ANTA: Democratization, Digitization: Diwali, Chhath, Holi

Photo 1: Chhath In New York
Photo 2: Chhath In Texas
Photo 3: Chhath in Washington DC
Photo 4: Chhath in Denton, Texas

छठ के मामले में टेक्सस और DC दोनो NYC से आगे दिखाइ दिए। ANTA NYC Executive Committee इस बात पर विचार करें। Cc Arbind Singh. न्यु यर्क में सब से अच्छा जगह होगा Long Island City में UN Headquarters के सामने। NYC Parks से परमिट बगैरह क्या लेना होगा। UN Headquarters के सामने का तस्वीर जब दुनिया भर जाएगा तो मधेसीयोका आत्म विश्वास कितना बढेगा उसका अनुमान लगाइए। ANTA NYC Executive Committee (Cc Arbind Singh) BAJANA के साथ coordinate करें। एक बिहारी crowd मेरेको लगता है New Jersey में है, एक crowd Richmond Hill में होगा, Caribbean crowd, जो North America का नम्बर एक होली मनाती है। South Street Seaport में दिवाली, Long Island City में छठ, Richmond Hill में होली। अच्छा रहेगा।

https://www.facebook.com/paramendra/posts/10152819960394485
http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com/2014/10/chhath-in-america.html

Celebrating Chhath in Scarsdale a few weeks back was a wonderful experience. The crowd keeps getting larger by the year, and oh so many kids.

I almost did not go. Logistical issues. Transportation नहीं मिल रहा था। Last minute में मिल गया। नहीं तो मैं अर्बिन्दजीको कह रहा था, हम Eastern Time zone में हैं, विनोदजी Central Time zone में हैं।

I have shared some thoughts on ANTA's democratization and digitization before on the organization's Facebook page.

Two words (1) Democratization (2) Digitization

Democractization

• Eliminate the Founding Member provision in the ANTA constitution, otherwise it feels like ANTA belongs to the founding members, and when a new team gets elected for leadership, उनको ANTA १-२ सालके लिए बटैया पर दिया जाता है। That is hugely undemocratic and, frankly, offensive. Each new Ex Comm should be in full control.
• Online membership --- the ANTA website should be sufficient for acquiring membership.
• Holding actual elections, and holding them online. Election procedure को short circuit नहीं किया जाना चाहिए। Small group discussion के आधार पर leadership चयन करने से समुदाय आगे नहीं बढ़ता है। Online voting किजिए। 

Digitization

• This video is a good example of digitization. 
• Executive Committee के meetings के minutes को उसी तरह online रखा जाए, ANTA फेसबुक पेज पर। 
• दो सालमें ३०,००० डॉलर आम्दानी खर्चाका हिसाब दिखा रही है ANTA --- ये कोइ cottage industry संगठन नहीं रह गया अब। 

Also, some thoughts on events by the ANTA NYC Chapter that I shared a few weeks ago in a private Facebook email with about half a dozen people.

अरबिंदजिको बधाई है, लगता है ANTA के न्यु यॉर्क चैप्टर के नए नए अध्यक्ष बने हैं। ANTA को मैंने पैदा किया इस शहरमें। कभी सदस्यता नहीं लिया। कभी कोइ पदका ख्वाइश नहीं रहा। शुरूमे सदस्यता न लेनेका कारण था फुल टाइम हार्ड कोर पोलिटिकल काम कर रहा था। मेम्बरशिप से डिस्टर्ब होता उस काम में।

एक मधेसी संगठनकी जरुरत है। ANTA के events में बहुतो events में जानेवालों में से एक मै भी रहा। संगठन लोकतान्त्रिक ढंग से आगे बढ़ता रहे। नए नए नेतृत्व पैदा करते रहे। यही ख्वाइश है।

न्यु यार्क के स्थानीय बिनोदजीने ANTA सम्हाला तो साइज दोगुना कर दिया। वो योगदान रहा। ANTA का विधान लेकिन लोकतान्त्रिक नहीं है पुर्ण रूपसे। फौन्डिंग मेंबर वाला provision संगठनको रोबस्ट बनाने में आड़े आ जाती है। Feudal provision है वो। यानि कि ANTA हम founding members का है और तुम लोग बटइया में चलाओ एक दो साल, ऐसी arrangement है, और वो गलत है।

इस देशमें २०० पहाड़ी संगठन हो सकते हैं तो दो मधेसी संगठन क्युं नहीं हो सकते? इस बात पर भी विचार किया है, नहीं किया है ऐसी बात नहीं है। But I have given plenty of time since 2005 to the Nepali and the Madhesi cause. I am in mood to focus now on my ambitious tech startup like a laser beam.

रही न्यु यॉर्क की मधेसी कम्युनिटी की बात तो मेरी ख्वाइश है, (१) नए नए नेतृत्व पैदा होता रहे प्रत्येक एक दो साल (२) एक पिकनिक हो जाए summer में फ्लशिंग मीडोज कोरोना पार्क में (३) एक होली हो जाए ढाका क्लब में (४) स्कार्सडेल में छठ होना अच्छी बात है।

और क्या?

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

Chhath In America

Durga Pooja In Gorigama

English: Devotees of the Festival Chhath Parva in Janakpur, Nepal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(written for Vishwa Sandesh)

Durga Pooja In Gorigama
By Paramendra Bhagat (www.paramendra.com)

Gorigama is a neighboring village to my homevillage Gonarpura in Nepal. Gonarpura is not that far from Janakpur. What I most remember about Gorigama is the DurgaPooja there. Chhath was the top festival in the culture I grew up in. Jitiya dashe Dashain, Dashain solhe sukrati, Sukrati chhabe Chhaith. 10 days after the festival of Jitiya we start celebrating Dashain, 16 days after Dashain is over, we celebrate Diwali. Sukrati is another name for Diwali. Six days after Diwali is Chhath. So goes the saying.

In the culture of the hill Nepalis Dashain is the top festival, Chhath is not even celebrated, although Chhath is also a Hindu thing. But maybe it is a Mithila thing, because even Muslims in Bihar are known to celebrate Chhath. In my culture we don’t do tika in Dashain. That is a hill thing. But many Teraiwasis have learned to do the tika thing.

I would be home for vacation from the school I attended in Kathmandu. Most years my Dashain vacation, which incorporated Diwali (one year it didn’t), would end just a day before Chhath. That was the Panchayat era cultural insensitivity.

On the days of Durga Pooja late in the afternoon streams of people would walk from my village to Gorigama. The sight I most remember is all these people who would carry their flip-flops in their hands for most of the walk, and when they were almost there, they would go to the nearest pond, and wash their feet, and put on their flip-flops. They wore the flip-flops only on special occasions. Otherwise they walked around bare feet. It is called being a Third World country.

Local artisans created the most beautiful mud statues of Durga Mata. And then when the festival was over, half the village would go lay the statue down in some pond or river. Such was the custom.

The festival grounds, usually the public school, would have stalls of food and stages of entertainment. The local drama companies got to perform. This was Bollywood to most people in my homevillage for whom Bollywood was not yet a reality. To most people in my village at the time both Nepali and Hindi sounded like English: foreign. There were high school students who would sit themselves in the mango groves reading up cheap Ved Prakash Sharma novels who would would tell their parents they were “studying.”

The festival season would start after the flood and monsoon season ended. You cleaned up and decorated your homes for Diwali because the rains are gone until they are back next year. But after Chhath there was no major festival for months.

Before I moved to New York I was in Indiana. There I went to a local county festival once with my then wife and her family. I was the only non white person at the fair. The festival reminded me of the Durga Pooja festival in Gorigama.

Rumor had it the biggest Durga Pooja festival celebration happened in Calcutta. I have never been. And the biggest Chhath celebration was in Patna, along the banks of the Ganga river. I have been to Patna but not for Chhath. Some day.

In the mid 80s my father was a dealer for the Santosh radio that was manufactured in Calcutta, probably the first one in eastern Terai. My brother is named Santosh.

Gorigama was part of the same local village unit as my homevillage. There was Gorigama, and the adjacent Hari, and Hriduwa not far away. I had relatives in Hari. My grandfather’s sister lived there with her two sons, one of whom was a teacher. My grandfather had no expressed desire to become mukhiya. But then one day a committee in the neighboring village decided he was the appropriate person, and they came and lifted him up while he was sitting for dinner. I witnessed the scene. They took him away. When he came back, he was garlanded and had abeer – red powder – all over his face. He had just become Pradhan Panch. I guess he acquired a taste for it. Then they started holding elections, and he contested and won several times. He remained Pradhan Panch until the system got toppled, and there were still people urging him to run. He didn’t. A few years later one morning he headed out to the holy cities of India to spend the rest of his days as a sadhu, never to return. The family performed his cremation rites in absentia a few months back.

His father, my greatgrandfather, was a local rags to riches story. He started with very little, and his other branches of the family were proof, and went on to own more land than anyone else in the village. A key element of his success was the strong urge to save. My greatgrandmother knew how to save. She would get the last drop out of every mango, every time. My grandfather’s other sister was married to the Pradhan Panch of the neighboring Badiya. A granddaughter of hers, my cousin, recently moved to Minnesota from Nepal after getting married. Small world.

At the Durga Pooja festival in Gorigama I would often get to meet my relatives from Hari and Badiya, and also Banchauri nearby. My grandfather’s brother’s daughter was married in Banchauri. Her daughter’s son now lives in New Jersey. Hello Suneel.

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