Eastern Beats completes a decade of music, art & sport

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Eastern Beats, a pioneering non-profit cultural, sporting and youth organization of Northeast India, celebrated its 10th anniversary at a city hotel recently.

Eminent writer and former bureaucrat, DhrubaHazarika inaugurated the 10th anniversary celebrations by cutting the cake in the presence of a galaxy of eminent cultural personalities and prominent professionals.

In his welcome address, Hazarika appreciated the efforts of the organization to pursue their dreams and objectives with which they had started off 11 years back.

Noted lawyer IndraneelChowdhury, who is a former president of the Eastern Beats, recounted the early day struggles of the organization when the young members of the organization had lots of ideas but very little money or government support to believe in them. "The fact that we have traversed 10 long years and with the full backing of almost all departments of the Government of India, Government of Assam, numerous PSUs, international conglomerates, speaks about the hard work and tenacity of the members," Chowdhury said.

The other dignitaries who congratulated Eastern Beats included ICCR (Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India) Regional Director MadhurKankana Roy, NRL DGM (CC) MadhuchandaAdhikari, NERAMAC MD ErManoj Kumar Das, animal activist and JBL Founder SasankaDeka, among others.

A musical session followed the get-together in which eminent singer Gourav Mama Saikia, BikashSubba, RishavBhuyan (bassist of ZubeenGarg), David Baker – all members and patrons of Eastern Beats – performed much to the delight of the present audience. Eastern Beats founder AiyushmanDutta said, "10 years is a huge milestone for any organization. Over the years, we have initiated several pioneering initiatives in the cultural landscape of Northeast India and Asia as a whole, in lines with the Indian Government's Act East policy. But now we have also changed our name so as we want to work in other areas of interest, like agriculture, food processing, entrepreneurship, etc."

Earlier known as the Eastern Beats Music Society, Eastern Beats was conceived way back in 2009 as a group of musicians, writers, artistes, journalists, theatre workers, sportsmen and working professionals from various disciplines brought together by the love for music, sports, social welfare & development, and the Arts. Formed with the basic objective of using the latent and healing power of music and sports to heal lives in strife-torn areas and bring in development and progress to rural, underdeveloped areas and in the lives of the marginalized, the society has been promoting new sporting and cultural talents as well as working for the overall social welfare of all groups of people.

The Eastern Beats Music Society is the conceptualizer and chief organizer of the landmark Guwahati International Music Festival, which is one of the longest running homegrown festivals and is a landmark event in the independent music industry of India and was supported by a host of departments of Government of India and the State governments, besides witnessing participating by leading international conglomerates like Suzuki Music International (India), Thomas Music Corporation (USA), Musicians Institute (USA), Vh1, Rolling Stone, Furtados Music Chain, Earth Sync (Chennai). More than 20,000 musicians from different parts of the world, including as many as 14 different countries participated in the festival. The Society runs a school for music in Jugashree Nagar, Kahilipara and a football training unit called Rainbow Elemental Football Coaching Centre. Last year, the Society undertook a massive pan-Asia music project 'Rhythms & Aromas of Northeast India' in association with NEC, Government of India, which covered more than 10,000 folk and contemporary musicians and chefs from Northeast India and as many as 14 Asian countries.

Also Read: 8th North East Festival to be held in Guwahati from 19 to 20 December

Also Watch: Kokrajhar police recovered illegal arms and ammunitions ahead of BTC polls