Grand Diwali Mela At Invine Mandir

Los Angeles, Nov. 20, 2012
By Dilip Butani

Indian Hindu Community celebrated Grand Diwali Mela on November 11, 2012 at The Irvine Mandir hall. Over 600 people attended and enjoyed the entertaining program that consisted of dances, Ramayan act and non-stop music. The guests of honor included Cypress Mayor Pro Tem Dr Prakash Narain, Mrs. Narain, Sunil Tolani, Laxman Nathan, Avdesh Agarwal, and Dr Krishna Reddy..

The show started with a sumptuous dinner served by Haveli, followed by Rath Yatra around the Temple area. The yatra ended with an Aarti.

The cultural program began with a patriotic act Hum Hai Hindustani, choreographed by Dr Sinduri of Savitri Arts Academy. In the act children appeared on stage dressed in traditional costumes of various Indian states. The children also performed an act or sang a song that was typical to the state they represented. 

Next were few dances. The first was a wonderful Diya Dance by students of the well known Odissi exponent Nandita Behera followed by dance by disciples of Hiral Joshi who displayed Saraswati Vandana in Kathak tradition.  There were also some bollywood dances and a bhangra. The dancers were introduced by Amarjeet Dhamija and Dilip Butani.   
Next was Ramayan act play written and directed by Kamini Khare. The various episodes depicted  Sabri being told by her Guru to teach the student story of Lord Ram; Sita Swayamwar, Kaikayi asking King Dashrath to fulfill his two woes and abduction of Sita. The actors who performed included Kamini Khare, Ramesh Ramnani, Prakash Pancholi, Komal Nayar, Dr Madhusudan Gupta, Chitralekha Pasi, Dr. Manorama, Munish Nayar, Kulwant Khandpur, Pushpa Chandra, Nila Parekh, Rajesh Pande, Simran Nayyar, Bhumika Sharma, Nimisha Singh Monika Pal, Vanse Goel, Neil Pal and Sheecharanand Pradyumna. Students of Savitri Arts Acadey also performed Sita Haran.

The dances and plays were followed by a wonderful music performance by the two of California’s best singers Nauzad and Bhavna Chawla. They sang one after one hit numbers of yesteryears and also new songs. The crowd cheered on each and every song they sang.

The organizing committee that put up the wonderful show include; Amarjeet Dhameja, Kamini Khare, Dilip Butani, Amrit Bhandari, Ramesh Ramnani, Prakash Pancholi, Roshan Khandpur, Aparna Hande, KV Kumar, Siddharth Pathak, Anita Advani, Dr Jay Shah, Usha Shah Manu Patel, Ravji Patel, Dr Sinduri, Nila Parekh and Joy Dhokia.

Highlight of the mela included a rangoli competition in which over 50 children took part. Each child was given a gift donated by Cottage Art, Artesia. The photography and videography was by Paul Sukhwal of Hollycal Productions. The beautiful hall decoration was done by Prakash Pancholi, Amrit Bhandari, Aparna Hande, Kamini Khare and Ramesh Ramnani. 

 

By Prakash Pancholi

Diwali; the triumph of goodness over evil as to enlighten divinity over darkness of our lives, says Hinduism as a way of life,
This was the motto of Diwali Mela celebrated at Mandir in Irvine. A beautiful decorated  led lit  chariot that carried Lord shri Ram, as he entered Ayodhya city after defeating Ravan   and took back his kingdom with his wife Sita and his brother Laxman.

This Ramlila was elegantly portrayed in a drama series with 3 sets of a Palace, where the whole Mandir turmed in to a palace wtth gorgeous sets of a well decorated art direction under director Ms Kamini Khare. 2nd set came of a Lord Shri Ram going to Jungle as of command of his father Dashrath, this sacrifice of going to jungle 14 years insted of the wordly pleasure of his kingdom. This was done with lot of hard work of shri Prakash Pancholi and crew to create a a hut of Shabri and real jungle on the set.

Participants worked very hard for weeks before the show for a flawlwss performances by all the actors with beautiful costumes and jewellery , Standing room only audience was mesmerised with a musical Ramayan enjoyed children portraying Ramlila characters under Dr. Sinduri of Savithri Arts.

Prakash Pancholi's portrrayed a magmificent double role of a court minister ( Arya Suman) as well as Part of devil Ravan; where as his deep voice of Ravan mesmised audience in a complete silence, Mayor came personely to the stage and said he did not understand the language but he enjoyed the acting talent of Prakash Pancholi.( Pics attached)
Countless hours of hard work turned into standing ovation of all..

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