Since majority people of our community lived in Queens. Durga puja celebration moved from Manhattan to Queens.The problem was to find a hall. All schools has a auditoriam and halls,so very ideal for pujas. But the problem was they not supposed to use for any religious purpose,that was the state law. So we changed the name , we told them we want the hall to celebrate our 'Autum Festival'. School usually encourages diverse ethinic activity, so now they agreed to let us rent the place. But there was problem. They had a complain we don't clean the place properly after our use , they were not happy with our cleaning job. Our smelly food was a factor.So after few times they declined our request to rent the hall. And we moved to another school, we were concerned very soon we will run out of available schools.. So we promised ourself we will more careful this time, but we failed again in our cleanliness. Some people were very creative in finding a new hall each time we needed.
There was another problem. It is said , 'if there are two bengalis , there will be a club, if there four, there will be a another club.' As much as we loved to meet our own people in these social gatherings in the name of Durga puja etc. Soon we developed disliking among ourselves also. One year on the second day of Durga puja , someone told the school authority, what we are doing is not a 'Autum Festival', its a religious event. So in the middle of the puja we got a notice from school authority, immediately we have to leave the place, those days we were little fearful to fight with authority forcefully. And we moved to someone's garage to complete our puja rituals.
To find a place to practice our religious and social activities was a problem for all Indian/Asian communities. A group of gujratis came for our rescue, they saw the opartunity. Few of them together bought a abondoned pottato storage place, did some renovation to make a hall, and named it 'Gujrati Samaj building'. This solved our problem. This was a tremendous service to our community.
Since then for years this place became a permanent address for celebration of many events , by our Indian community.
There was another problem. It is said , 'if there are two bengalis , there will be a club, if there four, there will be a another club.' As much as we loved to meet our own people in these social gatherings in the name of Durga puja etc. Soon we developed disliking among ourselves also. One year on the second day of Durga puja , someone told the school authority, what we are doing is not a 'Autum Festival', its a religious event. So in the middle of the puja we got a notice from school authority, immediately we have to leave the place, those days we were little fearful to fight with authority forcefully. And we moved to someone's garage to complete our puja rituals.
To find a place to practice our religious and social activities was a problem for all Indian/Asian communities. A group of gujratis came for our rescue, they saw the opartunity. Few of them together bought a abondoned pottato storage place, did some renovation to make a hall, and named it 'Gujrati Samaj building'. This solved our problem. This was a tremendous service to our community.
Since then for years this place became a permanent address for celebration of many events , by our Indian community.
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