Brief History of Utsav:

Information for this write up is gathered from the past eight years with the objective to help new and future members who are expected to take forward and improve the Utsav legacy.

"Utsav is a nonprofit, cultural organization involved in promoting Bengali culture in Sacramento valley. Utsav was founded in 2002, with one goal: creating a positive and enjoyable experience of friendship, happiness, and harmony via our Bengali heritage. Although Utsav is predominantly a Bengali organization so far, we want to reach other communities as well. Therefore, membership in Utsav is not limited to any particular race, religion or ethnic origin." 

The Journey

The Beginning:  It was a fine afternoon of Saraswasti Puja of 2002. A few new Bengali arrivals in Sacramento were standing in front of 1317 Montridge Ct., El Dorado Hills, CA, reminiscing over the Puja celebrations in their homeland in India.  The participants in that gathering - Deb Saha, Udayan Chanda (UC), Arun Chowdhury, Samrat Basu, Anirban Bhattacharya, Suvayu Bose, and Joy Mukherjee - all felt the need to host their own Durga Puja in Sacramento and the idea of an organization was thus born.  In an hour, they came up with the name, Utsav, first proposed by Suvayu Bose.  Later Mala Paul designed the Utsav logo.

Few weeks after that momentous gathering of minds, several Sacramento Bengali old timers were contacted with the help of Mita Chakraborty.  Everyone who we spoke to got excited to have our own Durga Puja and to have our own organization. Through this process of joyous interactions between the new arrivals and the old timers of Sacramento, Utsav found few strong pillars in the names of Adi and Mitra Choudri, Somen Nandi, Biswanath Mukherjee, and others, who had an immediate impact to make Utsav a grand success.

In July 2002, Utsav was officially formed. Adi Choudri, Deb Saha, Udayan Chanda, Arijit Chattopadhyay, and Joy Mukherjee – with smiles, happiness, and glitters in their eyes – signed the official paperwork.  We celebrated our first Durga Puja in October 2002. The participation of member families was outstanding and the joy was boundless. As days have passed, the Utsav tree has expanded and the bondage among families grew deeper.

The First Six Years: Days passed. The baton of responsibility transferred to other able hands from the hands of those who started the organization. But, the founders and senior members continued to remain very active in different roles. 

Utsav membership includes 80-90 families, from which eight members are elected every year to serve as officers for a year. In the first seven years, many of our members have served our organization with the leadership of our following Presidents:

Our Activities:

We organize three major annual events: (1) Durga Puja; (2) Saraswati Puja; (3) Clubhouse; and (4) Picnic + Annual General Meeting (AGM).  All our events enjoy strong participation from our children. Our next generation – for whom the exposure to Bengali culture is invaluable – is very active in our cultural programs, literary activities, and puja activities. It is gratifying to note that many of our young members, even after going to college, still come back for our Pujas and look forward to attending them. 

Our other activities include the following: