Reaching out to the homeland

CIA’s annual India Day Dinner celebrates India’s culture while highlighting some of its contemporary challenges

BY SUNIL GAUTAM

The India Day 2013 Dinner function by the Council

Of Indian Australians was held on August 10, 2013 at Bowman Hall, Blacktown. It was an evening marked with patriotic fervour, cultural showcasing and the spirit of charity. In addition to hundreds of community members, the function was also attended by Consul General of India Arun Goel, and prominent political leaders like Geoff Lee (state Member for Parramatta), Matt Kean (state member for Hornsby) and Labor MP and Parliamentary Secretary Ed Husic.

Efficiently anchored by MCs Sonia and Subhash, the function was like a ride through India – its colourful culture, arts, achievements and of course, its challenges. The first part of the show kept the audience spell bound as one scintillating performance was followed by another. Young Indian Australians, some as young as four years old, performed an exciting array of dances from all corners of India.

CIA kept the community involved by means of a keenly contested dance competition, for which preparations began weeks in advance. The participating dance groups were Melody Moves Singing & Dance School, Samskriti School of Dance, Agni Nakshatra Dance Group, Nupur Dance Group, the Indian Dance School, Expression: Priya Dewan’s Bollywood Dance Acedemy and the Panjabi Sangeet Centre FBI Bhangra Academy. Their performances were judged by a panel comprised of many well-known personalities from the Indian community in Sydney, Kumud Merani, Rajni Anand Luthra, Anupam Sharma, Madhvi Mohindra and Deepa Gupta. The judges may have differed in their scores but there was little disagreement on how hard it was to declare a winner since all performances were impressive. In the end, the Panjabi Sangeet Centre FBI Bhangra Academy was judged as the best group thanks to their pulsating Bhangra performance that infused new energy into the evening.

Along with all the fun and enjoyment, there was a sombre note to the evening when the guests were reminded of the havoc in Uttrakhand which resulted in thousands of deaths early this year. In keeping with the spirit of serving the community, there was a special presentation on CINI (Child In Need India), an organisation that works tirelessly towards improving the lives of disadvantaged children as well as women in India. Guests were encouraged to donate generously since all proceeds from the evening were pledged to the Uttrakhand Relief Fund and CINI. It was indeed heartening to see that the CIA has not only worked hard for local causes such as the Queensland floods, NSW Cancel Council and Clean-Up Australia Day, but has also extended the scope of its efforts to help people in need in India as well.

In their speeches, all distinguished speakers hailed the India-Australia ties which are growing stronger by the day. There were ‘Namastes’ galore, and the usual references to cricket and Commonwealth.

Geoff Lee, Member for Parramatta, encouraged all to participate heartily in the upcoming Parramasala festival of South Asian arts, to be graced by the mighty Shahrukh Khan this year.

Ed Husic read out PM Kevin Rudd’s message, and the Liberal candidate for Greenway Jaymes Diaz delivered the message of the Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott. Both leaders spoke of how Australia is enriched by migrant communities like the Indian community.

The young Jaymes Diaz was riding off the wave of his newfound internet popularity, thanks to a Channel Ten interview in which he could not name the six points of his party’s six-point ‘stop the boats’ policy. Yet it was fantastic to see his seniors support him on this occasion as they each called out to him from on-stage (once apparently, to reveal that Jaymes had declared he would participate in CIA’s next Bollywod dance contest if he won the upcoming elections).

It was interesting to observe the low attendance of Labor on the night: Ed Husic departed fairly quickly, but did manage to shake almost every hand he could get a hold of. And of course, the mandatory salwar-kameez or sari, on a non-Indian guest, that was missing too!

CG Arun Goel invited all guests to take part in the upcoming Bhartiya Pravasi Divas and congratulated all overseas Indians for being good citizens in their adopted countries. In his address, CIA President Subba Rao Varigonda reiterated the need to continue the good work because as the size of our community increases, so do our challenges and responsibilities. The vote of thanks was delivered by Dr Balu Vijay, CIA Secretary.

In the end, there was an auction to raise funds for the Uttrakhand

Flood Relief Appeal, followed by the Raffle Draw. The evening brought a rousing finale with a DJ-led performance, Music Masti and Dance.

The entire CIA team, Mohit Kumar in particular, deserves to be congratulated on putting together a superb function. It is events like this which present the Indian Australian community in the right light and pave the way for better integration with the mainstream society.