Over a hundred performers delighted the audience with song and dance as part of the India Association of Greater Boston’s Republic Day celebrations held at the Lexington High School on Saturday January 28th 2006.  Colorful costumes ranging from the traditional to the contemporary drawn from different parts of India succeed in the clearly establishing the theme of Unity in Diversity. Master of Ceremonies Aditi Taylor, Amit Dang, Sunita Malhotra and Ranjani Saigal kept the four hour long show flowing smoothly.

The event was organized under the leadership of President M. Rajinikant. He was ably assisted in this effort by Vice President, Dr. Vinod Chungi , Treasurer,  Pradeep Audho Secretary , Amrit Soni and Directors. Mohan Dali, Rita Shah, Usha Vakil, Vijay Vaswani Sutanuka Basu, Zehra Khan, Aditi Taylor, Dr. Sunil Mhaskar and Dr. Deodatta Shenai. The cultural program was organized by a committee consisting of Aditi Taylor, Sutanuka Basu, Sunita Malhotra and Ranjani Saigal.

Honorable Representative Susan Pope (R), representing Lincoln, Sudbury and Wayland in the Massachusetts House was the chief guest for the event. In her address, Pope strongly encouraged Indian Americans to get involved in the political process. 

Many important members of the IAGB family including Dr. Anupam Wali (former President) , Dr. Gauri Banerjee (India New England Woman of the Year, founder Saheli)  and the late Chitra Parayath (former Secretary , Founder Lokvani.com) were recognized for their contributions to IAGB and Saheli.

The cultural event opened with Sangeetanjali, an offering of music. Students of Shuchita Rao, Aparna Balaji, Sangarika Kanjilal and Neelima Chaturvedi made presentations featuring both north and south Indian classical music.  After the national anthems presented by Noura Khan, Amrita Saigal and Shishubharathi children showcase of dance and drama followed. Students of dance teachers Neena Gulhati, Jothi Raghavan, Jasmine Shah, Jeyanthi R Ghatraju, Mitali Biswas and Ranjani Saigal dazzled audience with colorful dance presentations based on Indian classical and folk dance styles.

Children as young as four and five representing Induskidz and Satsang Center presented really cute dance numbers.  Balakand  and Yudhkhand from the Ramayana was presented by Lasyapriya Group and VHP respectively. Leherein was there in full force with a presentation featuring over thirty perfomers dancing to popular bollywood numbers.

IAGB invited a guest presentation from the Boston Thamil Association whose members presented the culure of the Tamils from Sri Lanka. There dance presentation included a touching tribute to the victims of Tsunami.

Bengal, Thamizhnadu and Kerala (KANE and NEMA) were effectively represented by members of the community that worked hard on bringing out the essence of the culture. New England Kannada Koota, New England Marathi Mandal and Uttaranchal Association of North America made wonderful contributions to the program.

The show shifted to high gear when high school students from Burlington, Lexington, Billerica, Shrewsbury and Worcester had the audience screaming with excitement as they rocked the stage with their Bollywood numbers. A Bhangara presentation was the fitting grand finale to this highly charged event.While the dancers were entertaining audience in the auditorium, Lahiri made a musical presentation in the Cafeteria.

As part of the IAGB’s focus on support for Indian American youth, Dr. Sunil Mhaskar spoke of a college workshop to be organized in conjunction with Lokvani later in the year. IAGB also recognized accomplishments of outbound high school seniors with a special trophy for each senior.

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