India Association of New Hampshire

Former US Ambassador George Bruno and NH Senators Lou D’Allesandro and Joe Foster joined the Indian American community in celebrating the Annual Spring Festival at Merrimack High School on April 17, 2003 in Merrimack, NH. The Festival is organized in the spring of every year by the India Association of New Hampshire (IANH) and showcases the cultural talents of the Indian American community.

More than 350 members of the Indian American community attended the event. Ambassador Bruno gave away awards to the winners of the Education Bee organized by the Association in collaboration with the North South Foundation last month. Senators D’Allesandro and Foster handed out gift certificates to all the participants of the Education Bee and the Spring Festival.

Students of Sandhya Sridhar sang beautiful songs in Marathi, Malayalam and Telugu. Students of Preetha Arun and Sunanda Narayana performed Bharatanatyam dances and students of Kiranmayi performed Kuchipudi dances. The students of Aangikam dance academy danced to songs from the movie Devdas and presented other semi classical items. The show stopper was a performance to the old Hindi classic 'Jhumka Gira Re' by little Anjana..

NH Senator from Manchester Lou D’Allesandro was delighted to see such a large gathering of the Indian American community and the community’s involvement in charitable activities. He spoke of his family’s close connection with India. His daughter spent four months in the Northern part of India teaching English as a foreign language. He exhorted the community to get involved in local politics.

NH Senator from Nashua Joe Foster came with his family and enjoyed the festival and the Indian food. He was impressed by the Association’s efforts to promote excellence in children’s education through activities like the Spelling, Vocabulary and Math Bees. He asked the community to work with the local representatives on issues of local and national importance.

Ambassador Bruno, a steadfast supporter and a long time member of IANH, summed up the successful event in the following words, “All who attended the festival had to be impressed. The dancing, music, speeches, sponsors, spirit, awards, vendor booths, large crowds, many children, raffle, written program, the hall, the website, newsletter, emails – all represented a dynamic organization and considerable coordination.”

For more information and pictures, please visit the IANH website www.ianh.org and follow the link to the Spring Festival 2004 and then to the Picture Galleries.

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