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rabasi's web-site has a
short history of its own. Here are some selected destinations on our web-site
that were created for special occasions in the past.
Past Events, Activities, Literary Issues
How Prabasi was formed?
ne
fine afternoon at San Pablo Dam of May 1974, the Bengalis in the Bay Area
kicked around the idea of having a Bengali organization while having a
beautiful time at the picnic. Some senior members of the community, Ramen
Chakraborty and late Jnanen Tarafder, asked Satya Ray to organize a Bengali
organization as he did Tagore society in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tagore society was purely a leisurely conversation over a cup of tea which,
incidentally, is a great Bengali tradition. At that moment Prabasi was
conceived. 
The first meeting was called at the apartment of Lincoln Ave, Alameda where
about forty enthusiastic Bengalis met to nurture the conceived idea of
forming a Bengali Association. After long deliberations, an interim name
Tagore Society was given. This sounded like a national chain of
Bengali organizations started at many other places at that time. This was
a pure coincidence and resulted from our love, affection, and respect for
Rabindra Nath Tagore.
he final moment came when we gathered on July of 1974 to witness the birth
of baby Prabasi. As a member of a traditional society, we started
with a traditional structure which is very common in India. The first president
was Sri Ramen Chakraborty as a head of the organization, and Sri
Satya Ray was the first general secretary and the chief executive officer.
We used to conduct all our businesses through the elected area representatives
who would decide how many people would attend from an area, how much food
would have to be prepared by the delegated members and the like. 
We kicked off Prabasi's program with a celebration of independence day
on 15th August and a colorful children sports. A Bengali School was formed
by Mrs. Sumitra Ray, and Mrs. Sarbani Ghosal at El Cerrito
residence of Tushar Ray. The Bengali community was very small those
days, about seventy families or so, and it was like a big family where
everyone used to participate in Puja, cultural programs, cooking, etc.
according to their area of interest.
n
1978 under the presidency of Sri Mritunjoy Ghosh the structure of
the organization was amended to the present form where the president is
the chief executive officer who selects his team to execute the affairs
of the organization.
he
next significant move for Prabasi was in 1983 when she got herself registered
as a non-profit organization in California to give some tax incentive to
its members, and was registered as Bay Area Prabasi Incorporated. 
The state of California requires a permanent body to deal with the organization;
so the Board of Directors was formed in 1984 to handle liaison with the
government, auditing, and organizing unscheduled programs. The execution
of yearly scheduled programs are conducted by the president.
Past and present Chairman of the Board:
| '84-'87: Apurba Mukherjee | '91-'92: Ardendhu Raha | 1996: Ramen Chatterjee |
| 1988: Ranjit Chakravorty | '93-'94: Satya Ray | '97-'01: Shyamal Choudhury |
| '89-'90: Amal Sinha | 1995: Sakti Basu | 2001 - 2005: Surajit Sengupta |
| 2005-2006: Dr. Alok Chatterjee | 2007-: Pradip Banerjee |
