NH Senator Lou D’Allesandro and Representative Bea Francoeur joined the Indian-American community in celebrating the Annual IANH Spring Festival. It was held at Merrimack High School on Saturday May 7, 2005. This event showcased the cultural talents of New Hampshire's Indian-American community.

More than 350 members of IANH (India Association of New Hampshire) along with their friends and relatives attended the event. Senator D’Allesandro presented awards to the winners of the Education Bee organized by IANH in collaboration with the North South Foundation in March 2005. He and Representative Francoeur were in turn honored with plaques to thank them for their interest and involvement with the Indian-American community.

There was a wide variety of quality entertainment, most of it provided by children. In between items, Masters of Ceremonies Ashish Jain and Suman Rao did an admirable job of entertaining the audience through songs, jokes, and mini game-shows. There were dance numbers from the movies Swadesh, Dhoom and Kisna performed by children from the Nashua Balavihar group and the Aangikam Dance Academy. To represent the classical side of India, the festival featured veena performance, classical singing, and Bharatanatyam dances. The audience was introduced to a new dance teacher, Neha Parikh, an exponent of both Bharatanatyam and Mohiniattam. She delighted the audience with two pure dance items, an Alarippu and a Kauthuvam.

What was special this year was the wonderfully balanced blend of classical music, song, and dance, as well as folk dances, dances on movie songs and Western music. There were skits in English and Hindi, both by adults and children, as well as a pageant presented by the kids from Nashua Shishubharathi. There were many vendors selling a variety of items, ranging from books to delicious food to beautiful jewelry and ethnic clothing. Gurnam Singh and Indira Shelat, provided delectable food from North and South India. To quote Indira, “It was like a Mela, and I had such a wonderful time!”

Senator D’Allesandro of Manchester was very much pleased to see such a large gathering of the Indian American community and the community’s involvement in charitable activities. He exhorted the community to get involved in public service.

For more information and pictures of the festival, please visit the IANH website www.ianh.org and follow the link to the Spring Festival 2004 and the Picture Galleries.

|