(Asian Independent)
IIW (Inspiring Indian Women) organised an event “Kavya Ras” – Online Kavi Sammelan a first of its kind, presented by Darshana Shah who is a poet herself. It was live on all IIW social media platforms. IIW encouraged budding poets to come and recite on the platform which was much appreciated. A Stupendously successful fantabulous an all women poetry evening, was hosted by Darshana Shah with women poets from USA, Germany, Bahrain, India and of course UK!!! Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Tamil poems echoed the atmosphere too!! It was for the first time, women who wrote but never ever recited before or got busy in family responsibilities or never took it seriously got a platform to express!!!
Chief Guest was Jai Verma ji, Guest of Honours Ms Mini Narang, Special Guests Ms Indu Barot and Ms Manju Lodha!!!
Special invitees -Mr Tejendar Sharma, Mr Tarun Kumar (Hindi Attaché) HCIUK, Mr Madhav. Turumella and the one and only Mr Ravi Sharma!!! This show lasted for 3 hrs!!!
Some of the upcoming poets who participated were Pratibha Pandey, Dhalia Gosh, Vini Kalia, Bhavi Ram, Aditi Tiwari, Garima Kapoor, Medha Sharma Tyagi, Dharti Vasani , Rupali Ravi, Deepika Ganesh, Swati Saxena, Mita Joshi, Purva Joshi, Parin Somani, Sanskriti Sharan and Purvi Virani. Poetries recited were on various topics from life to longing for motherland to romance to love of a mother and loss of a father. Poetries were also recited about self-love and importance of giving time to your own self and how we forget about worldly things.
It was a mesmerising evening with all these topics which left the audience enchanted and even after three hours audience wanted more. Everyone stayed online and no one left despite some poets joining from different time zones.
This event was much appreciated and the motivation behind it was to give chance to upcoming women poets a platform where they can feel comfortable and recite their piece of art.
Suggestions were made to continue this kind of programme once a month!!!
HINDI –Uniting India!
The most understood and the easiest language
14 th September – IIW in collaboration with Hindi Shiksha Parishad celebrate Hindi Diwas
IIW and Hindi Shiksha Parishad UK celebrated *HINDI DIWAS* Supported by High Commission of India UK. Attended by Mr Ravi Shankar Attache Political, Ms Shashi Mathur, Ms Sunitaa and Ms Parveen Rani!!
14 th September marked the celebration of Hindi Diwas all over the world and London was no exception. IIW invited young children from all over England to participate. The program coordinated by Anita Nayyar was delivered via zoom and children from all over UK participated from within the comfort of their homes. The enthusiastic children demonstrated their Hindi skills through poems, bhajans (religious sons), Dohas (couplets) and songs.
Young Vivaan, Prithviraj Dalal, Pulkit, Swayam Dahiya Kapur, Mihir, Siddhant, Poonam Guha were some of the kids who added a special flavor to the evening.
The programme was a great success as parents and audience watched little British born Indian Kids making effort to learn and speak Hindi, trying to connect to the roots.
There was a question answer round too where in parents interacted with the teachers as well as the High Commission representative Mr Ravi Shankar to know whether there was any recognised exam conducted in UK to qualify Hindi Language course? There was a united appeal to do something about it.
The programme ended with mixed emotions of pride and happiness, of being connected with likeminded people. It infused the feeling of being in our native country and left many teary eyed.
