At The Bengal dinner

Nov 7, 2013: From yesterday afternoon till past midnight I was busy with The Bengal meeting and the cocktail dinner at The Taj Bengal. It was a Eid, Bijoya and Diwali get together that was attended by The Bengal team and some special invitees. Mr Atri Bhattacharya, Secretary, Information & Cultural Affairs, Ms Rajashree Behera, Director, ICCR Kolkata, Lovey Burman and others. Rituparna Sengupta also came to the dinner around 11 pm.

At the dinner party Gargi Roy Choudhury sang a few Bengali songs. That she could sing so well surprised some of the guests. It was adda-cum-dinner with Arindam Sil chipping in with some wonderful recitations.

Earlier in the evening at a meeting, The Bengal team inducted Ms Nayantara Palchoudhury as the new board member in its meeting today. Ms Agnimitra Paul’s resignation was accepted by the board and three new committee members Mr Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, Ms Ekavalli Khanna and Ms Gargi Roy Chowdhury were inducted. The Bengal made the announcement to confer Sunil Gangopadhyay Memorial Award for literature, instituted by Shree Cement, on poets Nirendranath Chakraborty for the year 2012-13 and Sankha Ghosh for the year 2013-14 respectively. The Award constitutes a cash component of Rs 2 lac and a citation. The Bengal had instituted the Award last year in the memory of its ex-president Late Shri Sunil Gangopadhyay. The meeting was attended by Chairman, Mr H M Bangur, Ms Nabaneeta Dev Sen, President, Mr Jogen Chowdhury, Working President, Mr Sundeep Bhutoria, Secretary General, and team members Mr Bickram Ghosh, Ms Dona Ganguly, Ms Usha Uthup, Ms Anandi Ghose, Mr Arindam Sil and Mr K J Yusuf.

 
After The Bengal meeting, Usha Uthup, whose Birthday falls on Nov 8, cut a birthday cake and we all sang “Happy Birthday Usha di…” Another cake was cut by Rituparna Sengupta whose birthday was just an hour away. I shall be attending Rituparna’s birthday tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow is also Raima Sen’s birthday who is away in Goa. ess bee