The India Association of New Hampshire (IANH) held its annual Spring Festival on Saturday, June 4, 2011 at Nashua High School North. A plethora of people attended this grand event which provided a showcase for the extraordinary amount of talent around New Hampshire.

The secretary of IANH, Mr. Tej Dhakar welcomed the gathering. He talked about IANH’s growth over the past years, saying that “IANH has grown tremendously, and now has over 350 members.” He talked about the importance of giving back to the community, and how IANH’s integral mission is to be public servants of the world around us.

The cultural program -- a highlight of the evening   was a vivid combination of classical traditional and modern dance and music, including more than 40 performances. Ms. Saniya Shah, Ms. Serena Patel, and Mr. Subbarao Yamachilli  made entertaining and gracious MCs for the evening.

Mr. Balaji Radhakrishan, the chairperson of the IANH education committee spoke briefly about the North South Foundation Contest and how the mission of these contests is to ”promote awareness in kids and to provide an opportunity to develop such skills to be successful in life. ” He talked about how the North South Foundation has expanded and how the achievements of those who participate has grown exponentially. He congratulated all the award winners and called them on stage as the trophies were distributed.

Mr. Prithvi Kumar, the president of IANH, talked about public service activities that IANH had undertaken in the past year. IANH has been actively involved in the community in public service efforts including raising funds and volunteering for the Nashua and Manchester soup kitchens, raising funds for children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and providing aid to the Bhutanese Refugees in the New Hampshire area . He also spoke about the success of Dawat 2011, the latest successful IANH fundraiser venture which collected funds for Udhavum Karangal and IANH Charity work.

Rohan Vaswani, IANH Youth Group president could not be present at the event, but he made a heartfelt video that was played at the festival. He talked about Naach night, the widely successful dance that the Youth Group conducts every year, and the many different charities that IANH and the Youth Group are involved in. He also thanked Deepa Mangalat, the Youth Group coordinator, for all her hard work and dedication towards the Youth Group, saying that “Deepa Aunty has helped all of us, especially the

Executive committee member, Ms. Rajney Akhil , talked about Dawat 2011 and thanked audience members for attending this event. Ms. Akhil talked about the triumph of this event and how the evening was dedicated to the wonderful teachers in the Indian American community.  She concluded the speech by thanking her copartners for all the effort they put into it, and presented a check to Udhavum Karangal, who was an integral part of the event.

Ms. Chandana Karthik concluded the evening events with a vote of thanks, where she applauded all the volunteers for their efforts to make the event a success. This was followed by the audience rising, to the Indian and American National Anthems.

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