Bihar Association of North America’s Annual Gala Night

HOUSTON: Bihar Association of North America (BANA) organized its Annual Gala Night on December 31st at Irene Stern Fulshear Community Center.  In a colorful program of the evening BANA members and their children presented a variety of dances, songs, music and games.  On the occasion BANA also released Biharika 2017 – the 15th edition of its biennial magazine for which the chief editor this year is Mr. Vijay Singh. 

The magazine acts as a souvenir for the activities BANA conducts during the year as well as giving an opportunity to members associated with BANA to write and publish relevant and interesting articles.  Continuing on to its established tradition of ‘Fostering Cultural and Academic Excellence’, the articles in the magazine greatly focus on the arts, culture, tradition and history of Bihar with key highlights being academic and cultural events organized by BANA. 

The Academic event is conducted every year in the month of August. It is open to all school going students from the Greater Houston Area.  Various contests including spelling bee, general math, science, arts, vocabulary, speech, SAT mock exam and debate for students are undertaken.  Approximately 150 students had registered for this event for each of the past two years. 

BANA has also been conducting cultural event every year with performances in the area of music, dance and plays.  Some of the plays well acclaimed by the community during past few years include ‘Loha Singh-Bandhan Tute Na’, ‘Aisi Thi Amrapali’, and ‘Bhule Bisrey Raste’.

BANA also proudly presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr. Ravi Kant Choudhary and Mrs. Mithuya Choudhary for their exceptional service in the area of culture, education and social development.  Mr. Choudhary is a past President of BANA and has been instrumental in promoting BANA’s cultural and academic festival in the Houston Area. 

The events during his tenure have been very well received and where level of participation reached new heights.  Through his efforts, BANA also reached out to other organizations of Caribbean origin but with Bihari roots to perform at BANA events.

Mr. Choudhary is also the founder of a charity organization ‘Triveni Care’.  The organization provides support for girl’s education. Triveni Care also distributes solar lamps and solar home light systems to various remote areas in Bihar to promote clean and environmentally friendly energy.

Mrs. Mithuya Choudhary has been a constant force behind several musical and dance performances over the past ten years.  Several children and adults have performed folk dances of Bihar and Bollywood specials choreographed by her.  She is a graduate (Visharad) in Hindustani Classical Music and a former Vocal artist of All India Radio Patna and Guwahati. 

Over the years, BANA members have enjoyed her excellence in music as evident by the numerous musical performance she has done and coordinated for the organization.

(Bihar Association of North America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization)