India Association of Merrimack Valley (IAMV) celebrated Diwali with a with a fair “Mela”. The event held on on November 19th, 2005 at North Andover High School from 4 PM to 10 PM  drew a record crowd of over 1500.  The event that had something for everyone featured DJ music, food stalls and a variety entertainment program.

“I was delighted with the turnout” says President Jagdish Garg who co-founded IAMV ten years ago with Dr. Kiran Dalal, Dr. Manu Raheja, Sunil Asthana and Poornima Gururaja. “We usually get only about 350 people. Since this was a tenth anniversary event we wanted to try and bring more people to the event. It is credit to our members and the media that we were able to attract record crowds”

IAMV was started ten years ago primarily to enable social networking and provide children with a platform to present their talent. “Andover and North Andover have a large Indian population and we wanted to be able to establish an Indian Network in our area” says Garg.

The program this year was very ambitious. It included several different items including a grand dance competition. “I work with an absolutely amazing team. This year the team had to work extra hard to pull of this ambitious event and the team did a great job” says Garg. Secretary Jitender Goela, treasurer Sanjay Jain and cultural secretary Sunita Malhotra form the core team.  Kirit/ Babu Patel , Sarita Kanjolia , Vijay basra,  Pravin Shah, Jagruti Patel, Kiran Dhawan, Anshu Gupta, Manushi Khasgiwalla, Hina Shah,
Raj Gohel, Nalini Dayanand, Neeraj Sangal and Harbaldeep Singh are members of the various sub-committees that help the core team.

“We decided to have a dance competition to bring the performance level up and we really had a great show” says Sunita Malhotra who helped coordinate the program. The program included a variety of performances including a cute piece set to the bollywood hit “Just Chill Chill” performed by a few Enthusistic Moms! Tina Khasgiwala, Hetal Desai,  Apara Sharma and Priti Garg served as MCees.  Desi Dhamaka,, More Piya,  Ghunghroo  won the first, second and third place for the dance competition in the under fifteen  category. Rang Deni and Lexington Bhangra mix tied for first place in the over 15 category, Kangana Re got the second place and Hindi Medley Mix was third.

The mela featured  many vendors. Dakshin and Tandoor catered the dinner. Event Planner Shobha Shastry provided all the decorations free of cost.  There was a  Live orchestra presentation by the   professional group “Yaadein”. This group has been performing since 1999 in the New England area. Amongst singers were  two special guests Vinay Mishra and Manju Abraham.

The IAMV program had something for everyone. Games, face-painting, dance music and a great cultural program made this event a night to remember. While Garg was pleased with the program he is the first to accept that there were gitlches. "We did have some glitches. It is our hope to learn from our mistakes and produce an even better show next year".

Lokvani wishes IAMV well and looks forward next year's event.

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