Rongaali Bihu was celebrated by the Assamese Community of UAE on 13th April last at the Coconut UG premises of Karama Hotel, located in the heart of Dubai. The program was attended this year by about 150 persons from the Emirates of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ajman. The program was also attended by a few guests from Assam, who were visiting their relatives and friends in the Emirates. The cultural program of the evening started appropriately with the traditional ‘Husori’ led by local ‘Dhulia’s Dayananda Gogoi and Siba Borah. The damsels who participated in the ‘Husori’ were Dimple Bhagawati, Momy Duara and guest artiste Garima Saikia Garg (from Mumbai), while the male participants were Aswini Borkotoky, Dayananda Gogoi, Sumon Bordoloi, Dr. Utpal Kataky, Iswar Prasanna Das, Tandeep Bhagawati, Dipak Tumung and last but not the least, Siba Borah.
Aswini Borkotoky, a senior member of the Xamaj delivered a spirited welcome address to the ‘Bihu boliya raij’ and the stage was set for an entertaining evening on the day of the Bihu.|
The main attraction of the evening was performance by Zubeen Garg, the famous Assamese Singer-cummusic director and currently one of the top rank singers in the Hindi Film Industry. Partha Pratim Goswami, who has also been able to carve out a niche position for himself in the Film and TV industry in Mumbai, primarily as a music arranger, also enthralled the audience with his music. The guest artistes from Mumbai were honoured with mementos by Dr. Utpal Kataky and Dilip Borah, on behalf of Axam Xamaj.
The audience, to their pleasant surprise, did not have to wait for long for the star attraction, as Zuben appeared on stage in no time. Zubeen, in his typical melodious voice, enthralled the audience with his popular songs from both Hindi and Assamese films e.g. ‘Ya Ali’, Lal lal’, Mayabini, Nabau O, Maya to name a few.
Next performance by Dimple Bhagawati, with the traditional attire for the ‘Krishna Nritya’ was really a treat to watch. Sumanto Dutta of Abu Dhabi delighted the audience with his melodious rendering of songs of yesteryears in his guitar. He was accompanied Padma Neel Lahkar on the keyboard. Then was the turn of the children – Sivanto & Shirin, the brother-sister duo, also from Abu Dhabi, performing a ‘children’s song’ from ‘Masoom”.
Zubeen came on stage a second time with another bouquet of songs for the ‘mantramugdha’ audience.
The best part of the evening undoubtedly was the live Bihu Songs by Zubeen accompanied by Partha Goswami on the Dhol and Sumon Bordoloi on Taal. The rhythmic Bihu songs had the entire audience on their toes on the dance floor and at times spilling over to the stage, making the atmosphere completely ‘Bihugenic’ The gifts for the artistes were sponsored by the Axam Xamaj besides Ajmal Perfumes, Iswar Prasanna Das did an excellent job in stage decoration, supported by the team members. Compeering for the program was very well handled by the first timer Ipshita Kaushik, in her own imitable style. This was the ninth year in succession since 1999, when Bihu has been organized in UAE as a community function. The success of the Bihu celebrations in UAE over the years did also prompt the growing Assamese community of Oman to celebrate Bihu in a similar manner, which they did very successfully in presence of Zubeen.
Report by D K Borah, Dubai On behalf of Axam Xamaj, Dubai
www.assamdubai.org
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