Asian / Desi Community January 2004 Events around the UK & the world

Vasant Panchami 2004 : Celebrated in Woburn, Mass
To bring the USA (Upasana, Sadhana, Araadhana) into the center-stage of their daily lives, was the resolve of about 500 devotees who flocked the Satsang Center of Woburn, to participate in a soul enthralling celebration of “Vasant Panchami” on January 31st, 2004. This is the central message from Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, who envisioned the awakening of divinity in Man and the descent of heavenly bliss on Earth. According to Him, the tripple endeavors of Upasana, Sadhana and Araadhana are the key to create a partnership with the Divine to facilitate the fulfillment of this two fold vision of Divinity in Man and Heaven on Earth. Vasant Panchami is celebrated as the “Avatarn Divas” of Devi Sarasvati, the divine mother of art, knowledge and learning. This also marks the arrival of spring season in Bharat. Vasant Panchami is celebrated to affirm the importance of knowledge and continuous learning with renewed vigor. Several devotees from NY,NJ, NH, CT and RI also joined this celebration in Massachusetts. The chilled but beautiful evening started with traditional chanting of Sriram Stuti and followed by “Pragya Geets” (inspirational bhajans) melodiously rendered by Surendra, Sangeeta and Kumkum. Devotees were captivated with their sweet voices. Master ParamVyom, age 12, enchanted the audience with his skillful accompaniment on tabla. The ceremony was centered around the “Deep Yagya”, which is a contemporary version of traditional Yagya, conceived and developed by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, for popularizing the philosophy of Yagya for the busy lifestyle of modern times.
“Deep Yagya” was performed with the lighting of 108 deepaks (lamps). All the devotees participated in the “Gayatri Mantra Aahutis”. “Mahamrityunjaya Mantra Aahutis” were also offered for the devotees, whose birthday’s and wedding anniversaries fall in the current calendar month. The entire celebration was interspersed with the elucidation of the philosophy behind all the rituals performed throughout the evening. Sanjay Saxena, rendered the commentary based on the philisophy of Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. Sangeeta conducted the Yagya/Pujan ceremony. In concluding part of Yagya i.e. “Dev-Dakshina Purnahuti”, all participants took vows to give up one bad habit and inculcate one good habit for the continued progress and refinement of of their lives. The program was a huge success with the active participation of Satsang Center volunteers. Dr Sanjeev & Archana Sharma offered the mahaprasad with great love that was cherished by one and all. Gayatri Parivar also celebrated the Vasant Panchami as “spiritual birthday” (Atma Bodha Divas) of its founder Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya. Acharyaji pioneered the revival of spirituality through creative integration of modern science and ancient Dharmic Traditions relevant for challenging circumstances of modern times. Acharya Sharma is a harmonious blend of a saint, yogi, philosopher, writer, eminent scholar and visionary. According to him, the “perversion of thought” is the root cause of crisis in individual, familiy, social and world affairs in contemporary times. The only way out of this desperate situation is “total thought revolution”, which he called as “Vichar Kranti”. “Gayatri Sadhana and Yagya” is one of the most effective techniques or methodologies for pulling the humanity out of this current crisis as a prime enabler of “Vichar Kranti”. Volunteers of Gayatri Parivar of Massachusetts, are actively providing services to facilitate and perform much sought after family ceremonies which are integral part of Hindu tradition. These ceremonies include all phases of life beginning from pre-natal ceremony known as “Punsavan”. Other important ceremonies are Naam-karan, Anna-prashan, Vidya-arambha, Sacred thread, Mantra Diksha, and wedding. To schedule an appointment for any Sanskaar or Puja at home, please contact Sangeeta at 781-863-8886. In addition, Vaastu Puja, Satyanarayan Katha and Gayatri Yagya are also performed.

Tiranga Concert Images, Royal Festival Hall, London UK

Photographs: Vipul Sangoi, Raindesign with thanks

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January 2004 Event Reviews

Kalighat - NY, US

December 2003 Event Reviews

Love Boat, London UK

Eid Soiree, London UK

Junoon - Hammersmith Palais, London UK 2003

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Theatre

The Indo-American Arts Council &the Baruch Performing Arts Center present - KALIGHAT
In the first scene of Paul Knox's exceptional new play Kalighat, we follow the play's protagonist, Peter, on his first day at one of Mother Teresa's homes for the dying poor in Calcutta, India. He is overwhelmed and so are we: by the sheer numbers of people crowded into the tiny space; by the cacophony of languages and cultures and religions; by the chaos; by the well-intended but utterly inadequate care being provided—"medicine" often means "Rolaids" for patients dying of TB or worse. Knox plunges us into a situation that is shocking and unfamiliar and opens our eyes to the enormity of the problems that he will outline in his play. It's a terrific jolt: a wakeup call for our consciences, and excellent theatre as well.
	That last thought is fundamental: as principled and socially responsible as Kalighat is, the best thing about it is how well-crafted a drama it is: if this is medicine, and in a way it is, it's mighty appetizing. That first scene—in the (eponymous) busy makeshift hospital among the poorest of the poor—is one of the best written and best directed sequences I've ever encountered in the theatre: taut and gripping and involving—the audience becomes not just aware but somehow complicit in the harrowing life-and-death struggles that characterize the daily grind at Kalighat.
Knox has written a complex play on a complex subject which I will nonetheless summarize in the single word "responsibility." Peter is a young actor from New York City whose lover recently died (presumably of AIDS); he has volunteered to work at Kalighat as a means of atonement and fulfillment. The diverse group of co-workers whom he meets here all have their own reasons that more or less amount to the same thing. Philip, from England, is looking for God and battling his obvious but deeply repressed homosexuality; Klaus, from Germany, is coping with a very particular form of national guilt; Sydney, from Canada, is struggling to hear and heed a calling that is becoming more and more pronounced. During the course of an eventful week at Kalighat, they and several other volunteers and a flock of nuns from Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity try to heal the sick and tend the hopeless
Why is doing good so difficult? Peter quickly discovers that it is: he fights with peevish Sister Alphonse when he gives the "wrong" blankets to the patients; and he later is more than chagrined to learn that patients referred by someone named Dr. Jack (presumably homosexual ones) aren't really wanted here. Kalighat is a place of almost miraculous human compassion, and indeed a miracle or two actually happens during the play, as when a seemingly terminal patient named Ali somehow sustains a full recovery even after his IV drip has been stupidly removed by a careless nun. And yet, Kalighat brims with bitter traditional prejudices and arbitrary dogma: the last words said over a just-deceased patient, spoken by the hospital's chief, Sister Mark, with the hard indifference that can only come from years of selflessness, are instructions to move the body to the Muslim or Hindu side. Knox unsparingly shows us the awful conundrums that these underfunded and undereducated angels of mercy face every day. He also explores the contrasting circumstances of the western volunteers who are in so many ways our guides into the alien world of his play. As in real life, the pressure-cooker, close-quarters existence of these characters is a catalyst for the stuff of melodrama, particularly in the case of Peter and Philip's explosive love/hate relationship. But Knox manages to keep everything on a believably human scale. With remarkable and deft economy, he sketches authentic connections among the volunteers, nuns, and patients that resonate honestly: a comradeship that blossoms into something deeper between Klaus and one of the young nuns; a fraternal bonding between Peter and a homosexual patient named Salim that eventually helps our troubled protagonist achieve a kind of redemption. Even sour Sister Alphonse is given an opportunity to explain herself: how, she says, can she ever be happy when she knows that she will never be as competent or as caring as her superior, Sister Mark? Kalighat reminds us powerfully of our humanity and all of the awesome obligations and duties that go with it; of our smallness—our insufficiency in the face of gargantuan obstacles—and of our greatness: for every act of human compassion finally means something: a start. Knox has directed his own script with astonishing grace: the play is long (2-3/4 hours) but our interest never flags. Mikiko Suzuki's unit set, depicting Kalighat itself and a few other locations, is spectacularly good, making clever use of the catwalks, doors, and other unique features of the Baruch Performing Arts Center space. The play's 23 actors are extraordinary. Many of them play nameless patients in Kalighat's men's ward, yet they give each man his own particular personality and spirit. Particularly memorable among the company are Naheed Khan as Margaret, a wily former patient who has stayed on to work at Kalighat; Anna Ewing Bull as Marina, the oldest and most centered of the Western volunteers; Rizwan Manji as Salim; Geeta Citygirl as Sister Alphonse; Susham Bedi as Sister Mark; and, firmly anchoring the play, G.R. Johnson as Peter. Kalighat is, for me, the most rewarding kind of theatre experience, offering genuinely compelling and engaging drama along with something deeper and more essential to take away long after the lights have gone up. It's being presented as part of Baruch Performing Arts Center's Mela: A South Asian Festival; it absolutely deserves a life beyond. nytheatre.com review - by Martin Denton · January 24, 2004