ওয়াশিংটন বাংলা রেডিও Washington Bangla Radio

LAHAINA, Hawaii, Sept. 1: Designs by Shirley Hawaii is offering distinctive, high quality "Once in a Lifetime" jewelry to commemorate 10-10-10, a date that truly happens only once in a lifetime. An original design created by Shirley Lecomte, each elegant pendant is finely handcrafted by skilled artisans on the island of Maui. Incorporating this special date, the piece makes an enduring celebration of a wedding, anniversary, birthday, or other special occasion. The jewelry is suitable for wear by men and women and is available in white or yellow gold and in sterling silver.

Washington Bangla Radio recommends this 1 Carat Princess-Cut Diamond Solitaire Ring in 14kt Yellow Gold - Facets of Fire

^{Tollywood's newcomer heroine Makabika Banerjee}

Jishu and newcomer Malobika Banerjee star in ‘Kakhono Biday Bolo Na’, a film which has all the essential elements like love, romance, action, suspense and even good music to keep us entertained. This is a film where Jishu will be playing the major lead role after a long time as a few of his past films did not exactly see him in the lead role.Jishu and Malobika promise to set the screen on fire with their performance and looks.

^Jishu

The film has been shot in Kolkata and in Malaysia which gives the film a new look altogether.

As you know by now, the 59th Miss Universe 2010, held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on August 23, 2010, was hosted by Bret Michaels and Natalie Morales.

The title of Miss Universe went to Miss Mexico Jimena Navarrete, passed on to her by the previous Miss Universe Stefanía Fernández from Venezuela.

The 1st Runner-up was Miss Jamaica - Yendi Phillipps, 2nd Runner-up Miss Australia - Jesinta Campbell, 3rd Runner-up Miss Ukraine - Anna Poslavska and 4th Runner-up Miss Philippines - Venus Raj.

The top 15 awardees include the five mentioned above, and

Miss Albania - Angela Martini
Miss Guatemala - Jessica Scheel
Miss Ireland - Rozanna Purcell
Miss Puerto Rico - Mariana Vicente
Miss South Africa - Nicole Flint
Miss Belgium - Cilou Annys
Miss Colombia - Natalia Navarro
Miss Czech Republic - Jitka Válková
Miss France - Malika Ménard
Miss Russia - Irina Antonenko

Watch the award ceremony of Miss Universe 2010 online when Jimena Navarrete is crowned Miss Universe 2010 by Miss Universe 2009 Stefanía Fernández.

This is one of the prominent Jazz Rock bands to have come to the city.

FOSSILS FORCE, the official fan club of the Bangla Rock band FOSSILS, is organizing a Blood Donation camp on 29th August 2010 in association with KPC Medical College & Hospital and Baishakhi Sangha Club. The camp will commence at 9:30 AM.

The camp will be at Baishakhi Sangha Club, 66A, Prince Baktiar Shah Road, Kolkata - 700 033 - located just opposite street of Navina Cinema, Prince Anwar Shah Road. The club is reachable by Metro Rail via Rabindra Sarovar Metro Station, then by cycle rickshaw to Baishakhi Sangha Club. (Fare Rs. 7/-).

All the members of the Kolkata Bangla band FOSSILS will be present at the camp and will also donate blood.

FOSSILS will also perform acoustic specially at the event.

Please call Anirban Ghoshal at 9830251500 or Abhinava Mukherjee 9830859644 for more information.

On the occasion of Holy Ramadan, for the first time in its history, Gallery Impressions is showcasing a 30 days Arabic Calligraphy Painting exhibition by renowned Artist Najib Tareque starting from August 19, 2010.

WASHINGTON KALI TEMPLE  ( www.kalitemple-washington.org)  - Celebrating 9th year of Service to the Community - are planning to continue their yearly tradition of holding a special early morning prayer session for Mahalaya. This year it will be observed on Saturday, October 9th, 2010 at the temple.

To plan for Mahalaya, they held a preparatory meeting at the temple on Friday August 13 th at 8:00 PM, and requested all who are interested in reading the verses or solo / group  presentation of devotional songs to contact with Amit Adhya at 443 535 0895 or send a response to kalitemplewashington@yahoo.com

This is a WBRi Washington Bangla Radio community service announcement. WBRi is not affiliated with the Washington Kali Temple.

NDTV Greenathon campaign ambassador this year is Priyanka Chopra who is urging people to do their bit to save the environment even if it is a tiny step.

The second edition of the NDTV-Toyota Greenathon has been a huge success and reaffirmed the organizers' commitment to the cause of solar powering villages across India through TERI's Lighting a Billion Lives initiative.

"This is a fantastic initiative. I'm a part of the young generation who questions almost everything. But we need to understand that it takes little things for something to become big," said Priyanka.

^{92.7 Big FM and Idea present - IDEA BIG BANGLA MUSIC AWARDS 2010: The biggest night for Bangla music}
The night of the ‘IDEA BIG BANGLA MUSIC AWARDS’ was the most awaited night. It took place at the Science City auditorium on Aug 13th, 2010.

Since Bengali music is considered to be very rich considering it has many forms like Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrulgeeti,Lokgeeti, Bengali rock, the music in the Bengali films therefore to recognize the this enormous heritage,92.7 Big FM and Idea Cellular came together to present the IDEA BIG BANGLA MUSIC AWARDS’.

The grand finale was a glorious musical journey down the ages. The evening was divided into 4 phases-SURER AKASHEY,SUR”ER EI JHORNA,ONYA GAAN”ER BHOREY and DHAK”ER TAALEY and witnessed some memorable performances from the likes of Usha Uthup,Rupankar, Emon,Anwesha,Antara Choudhury,Parama, Nil,Raghab, Monomoy and others.

Panchamukhee (www.pachamukhee.org)  are just 53 days away from their flagship event Panchamukhee Durga Utsav 2010.

The programme will trace the many faces of Tagore and his immense contribution to a nation, a society and an entire epoch. Music, dance, play-acting and readings will all come together to explore the man as a poet, a composer, a painter, an educationist, a social reformer, a green revolutionist a patriot and a humanist.

On 7th July, 2010 we got the opportunity to experience dancing of famous singer Swagatalaxmi Dasgupto with another legendary dancer, BBC award winner Anurekha Ghosh at Rabindrasadan, Kolkata.

Every year, in memory of her father; Classical Legend Late Shri Pabitro Dasgupto, Swagatalaxmi arranges the annual function of her institution Ashokrenu. Ashokrenu has completed its journey of one era as it is 12 years old now.

Anchored by elocutionist Alok Roy Ghatak, the program had three major parts; - Dance drama Chitrangada by Rabindranath Tagore, felicitation of another famous singer Lopamudra Mitro and solo program of Swagatalaxmi compromising songs of her own composition.

The sound was very good that day.

The conception of set and the lighting for Chitrangada was awesome specially presence of bow and arrow in front of a tree and a idol of a girl dressed partly as boy as and partly  as girl indicates the story of Chitrangada very clearly.

Rabindranath conceptualized story of Chitrangada from Mahabharata where Manipur princess Chitrangada, who always dressed as boy as per her father’s wish, met Pandav Arjun at the time of his 14 years of absconding at the time of hunting in forest. She felt in love with him so prayed to God of Love, Madan to become feminine and beautiful and she became with his blessings. Then she went to Arjun, who was in sainthood but felt in love with her but after listening to everybody felt his love for Chitrangada as she was before getting blessings from Madan. Then Chitrangada realized the actual essence of love and went to Madan to get her actual look. She got and came to Arjun who accepted her and they married.

The dance drama used voices of Ashokrenu disciples as well as Swagatalaxmi for songs and interpretation of Chitrangada even the performers on stage were none but students of Ashokrenu along with Swagatalaxmi and Anurekha, who is eventually taking her singing lessons from Swagata by the side of her dancing.

The singing part was very good but they might use male voice for male characters in stead of female voices. After her performance as mother in Chandalika, Swagata was more matured in her second attempt as dancer as Kurupa Chitrangada (Chitrangada in male dress) but her steps were slower than expectation as per the character demanded. The dancer as Arjun has to improve as lot. We thought sometimes that he was dancing forcibly!! Madan was good but excellent was Anurekha as Surupa Chitrangada ( feminine Chitrangada ). We really appreciated her dancing skills and she truly ruled the stage as long as she was present on stage.

The middle part was felicitation of Lopamudra Mitro by Swagatalaxmi on behalf of Ashokrenu. Every year Ashokrenu, in memory of Late Pabitro Dasgupto, felicitates one young legend for his or her contribution in cultural field. Lopa was very cordial through out her speech.

The last part was solo presentation of Swagata where she excelled with every presentation and showed her command to sing hymns (slokas) with proper pronunciation and music as well as lyricist and composer. We hope to listen more songs of her own lyric and music again and again.

Many eminent personalities including actor-cum-singer Arjun Chakraborty were present at auditorium that day.

A series of Spanish poetry recitations accompanied with musical performances will be held during the new edition of the unique Poetry in Concert program to be held from 27th to 30th July, 2010.

2010 marks the premiere of  "new house" in the Spanish Theater - which is an exciting happening for Poetry in Concert enthusiasts everywhere.

Teresa Sebastian, who has famously composed and performed her wonderful "Poesi­a en Concierto - Tagore" (Tagore Poem In Concert), will perform in, and is also the Artistic Coordinator of, the event.

Washington Bangla Radio is glad to present the entire original poem and an English translation of Teresa Sebastian's poem "Tagore" as well as a live recording of Teresa reading her own poem "Tagore" with musicians J.C. Blancas on electronics/keyboards, X.Paixarino on the flute and Niraj Kumar on the Tabla.

July 23, 2010 (Washington Bangla Radio) Friday Night Live (FNL) are very exited to present two amazing shows this week.

Friday 23rd July @ The Big Ben:
FNL with THE MAINAK NAG CHOWDHURY FOLK ENSEMBLE
9 PM - 12 AM

Monday 26th July @ The Big Ben:
MONDAY BLUES with THE CARLTON KITTO ENSEMBLE
8 - 10 PM

These are free entry/no cover charge shows at The Big Ben, Kenilwoth Hotel.

It was a overcast Sunday morning. It was not raining though. The Ichhapur Headquarter of the Shevashram was as usual busy—patients flocked into the low cost medical facility, guardians waited into the waiting hutments for their day-scholar wards undergoing Sunday classes, the inmates were busy with their daily chores, some were cleaning the yards, some washing their clothes and spreading them on a piece of green field to dry in the open air.

Sukharanjan and Shyamal, two representative from the Devipur village, who are spearheading the movement there, had already reached the Ichhapur Ashram from Devipur on 10th July and had initiated the discussions with the Ashram authorities. As per their reports, since the last workshop they have achieved the followings: