Bengalis in Hyderabad
Bengali culture is entwined with music, Drama, poetry, sports and cinema. So what has made them fall in love with the city of Hyderabad and, sometimes, turn their temporary abodes into homes? They find a bond between the Hyderabad tehzeeb and the Kolkata hospitality. Bengali community in its relentless effort to promote this tradition presents a social platform for the people of Hyderabad particularly of Kukatpally, Kondapur, Miyapur, Banjara Hills, Hitec City, Gachibowli, Lingampally, Ameerpet, Yusufguda etc. This is a social organization for both Bengalis and Non Bengalis where you can participate, enjoy and keep in touch with the traditions of Bengal.
Bengali community are scattered here and there all over the world for different purpose. In recent years, the myriad job opportunities that are up for grabs here have lured Bengalis into the city called Hyderabad. Besides IT, most Bengalis are associated with research, medicine and banking. Bengali craftsmen also dominate the city's gold business. Coupled with better job opportunities, the city is too good to resist.The Bengali community is not new to Hyderabad. Today, the Bengalis number about four lakh and have made the city their home. Most of them have not gone to Bengal for years, as they feel much more at home, here in Hyderabad than they do in Bengal.
Bengalis in Hyderabad is a group for promoting the value, ethics of Bengalis and Bengal in Hyderabad and beyond Hyderabad. There was a time when Bengalis lovedto confine themselves in their own domain .But now the circumstances has changed .Recently they are making their footsteps in each and every part of the world. That is why Hyderabad has no exception from this stand point. The city called Hyderabad can be compared with the city like London and New York. Because of its multiculturalism, multilingualism and modern way of livings. Apart from Hyderabad the Bengali communities are scattered across north east India ,NewDelhi,Assam,Jharkhand,bihar,maharastra,Karnataka,Andhra pardesh,Madhya Pradesh ,Uttar Pradesh and Orissa.
Those Bengali who are settled in Hyderabad, they have no room of their own to breathe in their own culture .So they want to keep up their way of way living, their food habits, and their festivals above all their culture. So it is very difficult to recognize each other as a Bengali .Thank God to the modern invention like social networking site like Facebook twitter, orkut and through website they make interaction with people of their own tongue and finally made a small community even within a city like Hyderabad.
May be traditional people can say that culture is dying by the effect of global village and modern invention .What do you think? I do not think so. Culture can never die. It is not earthly and ephemeral object .Culture is a consciousness of the mind of the people. In a sentence, culture remains fresh within the mind of the people in their activities, in their speaking, in behavior and even in their blood .It is true that Hyderabad is great liberal city to promote other culture.
Culture has its own root of tradition .We cannot ignore our root of tradition .It is already mixed up in our blood .Culture is like breeze which is always blowing in the air around us. Can we think without breathing? No, never! May be sometime we are not around our cultural scenario but it always remains in our consciousness.Similiar thing happens to Bengalis in Hyderabad .May be they are out of station, may be they are far from their own cultural atmosphere. But they never forgot their own culture and that is why they are making a bridge by conducting different cultural programs. Recently, they conducted three days Rabindra joynti program in Rabindra Bharati in Hyderabad. There is an interesting distinction among tradition and modernity. Modern people can ignore the importance of tradition and treat it as back dated and out dated thing. But the real thing is that both tradition and modernity goes hand in hand. Here my point is to believe both simultaneously without ignoring them.
Similar thing happens to Bengali culture .Bengali people are very much liberal to mix with the other culture (That does not mean that other people are not).But at the same time they carry their own culture in their heart and soul. Here in Hyderabad I have seen a Bengali community who are always trying to keep up their culture even outside their own domain. They are conducting time to time drama ,poetry recitation ,musical concert, different pujas like swaraswati puja,kali puja ,durga puja, friendly cricket and football matches ,quiz competition, Kolaz magazine publication and so on .They are doing all these to keep up their culture alive and to share culture with other culture as we are living in the age of Multiculturalism and Multilingualism. So there is no bias in it to share culture with other culture
