we have established our identity in the us led by prithviraj choudhury a faculty member of the wharton business school the band will also cut an album in the city in the new year percussionist kaushik chakraborty hails from midnapore and after completing his it engineering from bengal engineering and science university he went to the us for higher studies the refrain that runs through our songs is nostalgia and a pining for everything bengali said choudhury and you will be caught but you dont need a visa to visit the land of the bengali songs today he is a financial it consultant in boston but it is not enough to just play to the us galleries so apaar bangla is in town to perform to the city audience and wallow in christmas and new year revelry the band performed at allen park at the park streetcamac street crossing as part of the park street christmas celebrations on tuesday sending the crowd swaying to the tunes and tapping its feet to the beats they are successful professionals settled in the us who regularly take time off to write and sing bengali songs there tuesdays programme saw the band belting out seven of their own songs and the others were some popular bengali songs like prithibita naki chhoto hote hote and dariyae ailo toofan from mohiner ghoraguli choudhury the lead singer and composer of songs is a south point and an iit kharagpur alumnus but is currently settled in philadelphia what excited the audience most was the fact that the band was exotic in composition but khaanti bangali in spirit so you have a song buker opor kaanta taar epar theke opaar gelei jorimana shudhu bangla gaaner deshe jete visa laage na a boundary line divides us cross it the band also sung the popular baul song ridh majhare rakhbo chhere debo na bangladeshi arafat kazi is a drummer and is currently an advertising professional in the us while guitarist debadeep bhattacharya a chemistry honours graduate from jadavpur university who did his phd from the us is a scientist at a biochemic firm in boston to give vent to this creativity the group of six who pursue music as a hobby has created a bangla band much in the same spirit as we have bands here now it is time to make apaar bangla a platform for all artists professing bengali music and so we are bringing on board musicians like flutist subir roy and guitarist partha chakrabortywho has also accompanied sonu nigam and shankar mahadevan choudhury added the other members of the band are fawad reza who arranges the music for the songs and has his roots in dhaka and is currently settled in boston and runs a successful textile business the band apaar bangla performed in the digha beach festival before coming to the city an will perform through the new year in different public programmes no matter how busy i am i always take time out