The India Society of Worcester (ISW) from the New England region hosted their third annual celebration of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, on Saturday, November 13, 2021. The event is usually held in person at a school auditorium/community hall with Mela, foods, and cultural programs.  However, due COVID guidelines, this year also the event was presented virtually to the community. Chair of the Cultural Committee, Amita Rao and team came up with the theme "Deep se deep jale, dil se dil mile" and the event woven around this theme was streamed live on Facebook (https://fb.watch/9h2XncByIL/) with several hundreds of audiences.

ISW is a cultural, social, educational and charitable organization, which is most vibrant in New England’s region. It’s President, Puneet Kohli greeted everyone on the occasion and welcomed the entire participants and the audiences to the event. He also invited everyone to join them on November 20^th for their final Diwali program filled with music and dances, that is planned in partnership with Tower Hill Botanical garden, Boylston, MA. For more information, please visit their website https://iswonline.org/ 

The program started with Lord Ganesh Vandana through a Kathak dance piece choreographed by Mona Mitra. Students of Darshana Jani’s Performing Arts of New England presented a semi classical dance for a “Devi Stuti" sung by legendary singers Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty Ji & Pandit Suresh Wadkar Ji and some movie dances like Saranga Dariya, Sauda Khara Medley, Nach Le Thailavi, Jai Jai Shivshankar, Ghungroo, and Balam Pichkari Medley. Young girls and women displayed dances ‘Happy Diwali’ ‘Garabo’ and ‘piya tose naina’ from movie Guide choreographed by Jasmine Shah. Young ISW students and others presented some more adorable Happy Diwali dances. Shenoy Band (Padma, Shriram, Samarth and Ajay Shenoy) gave ‘Raag Yaman Medley’ in the form of vocal jugal bandi. Mona Mitra’s students highlighted beautiful Kathak dances Shiv Vandana, Tarana, and a Bengali Dance ‘Welcoming of Mother Durga (Mayer Agomani).’ 

Devika Dhawan’s DFD Academy students presented Bollywood and Fusion medley dances. Disha Mudenur’s students put together ‘Muqabla and Mumbai Dill’ a modern Bollywood dance. Geetika Bajpai’s Bawri dance group brought the high-energy dance Dhamaal to add extra colors. Kajal group presented a saari fashion show - a cultural heritage of India, choreographed by Kajal Kaushik Narrated by Aarthi Cowlagi. Ekta Dance Academy brought to the stage Bollywood and folk dances namely, Roaring Rowdies, EBCD: Executive Board Can Dance, Galti se Mistake, Disco ball, Jai Maharashtra and Colors of Dance. Smita Manjrekar’s Abhushan dance was about women arraying bangles, earrings, and anklet and conveying their deep sentiments hearing the sounds of these trinkets. Rangeelo Rajasthan ‘Mishri se Meethi’ folk dance designed by Swati Ladiwal’ and displayed by ISW Cultural and Language schoolteachers. A Kids Diwali dance choreographed by Tanvi Gahlot entertained the audiences with their cute moves. 

The event featured music and dance performances of different states of India, along with many Bollywood and fusion dances and more than 300 comments were received during the live event. Amita thanked all the participants and choreographers for their active participation and the audiences for their great support and making this program a great event. She also thanked all the members of their cultural committee for putting together a beautiful collage of the program and the technical team for their dedicated work and streaming the event successfully on the Facebook. She also thanked even the ISW executive board that got into the festive spirit and performed a dance piece and two young emcees, Tanushree Nekenti & Raina Bettadpur for their lovely presentation of the program.

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