BoNY STORIES

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bengalisofnewyork

Platform to highlight the stories & accomplishments of the growing Bengali diaspora in New York and beyond

⏯ I travelled miles, for many a year, Spent rich

⏯ I travelled miles, for many a year,
Spent riches, in lands afar,
I’ve gone to see the mountains, the oceans I’ve been to view.
But I haven’t seen with these eyes
What two steps from my home lies
On a sheaf of paddy grain, a glistening drop of dew— Tagore’s Poem “Ekti Shishir Bindu” read by @totocompany.liveবহু দিন ধ’রে বহু ক্রোশ দূরে
বহু ব্যয় করি বহু দেশ ঘুরে
দেখিতে গিয়েছি পর্বতমালা,
দেখিতে গিয়েছি সিন্ধু।
দেখা হয় নাই চক্ষু মেলিয়া
ঘর হতে শুধু দুই পা ফেলিয়া
একটি ধানের শিষের উপরে
একটি শিশিরবিন্দু।#poem #poetry #tagore #immigrant #bengali #bangladesh

Last year, I had a difficult time with work. I was

Last year, I had a difficult time with work. I was stressed and unhappy. I would come home in tears almost every day and question my existence. This year has been special; with the lockdown and Ramadan, I began engaging in meaningful work that instilled in me a sense of pride. I saw online that my friend was looking for volunteers to raise money for the street children of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He tagged me in a Facebook post but I didn’t really think about it. Fundraising is hard work and to be honest, I stopped doing it a long time ago.
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However, when he called me and talked me through the cause, I couldn’t say no. I watched a video of an old man who was so poor, he couldn’t even buy a piece of fruit for his dying child. This struck me to my core. I watched a video of a Muslim Charity volunteer feed a young girl in Bangladesh because she was so hungry, and this broke me. I cried. It reminded me of the time I went with a charity to deliver aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey where a man came to us and said ‘when I was in Syria, I used to feed 10 families, now I have to beg to feed mine’.
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God has blessed me with so much and there are people who are starving and can’t even buy basic things that we take for granted every single day. Imagine being a father who cannot provide for their child. Imagine being a child without a parent to look after you. Imagine living on the streets and people abusing you. These children, these people that are suffering are our responsibility. God has given to us so that we can give to them. It is our duty to look after them and they have a right upon us and our wealth.
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I feel I have found my purpose again and I hope and pray, if you’re struggling with life, that you find your purpose too. -Subina Begum @subina.begum
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#charity #fundraisers #giving #ramadan #volunteer #refugee #happiness

WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH TO YOU?Technically it’s

WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH TO YOU?Technically it’s defined as our emotional, sociological and psychological well-being — but I kind of think that that’s too broad because if you ask “What is Physical Health?,” you would not say that it’s when you feel good and so does your body, that is so baseline. You would never say that.Good mental health is when you are able to see yourself. I think there is this natural human instinct of seeing yourself as alone in your situation — and good mental health is when you see yourselves as part of a web and knowing that and knowing that we’re not alone.I used to be a mechanical engineer/industrial designer and I am working on becoming a math teacher because education is my passion and it’s just something that’s really important to me. So I just want to continue to educate and empower people and it translated to the podcasts. -Tanushree @thedesicondition.Listen to our entire conversation on the BoNY Podcast. Available on all Podcast platforms and on BengalisofNewYork.com/bony-podcast. Subscribe and share. Amazon Alexa/Echo knows us! Just say, “Alexa, play BoNY Podcast” #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth #wellbeing #love

Women’s empowerment to me is just another evolut

Women’s empowerment to me is just another evolution or form of humanity. That’s the simplest way I would describe it. This is just another way to show that every human being matters no matter where they come from, what they look like, what their biological making is. There’s so many causes and to me, those are just evolutions of trying to make people understand that we are all human beings and we all deserve respect, care, love and everything. That’s what humanity is to me and an evolution of humanity is feminism; women empowerment
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I have a background in mental health, I studied Psychology for undergrad and Mental Health for grad school, and became a therapist right after. I focus on empowering each and every human being whether you’re a male or female. I loved understanding people since I was very young — & this is how it manifested into what my career is. - Zubaida Khan @zubaidax3 .Listen to our entire conversation on the BoNY Podcast. Available on all Podcast platforms and on BengalisofNewYork.com/bony-podcast. Subscribe and share. Amazon Alexa/Echo knows us! Just say, “Alexa, play BoNY Podcast” #podcast #female #feminism #empowerment #empower #mentalhealth #futureisfemale PC @askjiniforpics

⚠️ BoNY is a storytelling platform where we hi

⚠️ BoNY is a storytelling platform where we highlight stories of the Bengali diaspora. We share stories of our ancestors, our beautiful traditions, as well the struggles within our own community. We do our best to highlight personal voices, and create a collective awareness both within and outside of the Bengali community. Our IG DMs are often flooded with messages thanking us for telling the stories we share. We share experiences that can bring joy and awareness to our readers. We also reflect on how current events affect the Bengali community .In light of survivor stories being shared of certain prominent Bengali individuals in our community, we are opening our platform to talk about those issues and share your stories. How we process survivor stories is connected to the environments and cultural norms we grew up with — it is time to hand over the mic to the victims and educate ourselves on what we can do to break the cycle. Resources on the last slide (if you know any other resources, pls comment below 👇🏼). #metoo #metoomovement #speakup #speakyourtruth art by @lubnaart

To round out Pride Month, we’re bringing on orga

To round out Pride Month, we’re bringing on organizations and special guests that cater to the Queer & Desi community! Come join us for a live Zoom podcast recording this Friday at 12pm! .This is a special event, as it’s the 5th anniversary of the US legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide, as well as close to the 50th anniversary of the first Pride March. Guests: @svthi @queerbrownhistory @queerdesimag .RSVP in our BIO
#lgbptq #pride #pride2020 #love #pridemarch #prideanniversary #desi #bengali #queer

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