18-20 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow HA3 7ST | Email: kalibarilondon@gmail.com
40TH LKB AGM ON SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER 2025
HELD AT 1130 AM AT 18/20 BYRON ROAD
Trustees in attendance : Satya Chatterjee, Debabrata Dey, Shivaji Ghosh, Rama Choudhury, Pritha Sarkar
Life Members in attendance: Jayati Das, Lina Das, Dipti Chatterjee
Apologies received: Rubi Bhattacharyya, Krishna Ghosh, Kajal Ray, Milli Basu Roy, Debjani Sengupta
LKB Chair Dr Satya Chatterjee welcomed everyone and pointed out the fire exits.
1 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT – DR SATYA CHATTERJEE
Jai Ma Kali. Welcome to the 40th AGM of the London Kalibari.
I extend my sincere thanks for your continued support as a Life Member. Your commitment is deeply appreciated. We are looking forward for expanding our Kalibari and building our community so that we are there for the future generations to come.
I would make a humble request to you to please help us to introduce new Life Members through your friends relatives colleagues which would make our community stronger.
Once again my heartfelt thanks to our trustees Debabrata Dey, Pritha Sarkar, Rama Choudhury, Rubi Bhattacharyya, Shivaji Ghosh for their relentless dedication towards maintenance and continuation of programs at LKB.
In Bengali, we have a saying that ‘if you need money Gouri Sen will give it’. We have such a person, by the grace of Ma Kali, Mrs Tapati Sen who helps us always whenever we feel a bit of crisis.
Apart from the trustees there are many who come forward to help at LKB eg Lina Das, Sangeeta etc. I hope their names will be mentioned in the newsletter. I wouldn’t dare not to mention one person who is a staunch supporter and works behind the door nowadays who is our ex trustee Mrs Jayati Das.
As always the members of the HAC have been there to assist us and I thank them sincerely.
I regret to inform you that for the past few years I have been very ill and wish to step down from this term. At the same time I would suggest the name of Shivaji Ghosh to become the new Chair.
Charity Registration Number: 1158269
18-20 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow HA3 7ST | Email: kalibarilondon@gmail.com
2 APPROVE MINUTES OF 2024 AGM
Copy of 2024 AGM minutes was distributed to everyone via email with Notice of 2025 AGM and had been read by everyone present at Byron Road for today’s meeting. Minutes were accepted as true record. Approved/signed by DD and PS.
3 SECRETARY’S REPORT – MISS PRITHA SARKAR
It has been a year of highs and lows for LKB.
On the plus side one of our well-wishers kindly volunteered her time and design skills to create a new branding for LKB. This new logo can be seen on signs installed outside LKB’s headquarters at Byron Road and also our letterheads. In time our website will also be revamped to incorporate the new logo. We are extremely grateful for the time and effort given by this LKB supporter, who would like to remain anonymous, to create this new vision.
We also hosted two catered events at 18 Byron Road during 2025. The catered puja in April 2025, which also celebrated the Bengali New Year (Poila Baisak), was kindly sponsored by Mrs Kajal Ray. The event in August was sponsored by one of our most steadfast supporters, Mrs Tapati Sen.
Both events were attended by 40-50 people. We would like to thank both of them for their generosity as it would be extremely difficult to host such events for the community since we are a small charity with limited funds.
One of our trustees, Mrs Rubi Bhattacharyya also organised some free face yoga and art class sessions for the community. She kindly volunteered her time and expertise to host these classes and we hope more people will take advantage of these sessions in the future.
West London Durga Puja committee also used our LKB premises recently to host the five-day Durga Puja celebration. It was lovely to see such a joyful and vibrant festival being held at 18/20 Byron Road.
We hope to build on these in 2026 by hosting more community events.
We will stage our annual Kali Puja at Harrow Arts Centre later this month and we look forward to welcoming all our patrons and supporters on 20 October. We have reluctantly made the decision to switch to a vegetarian menu for this year’s event.
We would like to flag up that due to rising costs as well as the manpower needed to organise such events, hosting these are becoming more and more challenging since we do not have a large pool of regular volunteers or any corporate sponsors on board.
In 2024 the cost of staging the Kali Puja at Harrow Arts Centre was almost £6,000, covering catering, venue hire, transportation etc. Hence we would like to request people to come forward and help us in
Charity Registration Number: 1158269
18-20 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow HA3 7ST | Email: kalibarilondon@gmail.com
any way they can, either by volunteering their time or donating whatever they can to our charity. If we have more volunteers on board, it will help us to organise the events more efficiently.
Behind the scenes we have continued addressing issues related to our headquarters at 18/20 Byron Road.
The year started off with us having to deal with a rising damp issue that was damaging an entire wall along 20 Byron Road and some smaller areas inside 18 Byron Road. Completing the remedial work took over two months and was expensive but hopefully this issue will no longer cause us any more problems.
For over a year now, we have also been trying to get a first-floor parapet wall fixed as its poor condition has led to water leaking into the main cloak room and hence damaging the wall. This repair needs the approval of the two efirst floor leaseholders as it’s a communal area – and unfortunately one of the leaseholders has refused to approve the quotes submitted.
Addressing all of these issues have proved to be time consuming and has also caused a considerable dent to our finances.
Our treasurer, Debabrata Dey has had to handle a lot of time-consuming tasks during the year and the rest of the trustees are grateful for all the time and effort he puts in to keep the charity going.
LKB would also fail to function without the support provided by the remaining trustees Mrs Rama Choudhury, Mrs Rubi Bhattacharyya and Mr Shivaji Ghosh.
Although Mrs Jayati Das stepped down as LKB’s secretary two years ago, she has continued to work closely with us throughout the year, as has Miss Lina Das, and we would like to thank both of them for all their help and support.
Finally, we would like to thank our Chair Dr Satya Chatterjee for his many years of service to LKB. During his tenure as LKB trustee, he was our treasurer before being elected as our Chair at the start of 2022. We are sad to see him step down from our charity’s board of trustees but hope he will remain part of LKB’s wider community and continue to attend our events.
4 TREASURER’S REPORT – MR DEBABRATA DEY
During this FY 2025 the main source of income was standing orders & the donations from the members and well-wishers.
The biggest expenditure was refurbishment, damp proofing and annual Kali Puja in November 2024 followed by insurance charges, utility expenses along with other miscellaneous expenses.
Charity Registration Number: 1158269
18-20 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow HA3 7ST | Email: kalibarilondon@gmail.com
Our monthly standing order income stands at £269 per month which helps us to cover LKB’s day-to-day expenses.
Thanks to our life members Mrs Chandrima Majumdar and Mrs Tapati Sen for their generous support and all other members for helping us with the monthly standing order and ad-hock donations.
While we are slowly coming back on track, we still need more financial support in the coming days to operate LKB for our community and members.
LKB Accounts balance as on 31st March’25 is £42,407.25.
However, there are still repair work pending which could cost us another £7K approx.
The financial report for FY25 is being prepared and will be filed with HMRC / Charity Commission by our charted accountant N Saha & Co before 30 January 2026.
5 APPOINT AUDITORS AND ACCOUNTANTS FOR 2025-26.
Tanuka Saha once again provided pro bono service. The financial report for FY25 is being prepared and will be filed with HMRC / Charity Commission by our charted accountant N Saha & Co before 30th Jan 2025.
6 ELECT TRUSTEES FOR 2025-26.
According to the Charitable Incorporated Organisation’s constitution, one third of the trustees must retire at every AGM. They can be re-elected to serve a maximum of 3 terms of 3 years each.
The charity’s Chair, Dr Satya Chatterjee, and General Secretary, Miss Pritha Sarkar, are resigning at this AGM.
After serving as LKB’s chair since the beginning of 2022, Dr Chatterjee has reluctantly decided to stand down due to health reasons. As a result, a new Chair will be elected from existing trustees. Miss Sarkar is willing to stand for re-election.
Pritha Sarkar - proposed by Jayati Das, seconded by Dipti Chatterjee, re-elected unanimously with 8-0 votes
Jayati Das - proposed by Debabrata Dey, seconded by Pritha Sarkar, voted unanimously 8-0 Lina Das – proposed by Rubi Bhattacharyya (via messaging) and Jayati Das, seconded by Shivaji Ghosh, voted unanimously 8-0
Shivaji Ghosh as Chair – proposed by Satya Chatterjee, seconded by Rama Choudhury, voted unanimously 8-0
Charity Registration Number: 1158269
18-20 Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow HA3 7ST | Email: kalibarilondon@gmail.com
Another life member, who was not present at the meeting, was also put forward as a potential trustee by Rama Choudhury. Satya Chatterjee said that we need to keep an odd number of trustees for voting purposes. Hence it was agreed that for the 2025-2026 year, we will keep to seven trustees for voting purposes.
It was agreed that we need to maintain an odd number of trustees so that voting does not become deadlocked.
AOB
CHANGING CONSTITUTION WITH CIO
Satya Chatterjee said we need to approach all members so that it can be agreed that Debabrata Dey and Pritha Sarkar stay on beyond the agreed three-term tenure as trustees and make application to CIO to change constitution going forward. Jayati Das suggested that Rubi Bhattacharya should be given the task of looking into this as she is familiar with such scenarios due to her work with other charities.
HOLDING REGULAR EVENTS AT LKB
Debabrata Dey (DD) said he has had discussions with two individuals, who are each willing to stage a community event within LKB premises once a month. DD explained that whoever does this needs to make a commitment to do it regularly so that there is a regular routine. DD said we should do this 12 months a year so that we can advertise this on our website. He said if we managed to open LKB on a regular basis – people will be more willing to organize life events in LKB. We can tie up with a caterer like Shayona to provide catering for these events.
PARKING AT HARROW LEISURE CENTRE
Jayati Das said some visitors struggle to sign up for the three hours of free parking at Harrow Leisure Centre. Shivaji Ghosh will write instructions on how to park at Harrow Leisure Centre and this will be pinned to LKB noticeboard and shared on mailing list when invites to events are sent out.
Charity Registration Number: 1158269
NDON LIBARI Financial Statements 31st MARCH 2025
ND YEAR END 31 MAR 25 ND Page Balance Sheet Income & Expenditure Account Accountants, Report
2025 2024 FIXED ASSETS Utenslls, Card Machlne, Llnen, Vase & Image Kali Idol (From India) Freehold Bulldlng at 18120 Byron Road Reavluatlon re: Lease extenslon funds recelved Bullding Improvements ind. Damp prooflng works Kltchen, WC, Office Repairs Furnlture, flxtures and fittlngs 50 Chalrs 312.11 1,276.85 202,794.62 {23,900.00) 41,090.00 10,050.00 2,580.86 I,IOD.00 312.11 1,276.85 202,794.62 37,250.00 10,050.00 2,580.86 I,ioo.00 CURRENT ASSErs Metro Bank (Current Alc) Bank of Baroda (Current AIC) - closed 42,407.25 20,529.29 42,407.25 20,529.29 NET ASSETS 277 711.69 275 893.73 Represented By LONDON KAUBARI BUILDING FUND Balan Brought FoNard Net Income for the Year 275,893.73 1,817.96 270,247.95 5,645.78 277 711.69 275 893.73 Hon. Treasurer Page I
ND IN AN EXPENDrr INCOME Members, Donation ind. Stsnding orders Kali Puja Donations (Cash & Card) Service charges from Lessee Gift Aid claim from HMRC 7,070.00 2,260.74 375.00 1,967.11 Interest Recelved from: Bank of Baroda (Current) Metro Bank 30.00 11,702.85 Less: Expenses Harrow Council Parklng permit Utlllty Bllls (Gas, Electricity & Water) Website costs Professlonal fees - Surveyor Insurance Bank charges Repairs & maintenance Kall Puja Catering Expenses, flowers & sundrles Harrow Arts Centre - Hall Hlre Charltsble Donatlon 26.60 4.00 2,970.47 2,072.00 3,788.32 948.50 75.00 (9,884.89) NET INCOME FOR THE YEAR 1817.96 Page 2
EN In accordan wlth Instruttlons glven to us, we have prepared, wlthout carrying out an audit, the accounts of the above named for the year ended 31st March 2025 from the books, records, information and explanations supplied to us. N Saha & Co. Chartered Accountants 133 The Broadway London NW7 4RN Page 3