North Carolina Bengali Association

It is again the festive season of the year. NCBA invites you and your family/friends for Durga Puja celebration on Saturday, October 16, 1999, at 7:00 p.m. at Binkley Olin T. Mem. Baptist Church, 1712 Willow Drive, Chapel Hill. The schedule of the day is as follows:

10:00 a.m.	Puja starts
12:00 noon	Aarati
12:30 p.m.	Pushpaanjali
1:00 P.M.	Prasad and Lunch
5:00 p.m.	Snacks
5:30 p.m.	Cultural program
7:00 p.m.	Aarati and Bisarjan
7:30 p.m.	Dinner
8:30 p.m.	Sindur-khela

The dinner will be catered by India Garden. The lunch will be Khichuri cooked at the church premises, with other dishes cooked by individual members. The donation has been determined as follows:

Members:		Non members:
Family	$75.00	Family:	$90.00
Couple	$50.00	-	-
Student	$15.00 per person	-	-

Please donate generously. By the regulations of NCBA, the cost of this festival, as in all other years, needs to be completely borne by donations for the occasion, and cannot be subsidized by NCBA funds.

As in previous years, NCBA will sponsor one day in Navaratri celebration at the Hindu Temple in Morrisville. Please mark your calendar as Sunday, October 17, 1999. The puja will start at 11:00 a.m., followed by cultural program and lunch. The lunch will be cooked by NCBA members. You will receive a call from your regional representative about this request within next few weeks.

NCBA is pleased to announce the classical guitar performance by Maestro Barun Pal, accompanied by Pandit Samir Chatterjee, at the Nelson Hall, Raleigh, on Sept. 26, 1999, at 6:00 p.m. This program is sponsored jointly by the Hindu Society of North Carolina and the Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literature, North Carolina State University. For information, contact Sujoy Ghosh at sg45653@glaxowellcome.com . The tickets are available at the local Indian grocery stores and at the gate before the concert.

We have promised our membership at the beginning of the year an updated directory. Unfortunately, the information is still not available for about half of the community. If you have not renewed your membership for the year 1999 yet, we urge you to do so at this time. Our plan is to send you the directory after the Puja with the last newsletter of the year. If your address or telephone number or family status has changed, please keep NCBA updated so that this directory is as up to date as possible.

The Kathak Recital by Amita Dutta and Tagore Night tableau by kids were a huge success. Thanks to our cultural secretary, Anindita. Let us help her out by volunteering our talents for the cultural program at Durga Puja, either on Saturday or Sunday at the temple. If you or your children have performance talents you would want to share with the community, please contact Anindita at sen31@hotmail.com at your earliest convenience.

Our deepest condolences to Kailas Nandi and his family for recent demise of his father in India, and to Gautam and Madhumita Saha at the demise of his father.

The Department of Bengali (Vidyabhavana, Postgraduate Studies and Research Center) at Vishvabharati, Santiniketan, is celebrating it's silver jubilee reunion on January 16, 2000. All ex-and present students of the department are invited. The department also requests for any donation (as little as $5.00 will be appreciated) to be sent to: Somali Burgess, before October 23, 1999. For more information, please contact Somali. Contact an NCBA executive committee member for her phone number or address to send donations to.

The Hindu School scout group in Calcutta is celebrating their platinum jubilee, and wishes to contact their alumni group abroad requesting participation. If you are one of them, or know of anybody who is one, please convey the contact information to Indrani Nandy at nandy@bellsouth.net.

Please note that any member wanting to distribute any news to or solicit any donations from the Bengali community is encouraged to use the NCBA newsletter or propose the plan to NCBA Executive Committee for discussion and the plan of action. Please call the secretary for the next newsletter schedule or any of the presidents for the next Executive Committee meeting schedule.

Directions to Binkley Baptist Church

Special Durga Puja Announcement:
Due to the limited capacity of the Binkley church, we would like to hold this years puja celebration on October 16th to within the Bengali community. A puja celebration would be also held in the Hindu Temple on October 17th. This would be open to all.

1999 NCBA membership form