In Tamil Nadu the harvest festival, Pongal Thirunal is celebrated on January 14 throughout the world. “Ponguga” means to flourish, blossom, and overflow. True to every word, Littleton High School, MA on 03 February 2018 flourished with Tamilians from New England, blossomed with families and children in festive attire, and was overflowing with joy, thanks to New England Tamil Sangam (NETS) presenting Mega Pongal Vizha 2018.  The word Mega was chosen in the best Subha Muhurtham where 1090 esteemed guests attended, of which 333 adults and children participated in 51 cultural events. The show was crowned by the august presence of Veteran Actor Thiru. K.Bhagyaraj and his evergreen and beautiful wife, actress Smt. Poornima Bhagyaraj. 

The decorations in the reception captured the traditional Pongal setting and was an excellent photo spot for guests.  Thank you Smt, Shami Ramanan for your utmost dedication in turning the corridor to the best possible grandeur. When we first enter any temple, we usually stoop down to touch the door step. Similarly, every guest needed to stop by Ram Sundaram, our dedicated and well-coordinated financial secretary, at the reception to sign in and obtain the tickets. In addition, kudos to our entire reception committee that organized brochures, tickets, and trophies very well.

The event commenced with the singing of Thamizh Thai Vazhthu by Kalaimagal Tamil School, Shrewsbury. This was followed by a welcome address by our president Thiru. Manohar Ganapathy. He not only spent his valuable time in going through details of arranging the program, but also tirelessly made sure that the event was run with grace and charm.

As planned, the program commenced on time with pomp and show on stage with cultural programs one after the other. With the busy line up of events, there was amazing coordination, thanks to our committee members Thiru. Karthik Arunachalam, Thiru. Senthilraja Ramasamy, Smt. Viveka Devadoss, and youth volunteer Shakthi Kumaresan and Thiru. Bala Subramaniam, who had patiently lined up the music files and ran it for nine hours without a single mistake!

A big thanks to all parents and children who worked so well with me and patiently waited there turns; they all performed very well.  I have a deep amount of appreciation of the love and affection shown by all the participants to the committee members.

Children adorned the stage with high quality dramas, traditional classical dances, non-classical and upbeat Tamil cinema songs, and melodious music groups with supreme melody. The props, settings, dialogues, and themes chosen by the drama actors and actresses brought out the true essence of our culture and language. Hats off to the parents and their immense dedication, patience, and effort in bringing the children to this auspicious event and making them perform like professionals. Some of the chosen themes of performances were a great tribute to Dr. MGR, remembering a centenary year since his birth.

With splendor and grandeur, vendors with clothes and jewels lit up the corridors and beautifully converted it into the streets of T.Nagar Panagal park in Chennai!

The highlight of the evening was the debate show, hosted by our beloved actor Thiru Bhagyaraj.  He, alongside his wife Smt. Poornima, were introduced by our secretary Smt, Shanthy Sundaramoorthy, who also highlighted all the good moments of the couple’s lives in Tamil Cinema. Thiru. Bhagyaraj initiated his speech by thanking all the committee members who had made his stay so warm and memorable for his wife and himself.  He brought loving memories of his Mega hit movies “Mundhanai Mudichu”, “Chinna Veedu” and “Thooral Ninupochu” which created fits of laughter from the audience. The topic of the debate was enticing and had two vibrant teams. They spoke about what brings more happiness to the family, the wife simply obeying the husband’s command or the husband blindly obeying the wife’s spiritual demands. After a long debate, the end result favored that a happy family always flourishes when there is a process of give and take between both the husband and wife. It was the most memorable evening and I had the pleasure of thanking the couple for adorning the dais during the debate show and created an aura of wedding celebrations. 

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to event co- sponsor Smt. Maha. V. Krishnakumar, Real estate, Northwestern Mutual, Mr. Matt Johnson and James Aldo, New York Life insurances, the very innovative photo booth by Krisp Photos by Thiru. Krish Velmurugan for Harvard Tamil Chair, program coverage for photography done by Thiru. Vijay Srinivasan, videography taken by Nara Narayanan, and the Video booth was sponsored by Ram Sundaram’s Agama Infotech. Thank you all for your sincere dedication. Special thanks to Nivedha Ravichandran, Krithika Ramesh and Hema  Sankaran. Your interview was breathtaking and had an outstanding sense of humor when interviewing Bhagyaraj sir and Poornima madam.

NETs would like to thank the food committee Karthikeyan Krishnamoorthy, Prasad Gurumuthy, Suresh Krishnan, and Prabhu Ram who completely handled, with care, the snacks and dinner event.  We would like to thank our food co-sponsor Godavari for catering dinner and snacks.

NETs also extend its heartfelt thanks to all the adult and youth volunteers and ex committee member Mrs. Bameila Venkat  for continuing to care and support the event and making it a grand success as usual.

We would like to extend our invitation for our next upcoming NETS Chithirai Vizha in May 2018.  Stay tuned!

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