Events, Special Days & Holidays
Our annual boita bandANa celebration was a great success!!
We would request all of you who have attended this function to please fill out our survey form.
This will help us get some feedback as to how to make our events even better next time.
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- TBA: Odia pathasala
News and Upcoming Events
November 2011
boita bandANa - November 12, 2011 – Please fill our survey form by following this link.
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June 2011
Ontario Volunteer Service Award June 15, 2011 – Salina Behera received her 2011 Ontario Volunteer Service Award nominated by the Orissa Society of Canada (OSC).
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April 2011
utkAla Divasa in Canada NewsFlash from odisha.com – Oriyas from around GTA came together to commemorate the foundation day of our state Orissa. Please click here to view the full newsflash.
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Oriya class schedule has changed to be held every other Sunday. Schedule for the next month coming soon!
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RESULTS FROM ODishA Divasa 2011 SURVEY IS HERE!!
We collected feedback on our ODishA Divasa function that was held on April 2nd, 2011 and the results are in!! Click here to view the results.________________________
Dec 2010
Boita BandANa 2010 Survey Results
Oriyas in GTA celebrated Boita BandANa 2010 on December 4th, 2010 @ Tagore Centre. For photos of the evening, please click here or go to the Photo Gallery.
Upcoming Events
boita bandANa (The boat festival) (Tagore Centre, 140 Milwick Drive, Toronto) - Saturday November 12, 2011
The Orissa Society of Canada (OSC) will celebrate Boita BandANa, its annual event of this year in the evening of Saturday, 12th of November, 2011. We're happy to invite you with your family and friends to the event at
Tagore Centre,
140 Millwick Drive,
Toronto
Driving Direction:
(Major cross-section: Steeles Ave and Islington Ave ,
Millwick Drive is one light south of Steeles Ave at Islington)
Persons taking 401 East and West have to exit on Islington Ave. Take Islington North; continue on Islington Ave North till you pass a couple of traffic lights after Finch. Millwick Drive will be to the right. After passing one traffic light on Millwick Drive, 140 Millwick Drive will be on the left.
Further details such as Program Features, Schedule, Registration etc. will be Provided in our periodic updates; pleased stay tuned.
Best regards,
Biswajit Mishra bmishra@sympatico.ca 905-677-5289
K C Dash kayceedash@yahoo.com 905-567-9812
Anup Sahoo Asahoo.uw@gmail.com 416-710-9606
Rita Mishra birendra@sympatico.ca 905-669-2455
Bibhu Mohanty bibhu.mohanty@utoronto.ca 416-233-6717
Biswa Patnaik biswa@writeme.com 647-406-8857
Past Events
Independence Day (Wildwood park, Malton, Mississauga) - Saturday August 20, 2011
Photos to be uploaded soon ...
Cottage picnic at Cadigan Camps, Peterborough - (Friday through Sunday) August 12-14, 2011
This year, we had a few new faces join us for the Cottage Picnic. Thanks everyone for all the amazing food. All the photos will be uploaded soon for viewing in our Photo Gallery. Please feel free to send any photos that you might have and want to share.
Raja Picnic (venue Lake Front Promenede Park, Mississauga) - Saturday June 18, 2011
Namskar! Thank you all who attended the Raja Picnic on June 18, 2011 at Lakefront Promenade Park, Mississauga. It was an excellent day out for all of us, who took part in a beautiful weather in a lovely surrounding by the lake amid wonderful people. The food was, as usual, good but what made the day was the Podo Pitha. Thank you Rita devi for the effort in bringing the pitha which undoubtedly was delicious; moreover, it helped us reconnect with our Odia traditions where podo pitha is one of the major symbols of the Raja festival. For those who missed it we look forward to having you in our company for our next event. I have uploaded some photos to our yahoo mail group and a link is provided below. Please feel free to upload your photos, if you have taken any of the event, to the mail group. http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/OSCnet/photos/album/252890497/pic/list Once again thank you all. Let us again meet at Wildwood Park, Malton, Mississauga on August 20, 2011 to celebrate the Indian Independence day like we have been doing for the past 5 years. The details of the program will be announced later. As always, we welcome your comments on the event. Feel free to fill out the survey form.
Photos from this event can be viewed by clicking here or by going to "Photos" page
utkAla Divasa - April 2011
The oDiAs in GTA celebrated utkAla Divasa on April 2nd, 2011 at Lancaster School, Malton. Click here to view the full press release of our celebration at the Odisha.com site or click here to view the PDF version.
Boita Bandana - December 2010
The Orissa Society of Canada (OSC), a society of the oDiAs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) celebrated the annual 2010 “boita bandANa” (boat festival) on December 4, 2010 in Toronto. Like previous year the celebration started with the masters of ceremony (Salina Behera and Pragyan Vaid) giving brief background on the importance of boita bandANa which was followed by the traditional boat floating formally commenced by Smt Sandhya Pathania, a life member of OSC and a leading oDiA in GTA. The boat floating was accompanied by a chorus led by Ramesh Baral with his team of singers. Though in Odisha the boat floating is done on rivers and ponds where people gather early in the morning on the Kartik Purnima day (the fool moon day in the Indian Calendar month of Kartik- this year it was on November 20, 2010) to float their miniature boats to commemorate the day when their forefathers used to set sail for their voyage to the far east countries like Java, Sumatra, Bali, the GTA oDiAs had to be satisfied with floating their miniature boats in a small tub within the confines of an auditorium on a cold winter evening. oDiAs were one of the foremost traders from the Indian subcontinent sailing out to foreign territories as early as 350BC. The evidence of the oDiSAn influence (then known as Kalinga) is still found in the Bali islands of Indonesia. No wonder, the festival is also known as “Bali Jatra”(the voyage to Bali) in Odisha. Biswajit Mishra, the chairperson of OSC welcomed the guests with his brief speech on the activities of OSC enumerating the festivals (boita bandANa, Odisha day, Indian Independence day, Cottage Picnic) and the oDiA language classes (oDiA pathaSALA) being organized by OSC. A very informative audio visual presentation on the history and culture of Odisha was presented by Krishna Dash. Various cultural activities were organized on this occasion of “boita bandANa” starting with a children’s play- “Then came Gandhijee” (gAndhijee thile boli) reminiscing the historic Champaran movement. A play called “biraLa chauki”(The Antique Chair) was staged by the adult members of OSC . The play, written and directed by Birendra Mishra and Kohinoor Banerji, was a satire depicting the challenges faced by the immigrant community in Canada. Marital art and self defence techniques presentation, light vocal oDiA and Hindi songs were rendered by different members of the community. The celebration ended with prize distribution by former OSC chairperson Bibhu Mohanty and vote of thanks offered by Biswa Patnaik. Chat, Samosas as an evening refreshment and a sumptuous oDiA dinner were served.
