great time and the weather could not have
been any better that day!
Assamese community here has several great other news
to share with you today. First of all this summer Rohan
Talukdar (son of Mridushaym and Mayuri Talukdar) of
Windsor Ontario represented Canada in 2016 World Chess
Olympian in Slovakia; a news we all can be so proud!
We also welcomed a new baby ‘Aryan’, precious son of
Bahrul and Sabnam Choudhry.
We can all almost feel the excitement and the tensions of
the parents of the first time school goers: Aayshi Dutta,
Neev Hazarika, Vianna Thakuria, Candy Bordoloi, and Ansh
Das.
Other news without mentioning names, several new
families moved into their newly bought homes…just
imagine the parties we have to attend! Quite a few new
families moved to Toronto from many corners of the world
including Assam and parts of Canada; their names will be
updated in the spring-summer newsletter next year. One
of our closest family friends has moved to Detroit- Raju,
Neetu and Arush Deka. We miss them dearly; however,
wish them our best in their new venture. Last but not least,
Jitu Baruah and Suraj Gogoi recently moved to Arkansas
and New Jersey respectively. We miss them both here in
Toronto, their families are still deciding on their move…
hearty best wishes to both the families with their important
life decisions.
Protim Agarwala, son of Lakhimi Agarwala of Ottawa, got
married to Stacey Wong.
Stay tuned to much more exciting news from Canada in
coming months…

News Report from Canada West:
Region 1 Calgary
Malika Rahman
Annual Picnic
Calgary has a prairie-steppe type climate. This means it
usually enjoys sunny weather, even in winter, and most
of its little rainfall comes in summer. This year summer
is rainier and slightly cooler than normal. So most of us
wished singing “Rain-rain go away, come again another
day… we wants to enjoy our Picnic day”.
Calgary had a wonderful summer this time and Assamese
community of Alberta celebrated annual picnic on Saturday,
July 30th situated in Snowy Owl Site of North Glenmore
Park. Picnic was scheduled from 10.00am till evening with
lots of fun filled activities. Breakfast, lunch and Dinner
were prepared at picnic site. People enjoyed fresh cooking.
Snacks were completed with healthy appetizers, salads,
burgers, chips & dips, homemade cookies and many more
treats. Traditional Luchi bhaji was the most adorable food
are prepared with experts hands. The picnic came to an end
after dinner with special chicken recipe.
Visitor
Summer weather invites visitor from back home. This
summer we cherished the company of Ira Bora, originally
from Tezpur and now lives in Baroda, India. She is the
mother of Rimlee Dutta and Mother in law of Sanjeev
Dutta.
Walkathon
Making a few changes in our lifestyle can help us live longer.
Walking a mile makes you smile, an awareness program
was introduced under the banner of Assam Association of
Alberta. Walkathon was organized on August 20th, 2016
at south Glenmore Park 90 Ave and 24 St. SW. All the
participants had enjoyed walking in the gorgeous sunny
day and able to finish their desired goal (7kms). A healthy
barbeque lunch was prepared after the event. Side by side
kids also enjoyed their bike-a-thon.
Overall it was a successful and enjoyable summer for Assam
Association of Alberta.
Children sports day: The same morning Children’s sports
day event was organized and had a fun filled competition
among them. Few traditional, popular age appropriate
games were introduced to kids. Cricket was the most
desired game on picnic day. It was fun watching kids and
adults while playing outdoor games.

News from Houston
Pallabita Bhuyan
Hello everyone,
Did the summer went by fast for you? It did for the
Houstonians. It seems not so long ago that the summer
started and we had our AANA convention at Seattle. Soon
after the big event, a small Post-Convention Party was
held on July 26th at the residence of Pallabita and Debojit
Bhuyan. The evening started with the families sharing
their stories about their convention experience, meeting
old friends and making new ones. It followed by watching
“Dr. Bezboruah” movie, playing Bingo where everyone
had their share of laugh in luck. The evening was complete
with scrumptious potluck dinner: masor tenga, Amita khar,
rohor dile, misa masor torkari, labra, patha manxo to name
a few. Overall it was a memorable evening with lots of
laughter, songs, good food and great company.
On September 24th, Srimanta Shankardev Tithi/Janmotsav
was organized at the residence of Pallavi and Anupam Das.
The afternoon started with a traditional Nam proxongo by
the bhokot and namotees followed by Mah proxad bitoron.
After a short recess, the cultural program started with
Devina Sharma Pathak talking about the life and work of
Srimanta Sankardev, a flute played by Leia Das, a recitation
of Srimanta Sankardev’s first poem by Sugat Borthakur and
singing of several Borgeets by the adults. The Highlight of
the evening was the Quiz arranged by Dilip Deka where
children actively participated in learning the facts about
Srimanta Sankardev. The varieties of snacks to go with the
afternoon tea as well as the niramix dinner prepared by the
Houston ladies was simply irresistible.
Pictures
from Post-
Convention
celebration
and Srimonto
Sankardev
Tithi/

The picture I drew is an inspiration from my summer trip to Maui, Hawaii. It was an opportunity to travel with my close
friends and family. Maui is an exquisite island with pristine beaches, volcanic mountains,rain forests, tropical flowers and
pleasant weather. My friends and I had the most fun swimming and snorkeling in the ocean. Guess what, along with the
fishes there came humongous turtles swimming up to the shore. We were thrilled and did our best to take pictures and
touch them. The sight of these beautiful sea creatures kept coming to my mind. Till date, it is the most exciting vacation
I have had and we made memories for a lifetime.
Name: Devina Sharma Pathak.
Age -11. 6th grade, Beckendorff Junior High
Parents: Chandana and Joyotu Sharma

This past year, Benita Mahanta, daughter of Rabin and
Anuradha Mahanta from Sugar Land, TX, served with
the American India Foundation (AIF) William J. Clinton
Fellowship for Service in India. Founded amid the 2001
Gujarat earthquake by former Prime Minister of India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former President Bill Clinton, AIF
dedicates itself to catalyzing social and economic change
in India and building a lasting bridge between India and
the United States. With the goal to help shape the next
generation of leaders committed to impactful change
while strengthening civil society’s efficiency and efficacy,
the William J. Clinton Fellowship for Service in India pairs
young professionals annually with Indian NGOs and social
enterprises to accelerate impact and effective projects in
its program areas.
From September 2015-January 2016, Benita served on
the Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation team with
WASSAN, an NGO in Secunderabad, Telangana focused on
watershed management for drought-prone communities.
In light of regulations corporate social responsibility (CSR)
regulations in India, her major project comprised developing
case studies on conservation in India for WASSAN’s partner
India Foundation of Humanistic Development to utilize in
its Leaders for Nature program engaging companies in
incorporating natural capital into their core business.
From January-June 2016, Benita served with ONergy Solar
(ONergy), a social enterprise in Kolkata, West Bengal
providing solar energy to rural East and Northeast Indian
communities. As a Business Development team member,
Benita served as the point of contact for ONergy’s
technical partner Omnivoltaic and supported expansion
of partnerships with East India’s microfinance institutions.
Additionally, Benita created proposals and analyzed village
survey data for companies looking to incorporate solar
energy into their CSR initiatives. Benita also developed a
proposal promoting rooftop solar systems, researched new
financing options for ONergy, and submitted applications
for additional resources through clean energy start-up
competitions.
Submitted by : Benita Mahanta

News from Southern California
Rita Sarmah
Ankita and Varun are got married on 4th September. Ankita is the daughter of Gitika and Kaushal Bordoloi of
Chino Hills, California.
The marriage was solemnized in Anaheim, California.

Twin Cities Summer Buzz
Sabina Zeenat
We always look forward to the gorgeous Minnesota summer
months. From lakeside symphonies to the Minnesota State
fair, there is always something to look forward to during the
summer weekends. Added to this year’s summer fun was a
couple of events celebrated by the Assamese Minnesotans.
Sanjeev Bordoloi hosted the annual pool party on August
6th, 2016. It was a perfect summer day to splash in the pool.
The gracious host treated us with a grand lunch. This event
was combined with India’s Independence Day celebrations
as well.
We also organized and celebrated an annual picnic cum
sports day on August 20th, in a beautiful park in Eden
Prairie. As the day turned out a little wet, the enthusiastic
group substituted the outdoor sports with a variety
of indoor games including carrom board, kids indoor
badminton, board games and Zumba by the ladies group.
As the weather looked up, the group swung into cricket
action and played quite a competitive game. Breakfast and
lunch were sumptuous.
Let the spirit of summer continue!

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