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Socaltamil- Southern California Tamil Organization

 

Socaltamil’s Deepavali Event Draws Large Crowd

Long Beach, California,
Nov 05, 2012

Southern California Tamil Organization (Socaltamil) organized Deepavali Kondattam 2012 at the Jordan High School Auditorium on November 3rd.  “Deepavali Kondattam” means celebration of Deepavali in Tamil.  Festivities began at 2:30 PM and ended around 9:45 PM with a huge turnout of around 700 people in attendance. Audience came to the function from San Diego to Los Angeles to Simi Valley to Lancaster and few visitors were from India and Dubai.

The program began with a Social hour where the audience and the participants interacted with each other and had the opportunity to network and meet, greet old Friends and make new Friends or acquaintances.  Ganesha pooja was done by Dr. Padmabhan Iyer.  Subsequently, the audience was entertained and enthralled with over 20 cultural items including classical, folk, light, Kollywood and Bollywood dance and music numbers. Cultural programs were riveting with performances done by kids as young as 5, teenagers and adults throughout the day, putting on display the diverse art forms from different states in India, and in particular, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.  

Program sequence of events was organized by Mr. Balaji Thirumalai, Ms. Deepa Anand, Mr. Meenakshi Sundaram Ganesh and Ms. Uma Ramesh.  Tamil Class has been initiated by Socal Tamil since 2011 and the participants from the class showcased their Tamil talents.  Classical song/music performances by Sabari Girish, Shriman Narayan, and Rose Murali’s group were well received.  Reality show, Jodi Poruttham (How Good is the Couple’s Match) had 8 couples participating and regaled the crowd.  

All Dance sequences were very good with noteworthy mention of Sangamam Academy’s Kollywood and Bollywood medley performed by 15 kids and Folk dance by Irvine Dancers, need to be mentioned here.  Karagattam (Folk Dance), Bharatanatyam (Classical) and Kollywood performance by youngsters were exceptional and portrayed dances performed during different Festivals in Tamil Nadu.  Choreography of the dances done by more than 5 groups ranging from Simi Valley to Los Angeles to Irvine was excellent and the detailed costumes design by the various artists were amazing.  Light Music performance done by Fun MuzikLovers and Sangamam  Academy was outstanding.

Children were encouraged to participate in a Drawing competition with Ms. Durga Sundar and Vaiyapuri Subramanian coordinating this activity.  More than 15 drawings were drawn by kids in advance and submitted during the event.  Creative drawings were displayed and it was rated by chosen group of Volunteers. The best drawings were selected and awarded prizes. Master of ceremony was done by Mr. Jeevan, Ms. Uma, Mr. Rajan, Ms. Latha, Ms. Kavipriya and Mr. Venkat.  Activities ranging from Stage to Sponsors to Audience Management were coordinated by Mr. Ramasamy, Mr. Bose, Mr. Subramanian, Mr. Venkatesan, Ms. Srinivasan, Mr. Swammy, Mr. Sathiyaraj, Mr. Chandran Mr. Gopalan, Mr. Palanisamy, Mr. Subramanian, Mr & Mrs. Narayanan, Ms. Idhaya and others. Youngsters Rubika Swammy and Karthika Swammy also helped out.  

Just after 5 PM, Dr. Subbu Shanmugham, Socaltamil President and Ms. Kavitha Venkat, Socaltamil Vice President were invited to the stage.  Dr. Shanmugham thanked the audience for their presence and the committee members were recognized.  Ms. Venkat highlighted the  activities done by the Socaltamil Organization in 2012 ranging from 1) Celebration of Pongal, 2) Pooja activities, 3) Family Fun Day 4) volunteer activities of the group at different Health Fairs, 5) Participation in events conducted by other groups in Southern California and 6) Charitable activities and contributions to good causes.  A presentation about Southern California Tamil Organization was also presented.

Subsequently, the sponsors were invited to the podium around 6 PM and thanked by Dr. Subbu Shanmugham for their bigheartedness that made the “Deepavali Kondattam” possible. For the second time in Socaltamil’s existence, a Souvenir was released. Editors, Ms. Durga Kailasam and Mr. Jeevan Natarajan and the committee members gave the Souvenir to the Sponsors on stages.  Few sponsors voluntarily spoke about their involvement and thanked Socaltamil for their good work including Mr. Prabhakaran from S2 Housing, Mr. Paul Kalra, Signature America Financial and Insurance Services, Inc, Dr. Indu Vardhan and Dr. D.M. Velu.  Mr. Bala Palanisamy recognized the recurring Sponsors on stage.

Led by Mr. Kumar Natarajan, Mr. Sundar Markandan and Mr. K.V. Raghavan the Socaltamil volunteers took care of the food arrangements and made sure the audience enjoyed the South Indian Dinner provided by Woodlands. The program continued with more light music.  This was very well received by the audience. They performed different Kollywood numbers and did a good selection of songs with kids dancing impromptu on stage. Excellent program performances done by Socal Tamil for the last 4 years and the good work done by Socal Tamil Organization resulted in additional donations by Mr. Bob Balan and Mr. Paul Kalra, which the group will utilize towards charitable causes. Overall, it was a fun-filled day with Kids, Youngsters and Adults celebrating Deepavali Kondattam and being reminded of festivities as would happen in Tamil Nadu, India.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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