Tucked away in the corner of 56th Street and Greenway, Horizon high school provided their Auditorium as the venue for this year’s ‘India Nite’. Even the sun beating down this warm summer Phoenician evening did not deter the zest of the people walking from the parking lot towards the auditorium.
Entering into the auditorium, one could see a plethora of people swarming the place…, mothers and fathers bustling around with their kids to find themselves a seat, last minute make ups in a flurry by the participants of the show, friends and next to kin’s prepping their dig-cams and camcorders to capture that one fleeting moment in time on stage.
Eventually the lights dimmed and as soon as the people settled in, the evening commenced with welcome speech by Urvi Dave followed by a heartwarming rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
Slowly the dark navy blue curtains drew back and the stage spot light fell on the first item on the agenda, the Indian national anthem. Draped in simple white with saffron bordered saris, Rachita, Monila, Sritapa, Sanghamitra and Anu were guided by the rhythm of Dipro on Keyboard and percussions of Deepen on tabla as they chorused their voices in perfection to chant the national anthem. The whole auditorium echoed to these lyrics, youth and adults alike, first inked by Tagore back in the early part of last century.(Jana gana mana) .
As we glanced around we saw everyone with their hands on their heart honoring all those who shed their blood and sweat to give India its freedom, its independence, the sense of belonging was definitely overwhelming.
Soon the festivities began, on came a barrage of kids in white khadi barely three feet clasping the Indian flag in hand, marching on the spot to the tunes of ‘Nanha Munna Rahi Haun’. These kids were a blast; they cheered up everyone and had all of us laughing in joy. NO FEAR was their motto. Little did they care about stage presence or the spot light? All they did was have fun on stage.
As the night progressed, the glamour and the glitter of these tiny tots in their colorful stage costumes, coordinated dance sequences and flaring props continued to the tunes of mostly bollywood musical numbers.
We were curious to find out a little more about these young talents and here’s what we found Meet Mahima Mishra or aptly named 'Laddu', on a question of how does she feel about performing a song on stage - instantly pops out with 'Acha lagaa'( "i liked it" ) and for the rest sweetly said 'Pataah nahin'('not quite sure' or as we finally figured 'stop asking me question and get outta my way i wanna play with rest of the kids')
As one of the parents put it to us "This is what it takes to live a really long time, just enjoying with the kids."
Active on stage but hiding behind her mother another shy and coy little one, Adhya Tandon, said she really enjoyed doing this more than her homework. We look forward to seeing these mini talents back on stage soon.
One of the Highlights of the evening was the play "Mysticism of Tagore", conceived by Rupanjana Sengupta Rupanja told us that the play was based on the poets relationship with the concept of God, encompassing a secular, universal, non religious but spiritual manifestation of who God is?
Rupanjana uniquely chose the varied structured dance forms like kathak, Bharatnatyam, Manipuri to convey through the monologues, the essence of the play. The play reflected of the varied cultural mosaic that India truly is.
Performances called Bombay, an eclectic dance style and another with a Rajasthani theme too were very refreshing and well choreographed and executed
One thing we did notice was the crowd getting thinner by the end of every event. We did expect people to stay back as a mark of respect for those who had to perform towards the end. Not to mention the sonic assault to our ears when the poor organizers tried their best to convey to the crowd their purpose and agenda for hosting such a beautiful event. We certainly hope that things will improve the next time around…audience we hope you got this !!
As the day dawned to an end, and the curtains finally drew to a close, we are left to wonder all sacrifices the participants and their families have made for this event. The hard work of the organizers in arranging this evening seem like a well oiled machine now merely a memory of the past. But oh what a beautiful and colorful memory it is
Thanks to the board members of Indian Association of Phoenix, this nite in honor of 61st Independence Anniversary truly turned out to be very successful.
Kudos to all.
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