For long, India Association of New Hampshire (IANH) has been involved in various community activities in the region. Stitching together the ambitions to extend its reach to a wider base of benefactors locally and provide a unique platform to help the less fortunate ones back in India, IANH found an ideal partner in Udavum Karangal (UK). The genesis of the concept of Dáwat 2011, lay in the desires of enthusiastic volunteers from both the organizations to make a difference even as they wished to make this event an occasion to get together and unwind in a relaxed ambiance for all those attending.

The day of the event, April 30, 2011 was an absolutely perfect spring day. The serene location of Alpine Grove, served as the perfect setting for a great evening ahead. An elegantly arranged hall with neatly laid linen and colorful decorations complimented the whole ambiance of the evening. The experienced wait staff, and professional bar tending at Alpine Grove made sure that the service at the venue was par excellence. The semi-formal event began with a chance to socialize as the guests arrived. The aroma and the neatly displayed hors d'oeuvrefrom Pongal made it a more appetizing and pleasing to the eye.

The welcome note from the President of IANH, Prithvi Kumar, set the ball rolling for the evening’s program. Emcees Jharna Madan and Vineet Bhansal picked the cue from DJ Yogz and continued the program with passion and enthusiasm.

The first item on the agenda for the evening was IANH Excellence Awards, instituted for the first time ever by IANH to celebrate select members of the community for their long tradition of outstanding committed services. This year we applauded the local teachers who have, over the years, trained countless young minds to build a proud sense of heritage and cultural identity through various art forms. Jasmine Shah, Sandhya Sridhar, Sujatha Meyyappan, Sheethal Dwaraka, Neha Parikh, & Amulya Deepak were the recipients of the evenings Excellence Awards. The awardees receiving the award generously appreciated the honor and the recognition.

As the evening’s proceedings progressed, AAROH, the band, enthralled the audience with some flawless rendition of songs that have graced the Indian silver screen, old and new alike. Introduced by the emcee, Swathi Subramanian, they got the people all excited with many lilting numbers and soon the crowd was on their feet jiving to a veritable offering of fast numbers.

Anuradha Palakurthi, a well-known playback singer, was the guest singer with AAROH. Together with Vasanth Murthy of AAROH, Anuradha rendered the mellifluous song Malare Mounama from the Tamil movie Karna and she followed that up with Yeh Ishq Hai that pulled the guests back on to the dance floor. Suzana Naik’s performance of Piya Tu, arguably amongst the most famous dance numbers from hindi movies provided the perfect finale for the band’s performance and had the audience clamoring for an encore.

Whether the guests got themselves on the dance floor or were swooning to the numbers played by DJ or the band, there was music everywhere. Guests were then treated to a delectable banquet spread with exquisite choices on the menu including scrumptious desserts.

It was now time to pick up the paddles and bid the highest for some of the many desirable items displayed for the Auction. Some of the items up for bidding on the block varied from seven nights in an Orlando Resort around Disney World, two nights at the Applecore hotel in NYC, beautiful jewelry made of ruby and pearl, pure silk saris, personal trainer to an evening at a Spa and the hot selling commodity of the times, an iPad 2. Neelesh Shah and Ranjani Saigal carried on with the Auction proceedings. Ranjani’s energy, wit and spirit rubbed off on the crowd and were competing among themselves to seal the deal  on items big and small. Many of those went for multiples of their listed price, thus greatly contributing to the cause.

For finale of the evening, DJ Yogz worked his magic from start. DJ Yogz was phenomenal, professional and organized, and immediately got the dance floor on fire with guests losing their inhibitions and dancing to some of the latest chart busters. DJ seamlessly adapted to music that worked well with the crowd, almost as he could read them. Rohan Vaswani’s excellent exhibition on the dhol worked with the energy that was set by the DJ.

The official photographers of the event D&J Photography did a fantastic job to capture every emotion of the event from start to the wrap up time, in between obliging guests’ requests for pictures.

From inception, till culmination on April 30th, this event has been the fruit of labor of all involved with countless hours of planning, coordinating, meetings, reworking, late nights and lots and lots of patience!

It is gratifying to note here that the event helped raise over $10,000 for a most worthy and noble cause. The selfless efforts of the volunteers involved cannot be thanked enough.

A very BIG Thank You to all the sponsors, donors, teachers, guests, DJ, emcees & staff at Alpine Grove for their committed support in making this a memorable evening and a successful endeavor that helped in a meaningful way to make lives better for a few that are in need of every possible help.

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