2006 September 10

Annual Picnic 2006:

The 2006 Annual BADV Picnic was held in Delaware's Bellevue State Park.  Sunday, September 10th, was a fun day filled with sunshine in a light blue summer sky.  There was a barn in case of rain, but luckily it did not rain, all entertainment and activities were outside.  Bangladeshis got together to eat, converse and play.  We enjoyed the variety of tasty foods like barbecue chicken, hot dogs and burgers as well as the traditional Bangladeshi snacks muri-chanachur.  The children and adult ran races, women played the ever famous musical pillow toss, and men had to peel an egg and run.  It was humorous and light hearted. 

 

Whoever has a child was grateful for the moon bounce because it allowed the children to play while parents talked with their friends.  Also, kids loved face painting so it was great for the young girls of the community to help with that.  Another part of the picnic which we loved was that singers from our community just stepped into the barn, picked up the microphone and began singing beautiful Bangla songs.  A member of the community ran a Bangla bazaar selling beautiful jewelry, saris and fotuas.  It was an all-in-one type of picnic with food, shopping, music, outdoor activities and fun for everyone.  We hope to see you next year.  Lots of gratitude to BADV and all of the volunteers which helped make it successful. 

(Rummana Ali-Zaman)

 

 

2005 December 03

Annual Function / Inauguration:

The Annual Function was held on December 3, 2005 at the Burlington Township High School, NJ. The whole program was spectacular. The program was conducted beautifully by Dr. Zinnat Chowdhury (Annie). The program started with Tonima Quabili and Fariha Quabili’s Bangla songs.

 

Nishim Rahman caught the sight of the audience with her solo dance, choreographed by Debjani Bardhan. The dances performed by Nritya

Creation added color and dazzled the audiences. The young performers were superb. Director of this group is Meena Basu Nag. The vocal artists from New York- Farahnaz Rahman and Sabbir Rahman were truly outstanding. Last, but not the least was the musical program performed by FRENDZ Music Group. The talented artists of this group are Jayati Mukherjee, Asim Ghosh, Atish Mitra and Ranjan RayChoudhuri. Jayati and Asim’s voice accompanied with Atish and Ranjan’s instrument added life to the entire program.

 

Congratulations and thanks to all of the artists. Special thanks to Bidyut Niyogi for stage creation. Also, thanks to Mr. Salahuddin Ahmed for helping us with the sound as always. BADV would also like to thank Burlington County Township for the use of their facility.

 

2005 August 06

Annual Picnic / General Election:

Bangladesh Association of Delaware Valley held their Annual Picnic on August 6, 2005 at Washington Township Park, NJ.  It was a huge success.  The weather was just perfect.  The whole day was filled with fun.  The food was great as always.  We had barbequed chicken, chicken burger, nun, salad, muri, chanachur, chola, watermelon, sodas etc.  There were races, spoon races and Hari Bhanga race.

 

The General Election for the upcoming year was also held that day.  We elected a great team to lead us for the next year.  The election was held under the supervision of Professor Farouk Siddiqui.  The newly elected Executive Board comprised of the following people: President - Riza Quabili, Vice Presidents: Yasmin Chowdhury and Tushar Sarker, General Secretary: M. Nazrul Islam, Treasurer: Syed Obaidur Rahman, Cultural Secretary: Ismat Nawaz, Social Secretary: Rummana Ali-Zaman, Members: Khorshed Alam, Al Mahmood and Zubair I. Kamal.

 

2005 May 14

Youth Program / Cultural Program / Bangladesh Mela: 

The Youth Program/Cultural Program/ Bangladesh Mela were held on May 14, 2005 at the Burlington Township High School, Burlington, NJ.  It was a huge success.  The program started with a Mela.  There were many stalls – jewelry, clothing, CDs, DVDs, books, games, snacks, On the Spot Art Competition.  Snacks included chicken samosa, shingara, dalpuri, chomchom, roshogolla, various pithas, brownies, cookies, chotpoti etc.

 

The Youth Program was conducted by Ms. Tamima Ahmed.

• It started with a heated debate!!  The topic was “Girls Do More Chores Than Boys”. The three best speakers were awarded prizes. First - Aurnik Islam, Second - Saiful Islam and Third - Aunika Javed. Participation awards were also received by Nubaira Khan, Mayeesha Munir and Eafen Chowdhury.  The judges were – Dr. Kauser Jahan, Jyoti Dutta and Dr. Md. Ahsanullah.  The debate was moderated by Mr. Aminur Rahman.

Debate was followed by dances, a quiz program, and Fashion show.

• Dance program “dola re-dola” was choreographed by Debjani Bardhan.
• Quiz program was conducted by Devalina (Munia) Guharoy.  The moderator was Mr. Aminur Rahman.

• The Youth Program ended with a gorgeous Fashion Show.  It depicted a chronological evolution of clothes and styles of Bangladeshis. The fashion show was directed by Sahnila (Tisa) Enam and Najia Luqman (Lisa).

The entire Youth Program was innovative and the execution was excellent.  Great job kids!!

 

Another highlight of the evening was BADV Cultural Program.  It was conducted by Masuda Ahsanullah.  It started with soothing, melodic voice of Jafar Billah.  He entertained us with many songs.  He was accompanied in Tabla by Pabitra Pal.  Next was an excellent Sruti Natak `kaƒca  erad` by Pratibha Bose. It was performed by Swapan Sen and Anamitra Basu.  Then the Finale – “Basanta”- a collection of songs, dances and recitation on Basanta was presented. The program was based on   Rabindranath Thakur’s collection of songs.  The dances were choreographed by Munmun Saha and Debjani Bardhan. The Poetry Recitation was done beautifully by Dr. Zinnat (Anne) Chowdhury and Md. Iqbal Hussain.  Basanta was directed by Masuda Ahsanullah.

 

Our sincere thanks to all the participants for entertaining us with great performances!!!!!

 

2004 April 24

Baishakhi Mela:

BADV held Baishakhi Mela on Saturday April 24th at the Kresson Elementary School in Voorhees, New Jersey. The festivities began at 4 pm with the mela portion of the program. The attendees had the opportunity to socialize with friends, browse through the various clothing, music, and jewelry vendors and munch on the delicious Bengali snacks.

The cultural program began with a short musical program and poem recitations followed by Sukumar Roy’s play, "Gondho Bichar". The main highlight of the program was “Tradition of Saree” a collection of songs and dances reflecting the various types and styles of sarees.

 

All of our performances were done by the talented youngsters (approx 50 in number) of our community. Congratulations to all the participants for a job well done. We would like to express ours sincere thanks to all of the parents, children, volunteers, and vendors for their time and commitment. Due to unavoidable circumstances the musical program scheduled to be performed by Chitrita Chanda and Zafar Billah was cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

 

A special highlight of the evening was the receiving of a ‘proclamation and recognition’ from the New Jersey Governor James McGreevy. On behalf of the Governor Mr. Nasim Ali presented the proclamation. We would like to thank Governor McGreevy and Mr. Nasim Ali for this honorable proclamation and recognition. Overall the program was a huge success with the turnout at approximately five hundred, which included many people who came from outside of our Delaware Valley Bangladeshi community. This was a proud moment for our committee helping to develop our mission to spread goodwill among all.  Finally we would like to thank all of the attendees for joining us. We look forward to meeting with you again at the Annual Picnic on September 18th.