Socialism among Bengalis, especially the middle class trying to connect with each other, working for the society by forming organizations, participating in Pujo Parban, no matter their geographical location runs deep.

If anything, Bengalis are known for their extraordinary Durga Puja celebrations. In Gurugram, the celebrations date back to 1982, however, Gurgaon Bengalee Association (GBA) was formed later in 1996 making it the first statutory body in Gurugram dedicated to the promotion of Bengali culture.

Many leaders of the All India International Bengali Association, and Bengali Association, Delhi, were first a part of the GBA.

Throughout the years, Bengalis have made Gurugram their home. Some stayed while some others left. But not one said goodbye without contributing towards the community.

Coming to Gurgaon in the early 80s has given me the opportunity to see the changes in Gurugram – the development of Bengalis, the grandeur of Durga Puja, the creation and prosperity of the Bengali Association, and it feels so good to have the opportunity to write about it.

Those who initiated the first Durga Puja were Dasgupta Da Nyogibi babu, Bhowmik da, Gupta da, Sinha Da, Chowdhury da and Ranjan Dutta. Later Goswami Da and Goswami Boudi joined. Mrs. Chanda played a very important role as a worker. Almost all of them came from West Bengal. All of them thought that those who came here to earn a living were not only busy with it but also trying to maintain their social life and culture here – through puja festivities and cultural rituals.

A.K. Bose, fondly known as Bhog Bose, was responsible for overseeing the “bhog”. Additionally, Mr. Das, referred to as Bhagwan Das, took on the challenge of crafting the Maa Durga idol during the initial years.

In 1986, a group of enthusiastic and like-minded Bengalis (Abhijit Banerjee, Shyamal Guha, Subodh Chowdhury, Mrinal Bakshi, Anup Banerjee, Udayan Banerjee, Shashank Karmakar, Jayant Banerjee, and Alak Das) joined this Durga Puja when GBA was still a concept in the making.

Ranjan Dutta, one of the entrepreneurs, was a skilled organizer – he lived in Sector 14. During the 1985 Durga Puja, Ranjan Dutta contacted Rama Chakraborty and included her in the cultural program of the puja. She has been singing in pujas for almost 20 consecutive years now.

Next came the younger group consisting of Debashish Banerjee, Narayan Ghosh, Asim Samanta, Arup Bhattacharya, Basanti Gupta, Sahana Banerjee, Aarti Guha, Durba Banerjee, and Suma Ghosh. The families of all these friends of ours continued to mesmerize our cultural program through various events throughout the year.

Ashok and Ratna Ghosh, along with Pranavesh and Polly Dutta came to Gurgaon sometime before 1990 and they immediately blended in with the rest of us.

The first President of the Bengali Association was Shri Shantanu Sinha. Since then, Durga Puja Committees were formed every year under the banner of GBA.

Gurgaon in the 90s was not as glamorous as it is today. The concentration of Bengalis was limited to Sectors 7, 4, 14, and MDIRIDPL. Apart from this, several Bengalis also lived in Char Marla.

Narayan Ghosh joined Pooja shortly after Ashok Ghosh (fondly called Ghosh da). Ghosh da came to Gurugram sometime before 1990 and remained associated with Puja for a long time.

Prasoon and Babli Dutta have made many original contributions. Prasoon being the President has experimented a lot, especially in the field of consumer distribution.

Debashish Banerjee gave many contributions in the field of drama.

Soon after, GBA members started brainstorming how to involve more Bengalis in the puja celebrations. This resulted in sending door to door Matadors in the morning and afternoon ensuring families can join in the joy.

Evenings were lit up with Debashish Banerjee’s plays, Shyamal and Aarti Guha, and Polly Dutta; Group dance performance by Suma Ghosh and team group on the song “Chandrima”, followed by performances from outsourced artists later in the night. All in all making GBA’s Durga Puja celebrations a massive hit.

Child artists then, are all grown up now – Papai, Liza, and Gargi continue to perform on and off stage throughout the year.

With the onset of 2000’s came new Puja committees increasing the overall number of Durga Puja celebrations in Gurgaon. The big-budget eye-popping Puja one witnesses today began much later.

Having said that, our puja tradition still lives on – many have had a chance to enjoy and participate in Debashish’s plays established by Arup Bhattacharya and recitation by Asim Samanta has only been captivating if nothing else.

This brings us to the journey of Tirtha Mitra who came to Gurgaon in the mid 90s. He played his guitar, and vocalists joined in. Gradually, he became an organizer. Today, Tirtha Mitra is an officer in the National Level Organization.

Led by Somnath, Manas Chakraborty, Dr. Tridib Chaira, Debashish (Bappa) Mitra, Anshuman Chakraborty, Sougata Dowari, Deepayan Ganguly, Bappaditya De Sarkar, Manik Das, S.K. Pal, Diwakar, Asim Sheel, Shantanu Daan, Chinmoy Chatterjee, Alok Sinha and our dear Raja Ghosh all contributed individually through their work, honesty, devotion, sincerity and practice.

As the years went by, GBA’s leadership has been impeccable. One after the other, all the leaders have embraced change and guided the association towards glory to say the least. Shantanu da was succeeded by Ashish Dasgupta.

Under his leadership, we continued to enjoy New Year parties, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Swaraswati Puja and fall picnics. We welcomed celebrity artists from Kolkata and Delhi and continued with programs almost every day.

Shreyasi Mitra became in charge of Maa’s puja and handled it dexterously. Piu Banerjee worked hard to manage the puja with Tapati Sarkar and writer Jayant Babu.

Recently, Polly Dutta and Asim Samanta founded our very own Bangla School under the GBA banner. They conduct classes every Sunday. It is amazing to note that students come from a variety of age groups and their commitment to learning Bangla is highly commendable.

Tirtha Mitra became the Association President within a decade followed by Tapasi who has been present everywhere as a competent partner. Thirtha focused mainly on cultural events.

Bithika Rao, Mishtu Sinha, Reshmi Chakraborty, Nivedita Chaira, Supriya and many other talented ladies have hosted and graced the glamorous and beautiful events over the years.

I believe Pompa deserves a special mention here. Well versed in design and fine arts, she has never failed to impress her audience on any occasion. Kar Boudi, Chandana, and Das Boudi have always stood by us with their support.

A worldwide catastrophe, COVID-19 caused everyone and everything to come to a halt but that didn’t stop GBA from coming together and welcoming Maa. If there was something that helped us get through this phase, it was our family, our community, our GBA. That year’s puja was organized adhering to COVID-19 protocol.

Before I finish writing, I would like to say that one of the founders of our association who have given their time and effort to this association over the years, conducting cultural programs, Niloy Hazra and his wife Babli, lost their very talented son Ayan Hazra.

Finally, on behalf of the entire GBA, I’d like to remember those without whose unstinting cooperation the Bengali Association could not have reached this stage – Smt. Aarti Guha, Mrs. Sahana Banerjee, Shri Narayan Ghosh, Shri Ashok Ghosh, Shri Anup Kar, Professor TK Das, and Dr. D. Sengupta.

Our youth committee which falls under the leadership of Debashish Mitra, Sandeep Dasgupta, Anirudh Ghosh,  Sutanu Dutta, Abhishek Gupta, Abhishek Banerjee and Somnath Bose is doing very well.

Finally, if Shri Shyamal Guha Mahashay didn’t give up his house for the association meetings, it would have been impossible to discuss, plan and execute the activities and events carried out by GBA. All of us have him to thank for the Gurgaon Bengali Association address.

Now that we have come to an end of this account, I’d like to apologize in case some names have been missed out. I have tried hard to remain objective and honest, if found otherwise, please feel free to share your feedback.

Sincerely,

Ahindra Chakrabarti