Cincinnati Cultural Initiative

Dear friends

We prepared for this day for quite some time, rearranged our work schedules, made numerous trips to the stores, made a number of phone calls and wrote countless lines of e-mail messages and finally the day came upon us; the weekend of October 8-10, 2010 when we virtually camped together at the Archbishop McNicholas High School in Anderson celebrating Cincinnati Durga Utsav 2010. And you all came. You participated with us in every activity, appreciated our efforts, offered your puja, enjoyed the cultural programs and helped us all the way in many chores. Your pleasure was our reward. We may not have individually responded to the numerous heartfelt thank-you mails that poured in our mail boxes, but yes, we read every one of them, and feel overwhelmed and elated at your level of enthusiasm, your spirit and sense of community. We are sure this is a beginning of a long journey of association, between Cincinnati Cultural Initiative and you and we will see you again and again among us. Thank you for your participation. To our volunteers and members, you did it again. All your efforts, your meetings, your planning did it. We had glitches, sure, but it did not dent the spirit of celebration because your efforts were there for everyone to see. Our guests enjoyed and so did we. We enjoyed planning for the event, all the long rehearsals, preparations, meetings and finally the work that comes with hosting such an event. We enjoyed through our work, because others enjoyed the fruit of our work. Isn’t that the spirit we are after?
As we bid farewell to this year’s Durga Puja, a few lasting memories will linger on. Our beautiful Durga Pratima, that will be uncovered yet again next year, the beautiful puja surface that will come alive with more grandeur next year, the young ones of Lakshmaner Shaktishel taken aback on the stage as power went out, and their non-challant resumption, the delicate and gorgeous presence of the cast of Shyama with their brilliant costumes, yet the sudden viciousness of the execution scene, the sword fight of Maharaj Shalwa and Debabrata Visma and Shikandee aiming her arrow to all the deceiving hearts of the world. And the dances, oh, the dances. Alokparna’s mesmerizing and graceful poses, all the little angels of the Dance Festival who made it a raison d’etre for the Indian community to join us on this auspicious occasion, and the final destruction of Mahishasur by Ma Durga in the vigorous Durga Bandana dance, will be etched in our memory for a long time. On Sunday, the relaxing and exquisite music performance by our members may be what rejuvenated all of us, when we had time to catch a breath on Sunday afternoon after the delicious 'Maach- Bhath" lunch. Can a Bengali want for more? This may be the niche program on Sunday that we were looking for. And who can forget the MC of the Sunday music program; the harassed looking gentleman of the previous evening trying to win, what seemed at times, a losing battle with the sound and the light system, totally transformed and relaxed as the MC, offering his thesis about the language proficiency of Vyasdev?
So friends, it is time for farewell from your Conveners of the year, as we conclude our Durga Puja of 2010. To keep your memory alive here is a link to some photographs that the numerous cameras captured during the weekend. Lakhsmi puja is next week (October 23rd 4:30 pm onwards at Snyder House, 5847 Irwin-Simpson Road, Mason, OH 45040 ) and we hope to see you all there and throughout the year in many other events of CCI.

Subho Bijoya to you all.

Pradyot K. Sen
Sugata Chakravarti