The program opened with a welcome by Vice President Praveena Naduthota. Following the rendition of the national anthems by Aashna Parikh and Janani Sharma the cultural segment of the program commenced. 

The musical part of the show had two acts - Wedding songs by Learnquest Academy of Music and Bolly Folk Beats. Then came a myriad of dance numbers that gave a creative twist to a variety of folk forms. Folk tune based Bollywood numbers were woven together in several pieces.   The first half was filled with very cute numbers by young children. In the second half teenagers and adults presented a variety of very well choreographed folk numbers. Overall, the culture committee co-chairs Jeyanthi Ghatraju and Aditi Taylor should be commended for putting together a fine presentation. 

President Jaya Voruganti gave a detailed speech on her plans for IAGB during her term and shared the list of committees that she has created to implement all her ideas. 

Two awards were presented at the event to the former Presidents of IAGB. 

Prof Inder Kamal received the dedicated service award while Dr. Kaplesh Kumar was given the lifetime achievement award.  

IAGB event is always a lovely Mela were Indian Americans gather to celebrate the national India holidays. The informal nature of the event makes it a pleasant event for people to gather and enjoy their common Indian heritage.  For its next event IAGB plans to present a play Sach aur Sach ke Siva, a play created  Marathi Mandal that was debuted in New England last year.

For more information on IAGB, please check out their website at http://iagb.org.