The event got a headstart with a variety of delicious snacks including ethnic delicacies of ghila pitha, puli pitha, til pitha and narikolor laru being served to the people present, a release received via e-mail said.

This was followed by sports activities for different age groups of small kids, the teens and the adults. It was a great sight to witness the koloh bhonga, spoon and grape sprint, and the musical chair. Mrinal Rajkhowa, Nandita Rajkhowa and Amlan Chakraborty aptly conducted the sport activities.

The cultural event was inaugurated by Mahendra Baruah of Salem, Oregon. The opening song of Sreemoyee Asomir…was nicely rendered by Arati Barua, Sujata Talukdar, Minakshi Barooah, Babli Senapati, Julie Das, Latha Nath, Sangita Gogoi, Punita Phukan, Suraj Gogoi, Dwipen Bhagawati, Amlan Chakraborty, and Kaushik Phukan accompanied on tabla by Satyajit Nath and on the keyboard by Mridul Gogoi. This was followed by little kids’ Bihu dance participated by Angsita, Pooja, Reda, and Neda, who looked cute in their mekhela chaddar.

Solo vocals were performed by Aditya Nath, Sujata Talukdar, Latha Nath, Satyajit Nath and Dwipen Bhagawati, who were accompanied on tabla by Suraj Gogoi. A duet was performed by Satyajit Nath and Amlan Chakraborty rendering one of Pratima Pandey’s songs. A humorous and intelligently executed skit from a current political scene in the White House was performed by Devaswa, Priyanka and Soumya. Satyajit Nath added variation to the programme with a quiz for the kids on the history and facts on Asom. A solo dance was performed by Devaswa.

Other dance items performed were a Bihu dance by the teens (Devaswa, Priyanka and Soumya), and a Jhumur dance (Devaswa, Priyanka, Soumya, Sanghamitra Borgohain, Mapi Bose, Babli Senapati, Punita Phukan, Sudipta Dutta). The Bihu dances of the kids, teens and the adult ladies in husori were all nicely choreographed by Sanghamitra Borgohain. The husori was led by Satyajit Nath and accompanied by dhulia Suraj Gogoi. Other participants in the husori were, Dwipen Bhagawati, Mridul Gogoi, Amlan Chakraborty and Kaushik Phukan, the nasonis were Devaswa, Priyanka, Soumya, Sanghamitra Borgohain, Mapi Bose and Punita Phukan. The cultural event was compered by Nandita Rajkowa and assisted by Mrinal Rajkhowa.

The cultural event was followed by a sumptuous dinner of many delicious items including khar, masor tenga, and bah gazor achar followed by a variety of desserts.

This year’s Bihu will always be remembered by everybody, especially the kids and the teens, as they could participate in traditional Bihu for the first time and they seemed to be engrossed in the beat of the dhol and the sound of the pepa.

(The Assam Tribune,20.05.2006)