Blessed are the guests who gathered to celebrate the New England Tamil Sangam’s (NETS), Chithirai Vizha held on May 13, 2017 Saturday at Wayland Middle School, MA.  The actual festival is annually celebrated in Madurai, Tamilnadu in the month of Chithirai. The festival includes the marriage of Goddess Meenakshi with Lord Sundareshwarar followed by the journey of Lord Azhaghar (Mahavishnu) from Azhagar temple to Madurai.

NETS members brought to life a similar scenario and the auditorium was packed with people, who were enjoying and rejoicing the show, from 1:30 pm onwards. Around New England we have seen many programs that are being conducted which involves competitions and dance/musical programs, but NETS is a standalone program that has come forward to embrace and teach culture through the celebrations. 

The program commenced with Kolam competition for women participated with great enthusiasm.  Men complimented the above with Uri Adithal competition, which awed the audience. This was followed by Math Bee and Spelling Bee competition for children.

The curtain raiser for the evening’s event was a classical Bharathanatyam dance segment, compered by Bamiela Venkat, NETS president.  Bamiela, interspersed her announcement in English eloquently translating into Tamil. Chetna Ayyagari, student of Smt, Sujatha Meyyappan, who showed extravagant abhinayas and expressions dancing for Surya Kavithuam with high impact and Vishamara Kannan with the naughtiness of Lord Krishna. The segment included dance recital of Varshini Arumugam, student of Smt. Veena Teli, who demonstrated endless energy in performing Kalinga Narthanam and alternated with divinity in dancing for Nindrandra Mayil.

Tamil Nadu, is known for its ancient culture in promoting Iyal, Isai and Nadagam (Literature, music and drama).  NETS deserves a big round of applause in bringing all the three arts to life last weekend. The drama segment included, Tenali Rama, enacted by a whole bunch of children from Sishubharathi (Lexington) with humor and enthusiasm. The second drama was Naveena Saraswathi Sabhadham, which was directed by Krish Velmurugan similar to the old Tamil movie enacted by Padmini, Savithri and Devika as goddesses and Sivaji Ganesan as Naradhar.  We do not miss these actresses anymore, as Shanthi, Bamiela and Aarthi, members of NETS stealed the show in the same roles. Jaishree Balaji’s command on the husband threw people into fits of laughter.  Kudos to all the actors.

The evening gained moment by the Super Singer Juniors and Super Singer Seniors Duet non-classical singing competition. The singing matched the original sound track and everyone in the auditorium were taken back to the blissful musical hits AR Rahman and Ilaiyaraja of 90’s. Duet Competition attracted many and it was a healthy competition among the pairs to give their best. Judges were impressed by their performance and it was hard for them to pick the best pair. Best Male and Female Singers were also announced.

The NETS Chithirai Vizha, was crowned by the celebrities who traveled from India for the Musical show.  The singers included Fareeda, Vijay TV super singer, 2 nd winner, 2016, Playback Singer Hariharasudhan, Vijay TV Super Singer Finalist Siyad and Super Singer Anusha accompanied by talented musicians.   The highlights included, Naveen, a mimicry artist of the show “Kalakapovadha Yaru” who mimicked all the veteran Tamil actors and politicians. Naveen’s voice singing in the voice of Late M.S. Vishwanadhan, along with Siyad and Hariharasudhan stole the hearts of the audience.  The musical show included Varshini Arumugam, dancing to a movie song sung by Fareeda, in the voice of Late. Smt. M.L. Vasanthakumari and by Hariharasudhan in voice of late T.M. Soundarajan. Thanks to NETS and the awesome trio, to bring back this scene live from 1960, enacted by MGR and Padmini. Anusha’s voice matched perfectly the voice of Smt. Vani Jayaram in her solo piece.

Thanks to Sumathi, Prabhu, Senthil, Karthi and Viveka for helping with the competition(s), Brochure, timely pick up and drop of celebrities and other logistics. Special thanks to Ram Sundaram for the audio work. Thanks to Dharani restaurant for co-sponsoring the dinner.

NETS is proud in bringing innovative quality programs each time, and this event was no exception. With many programs that have been introduced this year, NETS has taken yet another bigger leap into driving and preserving Tamil Culture around New England, Most of the audience stayed through the end of the program and wished this enchanting evening would never end.

The vote of thanks was rendered by Bamiela Venkat who thanked the sponsors and everyone who attended the program and for their valuable time and energy to make the event a grand success. Thanks to the Emcees of the event, Karthi and Senthil.  We would also like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the NETS youth group (NYG) volunteers for their tireless help. Thanks to all the dinner team volunteers, for serving food on time. Thanks to the entire NETS team for organizing this- special thanks to NETS Secretary Manohar and Treasurer Shanthi. Thanks to our Media Partners cum friends Krisp Fotos, Vijay Srinivasan Photography and Kolam Media Creations.

NETS in particular would like to thank Mega Sponsor for the event - Sumathi Narayanan Realty for sponsoring for the whole year 2017 and their awesome help and support for NETS.

Hearty Congratulations to all the winners and salute to NETS for this blissful, enthralling evening. Can’t wait for the next upcoming Children’s Day event in fall 2017. Stay tuned for the announcement and mark your calendars.

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