Durga Puja in Chicago USA

The Bengali in Chicago is a vibrant community comprising of people living in and around Chicago. If you are looking for a typical Bengali adda with its enthusiasm for organizing cultural events and discussing anything under the sun and obvioulsy not without a taste of its delicious cuisine, this is the place to be. We had a grand success organizing Durga Puja 2007 in downtown Chicago for the first time.
Time to gear up for Pujo 2008.

When?
4th and 5th October (Saturday and Sunday), the first weekend of the month.

Where?
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Student Center West
828 South Wolcott Street
Chicago, IL, 60612
This building is right next to where we had the puja last time.

What?
We will have a full day program on 4th Oct with puja, pushpanjali, prasad, lunch, cultural program and dinner. On 5th, we have a similar schedule with the cultural program being replaced by a movie and the day ending with an evening adda.

How can I be a part of this?
This is not a corporate style puja. It is not organized by people you never see. It is a puja organized by you. There is a lot of work to be done. We encourage you to attend the upcoming meetings or otherwise contact us to take an active role in the puja. You can use your talent to help us with the decoration, the cultural event or the literary magazine. And of course, you can spread the word about our puja and to state the obvious, be there during the puja. Everybody is welcome.

About Us

Nomoshkar !

As with everyone else, we too missed all things Bengali when we came here leaving our families and friends behind - the people, the food and the adda. Luckily, one of us - Prajna took the initiative to start a group in orkut - ''The Bengali in Chicago". Initially, we met few and far between; however, the 'Bengali' in each of us surfaced, albeit briefly, with gusto during those get-togethers. Students were primarily attracted in meeting up owing to the fact that there was no other Bengali presence in downtown Chicago. Later on, young professionals as well as 'Probashi Bangalis' residing here for quite a while enthusiastically strengthened our numbers.

Our first major initiative was the Saraswati Pujo 2007 - although this being a sudden decision we were overwhelmed by the response of not only Bengalis but all Indians; this event taught us to dream on. Presently, we have members of the academic community from UIC, IIT, UC and NW, professionals from all over Chicagoland and Bengali expatriates.

We generally try to meet every 2-3 weeks and the hight point of these are often food, music and adda sessions. Chicago, for all the fame it has regarding restaurants, lacks a restaurant serving authentic Bengali food.

Our first major endeavor was Durga Pujo 2007. We organized this great festival of ours on the 13th and 14th of October in the UIC Campus. We thank all those people visited or otherwise supported our effort and help make it a huge success. That success inspired us to continue the tradition. Now we organize the Durga Puja and the Saraswati puja every year as our major events. We also have occasional potlucks and picnics to cheer up the mood.

Sharodiyo Abhinandan o Shubhechcha !

Contact: Prajna Banerjee - prajna.banerjee [AT] gmail.com
Saugata Hazra - saugata_iitkgp [AT] yahoo.com

for further details visit: http://bengaliinchicago.byethost2.com/