Orissa Society Of the Americas Orissa Society Of the Americas

310 Pages·2006·23.82 MB·English

Journal of the
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Our Children Our Future
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37th Annual Convention,
July 2006, Columbia, MD
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The Gracious walk of an Indian Village Woman
by Reena Patnaik

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The Orissa Society of the Americas

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2006 Souvenir Issue
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The 37thv Annual Convention, Columbia, Maryland
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About the Cover Page
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Our Children Our Futu0re
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Once upon a time
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I was a tiny toy on my moms’ hands
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The apple of her eyes
With her love 0and tears
I am what I am
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With time
I msoved away from home
Away from the festivals
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Away from the palm and mango groves
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i Here in the midst of fast cars
Fast food and msn
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High tech research and managed accounts
c My childhood still resonates within me
r I am still my mom’s tiny toy
Like all of us
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With an intense desire
To pass our culture and language
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To our kids
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The pupils of our eyes
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Through our children
The essence of our culture
And our convictions
Clash and coalesce with the cultures of the world
Our children get transformed
And they transform our vision
About
Us
Our culture
Our children
And
Our future.
Babru Samal
(photographs, courtsey of Babru Samal)
The cover page and the souvenir
layouts are designed by
Jayashree Samal
D E S I G N [email protected]
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OSA National Officers
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Executive Co0uncil
(2005-20007)
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P resident
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940-382-7305
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Vice-President
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Dhirendra Kar
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919-667-7487
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Secretary
A Bigyani Das
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301-498-3729
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Treasurer
Prakash C. Patro
913-681-8469

Joint Editors
Sikhanda Satapathy
512-248-8970
Tapas Sahoo
972-650-2060


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Orissa Society of the Americas
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The 37th Annual Convention, Columbia Maryland
OSA Souvenir, 2006
Editors:
Babru Samal
Jayashree Samal
Binod Nayak
Abhijit Ray

Message from the President, OSAp
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Dear Friends and Readers:
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On behalf of the Orissa Society of the Americas, it is m0y privilege and pleasure to welcome each one of
you to its 37th Annual Convention in Columbia, M2aryland. Given the enormous pool of experience and

talent in the North Atlantic belt, it is no coincidence that this region has played host to 16 previous OSA
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conventions, seven of which have been in the Maryland and DC area. So, you can rest assured that this
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year’s convention is in good hands.
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As many of you probably know, this year, we had a difficult time in finding a chapter to host the convention.
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The convention venue was declared not until mid-January of this year. We especially owe a debt of
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gratitude to Mr. Joyr Gopal Mohanty, Mr Nrusingha Mishra, Mrs. Bigyani Das, Mr. Naresh Das and the rest
of the conventioAn team, for not only coming to our rescue at the eleventh hour, but also for being able to
successfull y meet all the deliverables with less than six months to spare!
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We like to thank those other North American Oriya communities who sincerely considered our request
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to host the OSA Convention 2006 but had to decline because of various practical considerations. During
the search process, we did learn a few valuable lessons. We need to figure out and implement a formal
method to share the convention hosting responsibilities across chapters, or groups of chapters. We also
need to clearly define (or redefine) the shared roles between the hosting chapter(s) and OSA National
office bearers. Most importantly, whatever we do must be mandated by OSA members. The General
Body Meeting at this year’s OSA Convention should be a good point to start this process. If you are not
attending the convention, you can also participate in this process by forwarding your suggestions to
http://www.orissasociety.org/NEW/contactus.htm, or to your respective chapter representatives. It will
be easier for us to take firm steps in that direction, after hearing from you.

A community organization such as ours draws sustenance from its membership network. Presently, only
about 650 households are registered life-members, patrons or benefactors of OSA. The membership
roster of OSA has not kept pace with the demographic changes in the North American Oriya community,
especially during the last ten or fifteen years. It is our earnest appeal to all persons, connected to

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and interested in Orissa, to become life members of OSA. In addition to forging a bond with the
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largest network of Non-resident Oriyas and enabling it to become an effective organ for identifying
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and furthering our collective interest, OSA life-membership also provides the following tangible
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benefits:
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 A one-time tax deduction for the amount of the fee
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 A copy of our quarterly newsletter, Utkarsa 0
 An annual OSA souvenir 2
 Annually updated OSA directory
 Reduced registration fees for OSAs conventions
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 Participation in OSA elections
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We invite you to become life members by completing the membership form available at the
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registration desk. You may also download this form via our website, www.orissasociety.org and send
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it to the treasurer’s address along with check payable to OSA.
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On Decemb er 25th, 2005, the NRO Cell of Government of Orissa joined with the Non-Resident Oriya
FacilitaAtion Centre (NROFC) to celebrate the Second Prabasi Utkaliya Divas followed by a one-day
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symposium on Orissa Development. Orissa’s Chief Minister, Mr. Naveen Pattanaik inaugurated and
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addressed the symposium. Mr. Dhirendra Kar, OSA Vice-President also attended and spoke at the
symposium. On behalf of OSA, we are thankful to the NROFC and its organizers Mr. Sahadeva Sahoo
and Dr. Dhananda Mishra for doing initial spade work. However, it is only with your continued use
and support that this institution will become a major conduit for collaboration, on multiple fronts,
between NROs and key resources based in Orissa.

Many of you may be familiar with, and perhaps even have been involved in opposing the reversal
of Indian Central Government’s proposal to locate one of the three proposed sites for the Indian
Institute of Sciences in Bhubaneswar. Thanks to the unrelenting work by Mr. Chitta Baral, and several
others following him, the issue has generated wide media attention and engaged many pro-Orissa
intellectuals, administrators, legislators, powerbrokers, and activists from all walks of life. We are
still long ways before all this can impact the legislative process and executive order in favor of Orissa.
Please take the time to familiarize and update yourself with the issue through the blogsite: http://
iiser.blogspot.com. You will find numerous ways in which you could contribute to this movement.

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Please contact either Chitta Baral ([email protected]) or Dhirendra Kar ([email protected]) to
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follow up.
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I would like to conclude by thanking my associates and OSA office bearers, Mrs. Bigyani Das (Secretary),
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Mr. Dhirendra Kar (Vice-president), and Mr. Prakash Patro (Treasurer), and all OSA volunteers including
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the convention team members, chapter presidents, 0sub-committee coordinators, and all well wishers
for their continued support. I sincerely encourage2 everyone to get involved in OSA activities in whatever
way you can.
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Sincerely,
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Niranjan Tripathy
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President, OSA
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Secretary’s Report p
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Dear Friends
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Thank you all for believing in me to take charge as the Secretary of Orissa Society of the Americas (OSA).
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In the beginning I had planned to accomplish 3 major goa0ls for OSA. All of these goals needed member
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• Establishing a guideline for the printing and the distribution of OSA Annual SOuvenir
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• Creating handbooks for the workings of OSA officers and OSA
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• Improve OSA’s public relations
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During the first year of our term, we faced the obstacle as there were no takers for the annual conven-
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tion. OSA Nationalr consulted with its Board of Governoers and took a decision to host the convention
using a novel aApproach. Accordingly Maryland and Virginia group of Oriyas volunteered to take up the
task.
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The second obstacle was the 2005 souvenir printing and distribution. California convention organizing
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committee members did not have enough souvenir prints and the CDs that they created at a later date
did not reach many members. OSA National became involved and did its best to help in the process.
However, the problem was not solved to our expectations as it was not directly under our control.
With the above challenges, I was not able to achieve 100% of my above goals as the secretary of OSA.
Here are the status updates of the above goals.
Establishing a guideline for the printing and the distribution of OSA Annual
Souvenir:
We had faced this problem when California groups were not able to publish and distribute the annual
souvenir to the general membership. Everything involves money. Not only the California group but also
the Maryland group, 2006 annual convention organizers faced this problem of getting enough funding
for the souvenir printing and distribution. We have made several surveys and asked opinions of mem-
bers on this issue. I summarize them as follows:
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