The name Milonee was first proposed for our organization by Mrs. Hashi Chakraborty; in 1980, which is the year when Milonee was officially formed. However, the actual roots of Milonee can be traced back to two more decades, which makes it quite an old organization - older than most of the comparable organizations of many larger cities of the two coasts, as well as of the mid-west. One of our beloved friends, the late physician Dr. Pranab Mitra, and his wife, Manju (Mrs. Mitra still lives in Denver), first settled in Denver in the early 1960s. At that time, there were very few Bengali (or Indian) people around and it was with the need to maintain a cultural identity that Dr. Mitra unofficially started a Bengali organization in Denver with a few friends. The Mitras and a number of these pioneering Bengalis (including several newly arriving professors and graduate students to institutions like the University of Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines in the 1960s, such as Subhendu/Bishakha Datta and Nilendu/Mithu Mukherjee) continued to nurture this organization until it was finally formalized in 1980. This is the genesis of Milonee.
Over the years, there have been several attempts to formalize Milonee’s existence with the State of Colorado; the Federal Government, including the creation of a constitution for it. However, by and large, Milonee has remained a relatively informal organization to this day. It has a singular purpose, which is to allow local Bengalis and interested non-Bengali friends/ relatives to commiserate with each other, and continue three of the most uniquely Bengali socio-religious traditions each year: the Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja and Baisakhi. However, religious dogmas do not dominate these gatherings. They are, and have always been, attended by members of all major faiths; they are drawn primarily to the common cultural aspects of the occasions. Sometimes, we; also hold annual picnics in the summer; that occasion is to primarily satisfy a universal gastronomical urge—to share great food under the hot Colorado sun in the very beautiful Colorado outdoors.
In times of great crisis however, we do also step out of our normal lazy shadows and take on the serious responsibility of being a member of the greater community of people. After the Tsunami of Christmas 2004 struck a deathly blow to several Asian countries costing more than 250,000 lives, we immediately took a lead and an active role in responding to this crisis locally. First, we collected more than $1,200 from our own members. Then we collaborated with various other local Asian and Indian communities to organize a major Tsunami fund raising concert on January 30, 2005 to raise additional monies. Many of our members freely contributed their talents and energy to this cause very successfully.
Back to the more mundane - I had the privilege of starting a “community” news magazine in January 1994. It has been published more or less continuously since then; however, this year it is going through a major facelift - with the hopes of improving its overall quality significantly. Please let us know if you like it. A lot of hard work has gone into it.
In 1997, Milonee Samitee was formally registered as a “not-for-profit organization” with the State of Colorado (the same was done a few years earlier, but was allowed to lapse later). Under this structure, Milonee is formally governed by a Board of Directors consisting of at least three Directors—all of whom serve a minimum of three year term. For the years 2003—2005, this board consists of Rathin Basu, Amitabha Rakshit, and Manick Sorcar. Prasenjit Adhikari is the current President (2004-5). The President and a separate management committee (please follow a link provided to review their names and functions) are elected or appointed for a one year term every year during the annual Durga Puja celebrations. All positions in Milonee are voluntary in nature and are completely without pay. There are no term limits for any of the positions and from an operational perspective, it is the President, in consultation with the management committee, who serves as the organization’s day-to-day manager and decision maker.
We draw our membership primarily from the “front range” area of Colorado (from the city of Fort Collins in the north to the city of Pueblo in the south - a roughly 175 mile by 50 mile stretch of area along the Rocky Mountain’s eastern foothills. It includes the entire Denver Metropolitan area). However, in the past, we have had members coming from as far as Wyoming, Kansas; Nebraska. The mile high altitude of the Denver area (5,180 ft above the sea-level) makes Milonee one of the world’s “highest” Bengali cultural organizations.
There is one more thing that distinguishes Milonee from other comparable organizations. Milonee (perhaps with one single exception in its entire history) has always used “Pratima-s” (images of Goddesses for worshipping) prepared by its own members. Perhaps Milonee is fortunate in this regard because it has been able to count on talented artists like Manick Sorcar, Nripen Roy, and several others amongst its members/ex-members who have been prepared to donate their labors of love. These two members, along with Kishore Sinha, have provided the entirety of all Pratimas used at Milonee. It has only been once that a commercial Pratima had to be used.
The high technology revolution of the 1990s brought numerous Indian Software Professionals to the Untied States and Colorado received its fair share as well. Of these, enough were young Bengali professionals to be able to swell the ranks of our membership in an unprecedented manner! With so many new faces around, it appears that Milonee’s future is quite secure – at least for now. Our current membership directory now lists about 130 families and an additional 75 single persons. Counting children, this amounts to well over three hundred souls in this area – mostly Bengalis!
We were not always this fortunate, however. There were critical periods in the 1980s when Milonee’s existence was threatened more than once. When I arrived in Boulder, Colorado, in January 1982, Milonee was an active and thriving cultural organization. However, due to attrition of some talented and active members, it began to lose focus and was in danger of dissolution in the mid eighties. That is when it was our privilege, along with several other interested families (please see the partial list below) to become intimately involved and keep Milonee alive. With young children at home then, it became our priority to not only maintain our own traditions, but more importantly, to expose our second generation of Bengali-Americans (Indian, Bangladeshi, & others) to their rightful cultural heritage. To this day, it is this second theme that dominate many of our members’ interest in Milonee.
Every single day, more and more people are now taking keen interest in keeping the Milonee tradition alive. Our current committee is particularly active and energetic. It is, of course, not possible or necessary to name each and every one of our active members. Please follow appropriate links on this web site to find a list of current officers and board members. And for the sake of history, let me at least name a few others, especially those who during the critical period of the 1980s, have contributed countless hours of efforts, without which there would be no Milonee in existence today.
They include: Ajeyo/ Pompa Banerjee; Bijoy/ Runu Banerjee; Utpal/ Ria Banerjee; Sourabh/ Kavita Basak; Rathin/ Mira Basu; Raghu/ Soma Bhattacharya; Swapan/ Krishna Bose; Chandan (Apu)/ Piya Chatterjee; Partha/ Srila Chatterjee; Late Mr. and Mrs. Alpana Choudhuri, Shirin/ Shyam Chowdhuri, Subhendu/ Bisakha Datta; Satyen/ Sima Deb; Satyabrata/ Chitrita Dutta; Biswadip/ Dalia Ghosh; Manas/ Anuva Goswami; Abul Kalam; Arkendra/ Manju Mandal; Nalini/ Krishna Mitra; Hemanta/ Mita Mukherjee; Amitabha/ Kavita Rakshit, Timir/ Geeta Roychowdhury; Pankaj/ Banasri Sen, Manick/ Sikha Sorcar.
Plus, Sunit/ Subha Addy (now in Austin), Gagan/ Krishna Adhya (Washington DC), Bacchu Adhya (Washington D. C.), Kiran/ Mina Adhya (San Francisco), Sher Ali (??), Sourin Banerjee (Los Angeles), Jayanta Bhattacharya (Florida?), Joydeep/ Sarah Bhattacharya (Virginia), Samaresh Bhattacharya (Kolkata), Amar/ Hashi Chakraborty (Massachusetts), Sarbani/ Anup Chakravarti (??), Arkadev/ Sudeshna Chatterjea (Kolkata), Suman/ Sushmita Chatterjee (India), Abhijit Chatterjee (Florida), Pradip/ Keya Chatterjee (Dallas), Swapna/ Ajit Choudhuri (??), Pradip Choudhuri (??), Subrata/ Samita De (San Jose), Dipankar/ Sonali Ghosh (Indianapolis), Late Mr. Sadhan/ Manju Gupta (Dallas), Mangalya Kar (India), Arun/ Gargi Majumdar (Los Angeles), Nabonita/ Shiv Mitra (Ohio), Nilendu/ Mithu Mukherjee (Los Angeles), Sujit/ Nupur Pal (San Francisco), Ashok/ Chaitali Roy (Washington, DC), Nripen/ Hashi Roy (Minnesota), Shikha/ Anup Roy Choudhuri (??), Sujit/ Debjani Roy Chowdhury (Kansas), Madhuparni Sarkar (Ohio), Rajesh/ Vandana Saha (San Jose), Manoj/ Anindita Samanta (Los Angeles), Pradipta/ Susan Shome (Washington, D. C.), Subhas/ Ruma Sikdar (Cincinnati), Kishore Sinha (India). NOTE: If we have indicated (??) next to an ex-member’s name, it means that we are no longer sure where they are domiciled at this time.
In the recent years, Chaitali/ Prasenjit Adhikari, Anindya/ Sraboni Basu, Sudipto Bera, Raja/ Romi Bhattacharya, Bulbul/ Krishnendu Bhattacharya, Devojyoti/ Deblina Bhattacharya, Sohini/ Somnath Ghosh, Prithvi Bhadra, Sudipto/ Kakali Chakraborty, Debashish/ Sharbari Chakravarthy, Deepak/ Manda Chakravarti, Dipankar/ Sharmila Chakravarti,; Nirmalya/ Saroj Chatterjee, Amitendra Chaudhuri, Tanima/ Amar De, Apurba Dutta, Saswati/ Arindam Haldar, late Manjula Kar, Konad/ Debjani Krori, Promoda/ Swasti Mahapatra, Sharmishta/ Rajib Maitra, Ashis/ Sreerupa Maity, Joydeep/ Anuradha Mukherjee, Gopa Mukherjee, Arabindo/ Ruchira Ray Barman, Amitava/ Purba Ray, Subhadip Saha, Arjun Sen, Nilanjana/ Manajit Sengupta, Deepak/ Suhita Sinha, Sumit/ Surupa Sur, have all helped Milonee in a significant way for it to continue. Special recognition must also be given to Subhas/ Sutapa Ray who initiated and originally designed, maintained, and continuously upgraded this web site for several years which very effectively connected us to many of our friends and families, as well as with ex-Milonee members worldwide. Today, the web site is healthy and in good hands; and, as reported by our web master, people everywhere from S. Africa to N. Dakota are happily cooking Bengali food using Sutapa’s recipe found in our web site.
We only expect better things to happen to our community in the future.
If you find any broken links or have any feedback for us, please send an email to miloneedenver@gmail.comMembership and Benefits
The annual membership fee for 2008 is only $10 per person or $15 per family. Family includes husband, wife and dependent children. The members will enjoy many benefits (including discount on subscription rates) throughout the year in almost all the events. Note: Full time international students on F1 visa and their dependents do not have to pay our membership rates. They will continue to avail of our 'Student Only' rates in most of our event.
To register with Milonee click on Register with Milonee.
You may send your check to Mr Aniruddha Pal / Mr Ranadeep Bhattacharya. To obtain the address, please send us an email.
If already a member, you an access the Milonee member directory. You will receive information regarding accessing member directory at the next Milonee event, or you can send an email to us.
| The puja will be performed on 4th and 5th October, 2008 followed by Anjali, Prasad, delicious food and wonderful cultural programs. Talented Rabindra Sangeet singer Smt. Sudeshna Basu will perform on 4th Oct and famous singer Sri Manomay Bhattacharya on 5th Oct. |
for more details visit: http://milonee.net/index.html
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