Indian Association of New Hampshire Diwali 2012 Festival was held on November 3rd, 2012 at Nashua High School North.  Over 600 people came together to celebrate this wonderful festival. This event was a huge success, with high attendance as well as a variety of quality performances. This year, it was an honor to have the presence of Mayor of City of Nashua, Donnalee Lozeau at the function.

The event began with the president of IANH, Mr. Prithvi Kumar welcoming the audience. During his speech, he emphasized the spirit of Diwali, highlighted the accomplishments of IANH, which range from its monthly soup kitchen services to its annual education contests. He also introduced the emcees Neelesh Shah and Nikita Rao, who did an incredible job.

The performances kicked off with ‘Deva Sri Ganesha’, a dance in honor of Lord Ganesha. Next up was a lively Bollywood dance, ‘Chita Chita’. This was followed by ‘Maiya Yashoda’, a dance themed on Radha and Krishna.

Following that it was time to welcome the Mayor Donnalee Lozeau, to the stage, who in spite of a very busy calendar, was gracious to visit the IANH Diwali event to felicitate IANH with a Recognition Certificate for all the efforts IANH has and continues to support through the very many charities.

Mayor distributed the checks to all the charities supported by IANH during the Dawat 2012 fundraising event.  Dawat 2012, having raised $21,500, was yet another year of a successful celebration of people who joined hands to better the lives of those less unfortunate.  Mayor handed over a check of $5000 each to representatives of the partnered charities Udavum Karangal and New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence along with $2000 to Angel Tree and Salvation Army, $1000 each to Nashua Children’s Home, Nashua Soup Kitchen and Manchester Soup Kitchen. Madam Mayor had quite a few words of appreciation for IANH and the fantastic fundraising events.

All in all, it was a very proud moment for IANH to have come this far from very humble beginnings.  With a very positive and a strong support from an amazing group of volunteers adults and youth alike, IANH continues to strive to support those who are in need.  

The program resumed with ‘Mujra Medley’ a dance performed to classic Bollywood hits. Next up was a song recital by Tarang Saluja and Ronak Saluja. Wanting to send a message of ‘love and hope’, they performed music from the album ‘Gurus of Peace’. This performance was followed by more incredibly choreographed dances.

During one of the brief breaks, winners of the IANH chess and table tennis tournaments were awarded trophies by the Sports Coordinator, Ms. Jyoti Sharma. This was followed by several energetic and beautiful performances, such as ‘Dhamal Masti’, a fun dance medley to two popular Bollywood songs, and ‘Darshan do Ghaanshyam’, which was sung by Saadhvi Raghav, Saisha, Ravi Graves, and Vinayak Graves.

A  notable performances this year was from the invited artist, Mr. Charun Thattai, a professional whistler.  Mr. Thattai awed the audience performing several traditional Carnatic songs using only whistling techniques.

The evening rounded out with a performance to a remixed Hindi song by the Bhutanese community of New Hampshire, and other sparkling dance and song performances.

Following all performances it was time for dinner which was then followed by the ever popular Dandiya, a traditional dance in which participants energetically whirl and clash short sticks which represent the swords of the Goddess Durga.  All in all a fabulous celebration of India’s festival of lights, by an energetic group of people, and yet another successful Diwali event by IANH!

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