The event opened with a traditional prayer to Ganesh ji and Mahalakshmi ji. This was conducted by the Mathur family – Kumkum Mathur, Madhu Anand and Mool Raj Mathur along with Manisha Chaudhary and others. 

Following the prayer, a cultural program featuring classical, folk, Bollywood and fusion items featuring over a 100 performers proved to be very entertaining. 

President Neela Gandhi summarized the program and the participants in her beautiful heartfelt thank you note posted on Facebook.

 

“On behalf of United India Association, I want to thank everyone for their time,effort and contributions to make our Diwali Program so special. I would like to thank all the sponsors without whose support our event would not have been possible, Brenda Cole from Harvard Pilgrim, Sushil Tuli from Leader Bank, Vijay Selhi, Mcdonalds, Pranav Gill, Devender Guhania, and all other sponsors.Thank you to the vendors Seema Khurana Girish Mehta, Sandeep Tyagi, Lokesh Suri, Parul Taneja, Ula Patel, Smitha Vayyayur, Sonalika Rungta fromArt of Living and all others.Thanks to all the participants for diwali puja Kumkum,Madhu Mathur Anand and Manisha Chawdhary, choreographers Nikita Rao, Ranjani Saigal, Vrushali Patil-Phirke, Neena Gulati, Samriti Bhambi, Manny Lovely Singh, Anandini Sekhar, Randell D'souza, Vipan Monika Khosla, Sunita Kalyani, Jasmine Shah, Sonal Bali, Shamila Khetarpal and the participants for giving us such a vibrant cultural show and Shyla Abbimutt for providing outfits for the fashion show. Special thanks to the UIA Board Parvin Khetarpal, Shobha Khetarpal, Rakashi Chand, Kiran Pothan,  Sharath Reddy, Neeta Datta, Rakesh Datta, Rakesh Soni, Gyaneshwar Varma, Sangeeta Ghai, Jaggi Varma, Dolly Sood, Yash Sood, Anil Sood, Sarla Kalra, Aruna Varshney, Surender Kapoor, Veena Kapoor, Dolly Raja, Sonia Sharma, Aanch Jain, Devinder Dutt, Vijay Selhi,Vik Selhi, Mool Mathur, Suresh Gidwani, Kidar Vaid and Jatinder Sharma.The food was generously catered by Nirvana Restaurant in Cambridge.

Thanks to Paresh Motiwala ji for taking time from his busy schedule to train emcees Sachin Sharma, Aditya Soni, Khushi Ghai, Shivani Bansal, Saloni Sharma, Ishita Rao and Ikshaan Rao, and the younger children Sana Reddy, and Sarina and Sarun Chand for packing the candy bags for children.

Thanks to the local media Upendra Mishra from INE, Anil Saigal from Lokvani, Gauri Chandna from Foundations TV, Gunjan Radio, Radio Music India, Norwood Record newspaper and Facebook groups for promoting our event.

The event is incomplete without thanking our favorite photographer Rasik Mehta and will be sharing the photos with you all soon" says Neela Gandhi.

Kudos to Neela Gandhi and the entire UIANE team for creating something so beautiful year after year.