The weekend of 17th and 18th June witnessed how strong and united the British Asian community in London is, when hundreds of people turned up to participate in ABPL Group's seventh year of the Anand Mela, and the first year of Pitru Vandana, a musical evening to celebrate Father's Day, at the Harrow Leisure Centre.
Despite sharing the date with the India-Pakistan cricket finals at the Champions Trophy, people came in great numbers to encourage their community and to build each other up. When people share and experience an event as a community, it can transcend and modify their lives and the lives of others, just like the ABPL group, which works closely with the British Asian communities, designing events to benefit and entertain the British Asian diaspora. In a true sense of rising by raising others, all the proceeds from the Anand Mela ticket sales were donated to the charity partner Hope for Children.
The two-day mega family fest, brought together big and small businesses, providing a platform for firms running from their homes, to showcase their products to a larger audience. The stalls included medical tourism, health and wellbeing, beauty, fashion, Indian wedding attire, banks, travel and tourism, creative decorations, which all kept the attendees busy and entertained.
THE INAUGURAL CEREMONY
The event started with the lighting the inaugural lamp ceremony. Noted MPs and Councillors who work closely with the Asian communities were present. CB Patel, the Editor and publisher of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar introduced the dignitaries and thanked them for their invaluable and selfless contributions towards the community. Among those on stage to light up the lamp were MP Bob Blackman, Cllrs Ameet Jogia, Rekha Shah, Ajay Maru, Sachin Shah, Raman Barbar, Krupa Sheth, Amit Jogia, and AM Navin Shah.
OUR MAIN SPONSORS
The main sponsors for the event were the Bank of Baroda, Medituria, Bhalla's Dental Clinic and Delhi on the go. Our charity partners were Hope for Children. A small act of charity was multiplied by several people to transform the world of young children.
Ed Fletcher, Head of Fundraising said “we are really happy with the response we got here. Anand Mela has given us a platform to reach out to the community and spread awareness about the work we do in India.”
Dr Manjit Singh Bhalla, Director & CEO from Dr Bhalla's Dental Clinic said “the response was good, many were keen to know about our services and there were quite a few inquiries from the elderly.”
Samit Kumar Biswas, Director & CEO of Advatech Healthcare Europe Ltd (Meditouria) said “This is our second year as a Medical Tourism partner in Anand Mela. As usual through Meditouria we could reach the right audience in Anand Mela. We have a few healthcare services providers from India. They got some good, interested interaction and are quite hopeful to convert them into business. I feel Anand Mela is the best way to reach out to the Asian community in the UK. We hope to continue the journey in future as well."
Ravindranath Mortha, the Asst. Gen. Manager, of the Bank of Baroda's Wembley Branch spoke to the audience about the services provided by the bank, and the benefits of banking with them.
THE SHOW-STOPPERS
Performances from both budding artists and well-known stars lit up the Anand Mela stage. Navin Kundra, the singer/songwriter, who writes, composes, and performs songs in Hindi, Punjabi and English enthralled the crowds on Saturday evening. UK-singer Kishan Amin, well known in the circuit for his ghazal, sufi, and Bollywood numbers got the crowds tapping along to his music.
The other singers included Vinod Patel, eight-year-old Renia Ganguly, a musical genius with several interests, Adriana Gilani, a Romanian, qualified child psychiatrist who has been singing Bollywood songs from the age of seven and who came down all the way from Vienna to perform for us on both days.
Muhammed Fahad, another famed singer also came up to sing old Md Rafi songs and old Bollywood evergreen numbers that got applauded by the audience.
Raja Kaasheff, a UK-based Asian singer/music director equally known in India, Pakistan, and Urdu/Hindi-speaking diaspora around the world also performed, interacting with the audiences all along. Shabaz Khan also sang old Bollywood songs.
The London Sharad Utsav, renowned charity organisation which promotes Indian and Bengali culture and cultural integration between India and the UK, performed with singers, a gorgeous dance team and juniors Arav, Ryan, Anish, Vaidehi and Alisha as a cherry on the cake.
Shreya, Vedant along with their mothers Seemangi and Nilanjana will be presenting evergreen melodies from their dada-dadi and nana-nani' Kiv Raj, a 14-year-old played the Dhol.
Among the dancers were the kiddies and juniors from A K Bollywood, Anashmita Saha in Kathak, Sangeeta Naik in Odishi, Meenarva performed an outstanding kathak and the traditional thali dance from Honey Kalaria's Dance School, East West Fusion Group, Ahana, Payel Basu & Group and some brilliant Kathak dance recitals by Meera Salat's dance group. The East West Fusion Group, specialising in diverse dance forms including Contemporary, Bollywood, Semi-classical, Indo-jazz and Hip-hop shared the stage with the other dancers.
The Indian Ladies in the UK, ILUK, an organisation with 18000 ladies of Indian origin performed a short dance on Vande Mataram.
Asian Voice went live with the events, and can be followed on Twitter:@anandmelaUK
PITRU VANDANA
ABPL Group's Matru Vandana or Mothers day celebrations in March-April 2017 with ace singer Maya Deepak and her entourage was a smash hit, and by popular demand, ABPL organised a similar event to celebrate Father's Day. The evening was a musical tribute to the fathers who showed us our way, and have been a constant support. Fresh hot vegetarian dinner was also served.
Singers Maya Deepak, Mohammad Fahad, Raja Kaasheff, Rocky, and Rubayyat Jahan were accompanied by musicians. Old Bollywood and qawwali songs by Md Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar were sung by them. Reena Rocky was extremely impressed by the events and treated the entire crowd in the auditorium to some much relished ice-cream.
The show was a huge success, replicating the show at the Symphony Rooms in Leicester on 9th June, and the event was a huge success with nearly 250 people turning up to enjoy and evening of old Hindi songs and mouth-watering snacks.
The Pitru Vandana magazine was also launched, and will be given out as a supplement with this week's newspaper.
