The Youth, Cultural and Educational programs committee of the New England Hindu Temple held the annual Krishnanjali program on Sept 13, 2009 at the Sri Lakshmi Temple in Ashland.  The program is an offering of dance to Lord Krishna.

"We began this event ten years ago. Sridevi Thirumalai was the coordinator for the first Krishnanjali. The program has grown since. All collections from these programs are used to support the college scholarship program sponsored by the Temple. Called the Vidyalakshmi scholarship, they are awarded to talented high school seniors who compete in the classical dance and music competition at the temple. This year we were able to offer three scholarships" said K.G Narayana.

The program opened with a presentation of Shankar Mahadevan's Shree Ganeshaya Dheemahi by a student of Dhanashree Karamarkar. Next came a Pushpanjali by Saravanan Chidambram, a student of Sowmya Ramanathan, a software engineer who started learning Bharatanatyam about three years ago.
Krishna pieces offer a great deal of variety to performers and we saw everything from the naughty kid, teasing teenager to the Viswharupa Darshanam in Geetopadasam.

Performers included students of Meena Subramanyam, Ranjani Saigal, Sridevi Thirumalai, Thenu Rajan and  Jeyanthi Ghatraju. Newcomers Vidya Rajagopal (student of Nandini Eashwar) and Radhika Jaishankar (student of Kalamandalam Lata) added a nice touch to the program with their brilliant rendition of the  Thyagaraja Kriti Sadinchaney and the lovely Bhairvani Varnam Nandagopalanai. No presentation on Krishna can be complete without the famous Shabdam Sarisijakhshulu and Jeyathi Ghatraju filled this void with her lovely presentation. Vidyalakshmi Scholarship winners for 2009 , Akshaya Krishnaswamy and Prerna Purohit presented a couple of peices. The program ended with a spiritual and brilliant rendition of Jagadodharana by Prakruti Mavanur.

"It is a great delight for us to see so many wonderful dancers participate in this event. We hope to see more people get involved. We now have a googlegroup called nedance. Please become a member of the group to be updated about upcoming dance events" said Narayana.

As always it was a delight for me to part of the event and witness the wonderful performances!

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