Indian Association of New Hampshire (IANH) culminated its twenty fifth year of service in the community with its annual Diwali event. The event was held on November 8th, 2014 at Nashua High School North. A strong member community of over 500 people attended, coming together to celebrate the season.

The evening began with a welcome note by IANH Vice President, Mr. Balaji Radhakrishnan, followed by some wonderful musical renditions and dance performances in beautiful costumes by the children and adults of the community. The emcees for the event were Ms.Usha Natarajan, Ms.Sneha Jacob and Ms.Kuhu Wadhwa. The various performances of dance and music items were not only presented by students of local teachers Ms. Neha Parikh, Mrs.Jasmine Shah, Ms. Nikita Rao, Ms.Himanshi Patel, Mrs.Sandhya Sridhar, Ms.Jyoti Sharma and Ms.Sumana Sinha, but also included self-choreographed pieces by parents and youth. The time and effort that went into each of the performance was commendable. IANH would like to thank the teachers of the community for preparing their students and thus entertaining the audience.

The event's guest performer, New England’s very own and well known Mrs. Anuradha Palakurthi’s song renditions brought a multitude of colors to the evening. Mrs. Palakurthi was aptly supported by the versatile Sankar Gangaikondan where they entertained the audience with some flawless singing. This time it was even more special with multi-lingual musical performances, as they sang Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam songs among others. It was indeed a musical treat for all in attendance.

Invited guest dance artist Ms.Shikha Bajpai captivated the audience with her presentation of a Rajasthani folk dance.

The evening was also an opportunity to thank some longtime supporters of IANH. Mr. Prashanth Palakurthi and Mrs. Anuradha Palakurthi have been very generous contributors to this non-profit organization. Their support has helped IANH to meet many of its goals in contributing to those less privileged. A sincere thank you from all at IANH.

Ms.Kumkum Malik and Ms.Sweta Mepani talked about Saheli and its initiatives towards empowerment of women and mental health.

The evening also marked the formal announcement of the outgoing executive members following the recent general elections. Mr. Prithvi Kumar, one of the founders and longtime President of IANH will be stepping down and will be succeeded by the current Vice President, Mr. Balaji Radhakrishnan. Other executive members who will be stepping down include Mr. Manoj Chourasia, Chair of Public Relations, Ms. Jyoti Sharma, Executive Member, and Ms. Sanyukta Bansal, Executive Member. They will be continue holding their positions until December 31st 2014. IANH would like to thank all the executives for their support to the organization over the years.

The function ended on a high note to the wonderful beats of dandiya music by DJ MASSA. IANH would like to thank Chetan Mepani (DJ Massa) and Sweta Mepani for playing the right kind of music that led the members on to the dance floor to enjoy dandiya into the late hours and left people asking for more.

IANH would like to thank Gauri Chandana of Foundation TV for being the events media partner. We are also grateful to all the vendors who were part of the evening for their presence and time.

Thank you to all the members, executive officers and members, youth group members, John Franzini of Nashua High School North for their undying support for making this yet another successful year for IANH.

IANH invites all readers to its next mega event on the calendar. Please Save the Date Saturday, March 28, 2015 when IANH will be back with its Dawat 2015 event. An evening filled with dance, music, auction, fun, games, fashion show and many more. For more information please email Dawat2015@ianh.org or visit us on our FB page and please do like us for regular updates.

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