During the early years of LMBCS, children were very much in the mind of the members as they talked about turning their personal social relationships into a slightly more formal association. Each one of them was determined that their cultural roots should keep providing nourishment to the next generation even as they wanted their children to grow up as perfectly adjusted Canadians. On their part the adults too wished to keep hold of the social customs and cultural idioms of our original homeland. That was why a prized initiative of the Society was the Bengali language school, helped out for some years (in the 80’s) by a modest grant, just for school material, from the Secretary of State’s Heritage Preservation program, now, alas, discontinued. The school was a weekend affair housed at the Vishva Hindu Parishad temple in Burnaby, with just about half-a-dozen small children and members such as Purnima Gupta, Maya Bannerjee, Tirthankar Bose and Archana Datta as teachers who kept the school going for years with immense enthusiasm and, in Archana’s case, with Macdonald’s goodies after school. That is the legacy that is thriving today under several volunteer’s selfless care.

Content courtesy:  Dr. Tirthankar Bose