The Federation of Bangladeshi Associations in North America (FOBANA)’s annual conference is the largest social and cultural conference of the Bangladeshis diaspora communities in North America. FOBANA is an umbrella organization of associations of Bangladeshi diaspora communities in the USA and Canada. Since its inception in 1987, it has been organizing annual three-day events bringing together Bangladeshi Americans and Canadians, as well as Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, students, scientists, doctors, engineers, intellectuals, and high-ranking representatives from North America and Bangladesh. FOBANA has been working to introduce Bangladeshi culture to the next generation who are growing up in the United States and Canada.
The 37th FOBANA conference was held at the Irving Convention Center in the heart of Dallas from Friday 1 September, 2023 to Sunday 3 September, 2023. It was hosted by the Bangladesh Association of North Texas (BANT), the main Bangladeshi diaspora organization in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area. At the beginning of the programme, BANT artists performed the national anthems of Bangladesh, the USA and Canada. Irving City Mayor Rick Stoffer officially opened the 37th FOBANA Convention. It was followed by the address of Hasmat Mobin, President of BANT and Convener of the 37th Fobana Conference. Fobana Chairman Ehsan Chowdhury Hero gave the welcome speech. Among others, the Pro Vice Chancellor of Chittagong University, Benu Roy, spoke. He said, “We are all speaking in Bengali in this convention in a developed country like the United States”. Sabur Khan, the founder of Daffodil International University, spoke as a special guest. He said, “Fobana can play a role in creating entrepreneurs with Daffodil if it wants”.
Thousands of visitors from across the United States and Canada attended the conference. The organizers of the 37th FOBANA confirmed that representatives of about 64 organizations from North America participated in the conference. The entrance to the event was decorated with banners, green and red, the colours of Bangladesh national flag. The green is quintessential Bengal – a lush land with trees growing in abundance, the field yielding crops and the harvest enough to sustain life. The red represents our struggle to achieve such a blissful setting.
The event included cultural programmes, seminars on business, literature, youth and women and live entertainment throughout the event with artists and luminaries from Bangladesh and across the world. This year’s event featured new components, including an exhibition of books, documents and pictures on our glorious liberation war as collected and managed by a freedom fighter Mahbubur Rahman Jalal as well as a book fair, a literary seminar with a literary wall paper.
One of the highlights of the cultural programme was the musical night of Mitali Mukherjee who has carved a special place in the hearts of the music lovers with her timeless songs and ghazals. Famous artists from Bangladesh – Kanak Chapa, Kona, Shafin Ahmed, Rizia Parveen also performed in the cultural programme. The audience was enthralled for two hours by a sparkling, dramatic performance by young singer Muza. It was a very special performance by Nirjher Chowdhury who sang Rabindra sangeet with his melodious voice.
The event had stalls of colourful bahari sarees, jewellery and various types of clothing. There was also a good arrangement of different kinds of food, specially pithas like bhapa pitha, dudh chitoi, patishapta, dudher shondesh etc.
BUETAA – BUET Alumni Association of DFW had a get together at this event. It was a chance to pay tributes and respects to Dr. F.R Khan, a BUET Alumni and one of the greatest structural engineers. Dr. Khan (3 April 1929 – 27 March 1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrapers. Considered the “father of tubular designs” for high-rises, Khan was also a pioneer in computer-aided design (CAD). He was the designer of the Sears Tower, since renamed Willis Tower, the tallest building in the world from 1973 until 1998, and the 100-story John Hancock Center. Dr. Khan’s sister Dr. Seema Khan and Niece Saba Khan were also present at the BUET Alumni programme. Both of them spoke about the memories of Dr. F.R Khan.
The 37th FOBANA event broke the records of the last 36 years in the history of FOBANA conferences in the United States. It drew a record number of people, about five thousand, in its 3-day event. During these three days the Irving Convention Center became a little Bangladesh with Bengali songs, dances, Bengali foods and of course the very famous Bengali adda. For three days people overcame personal differences, selfish agendas, and petty grievances, they became one – the Bangladeshi people celebrating their rich culture.
Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore said: “Every day man is small and alone; on the day of festival man is great, on that day he is great together with all the people, on that day he feels the power of all humanity!”
Chowdhury Salahuddin Mahmood
Chowdhury Salahuddin Mahmood hails from Chittagong. He has a B.Sc Engineering (Electrical) degree from the Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET) and a M.Sc Engineering (Electrical) degree from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Since January 1998, he has been working for the telecom company Nokia as a Senior Test Engineer. He is actively involved with the Bangladeshi diaspora community in Texas. He was Vice President of the Bangladesh Association of North Texas (BANT, 2004-2007). Since 2006, he has been active with the `Distressed Children & Infants International (DCI), an organization helping the underprivileged children of Bangladesh. Since 2008, he has been active with the Bangladesh Origin New Generation Organization (BONGO), an organization working to help the High school graduates of the Bangladeshi diaspora. In 2007, he started publishing Bangla literary magazine ` অগ্রবীজ’, as one of its founder-editors. This magazine is still in publication. In 2008, founded the BUET Alumni Association (BUETTA) of Dallas-Fort Worth as one of its founders. During 2010-2019, he Acted as the President of the Dallas Bangla Theater (DBT), the premier Bangla drama group in the USA. He writes on topics of literature, culture, and history, and so far published 3 books in Bangla: `বিচিন্তা বিভাবনা’, ‘সময়সাগরতীরে জীবনানন্দ’, ‘বিচিন্তা বিবিধ’.
