ISW celebrated Spring Navratri at India Center on March 19th, 2010. Over 100 people enjoyed doing Garba and playing Dandia to fabulous live music by Jhankar group in a beautifully decorated India Center. 

After aarti, Jhankar team provided a special treat. Manav Shah, the youngest artist in Jhankar team sang several hindi film songs that many folks danced to. Program went on until mid-night!

~by Shiamin Melville

Saraswati Puja was celebrated on March 14, 2010. It was attended by 85 parents and students. Ushaji led the puja with two student volunteers, Rishav Sarma, and Aarshiya Sachdeva. The ISW Sunday students performed several bhajans taught by Neelima Chatruvedi, and the ISW Telugu Saturday students performed shlokas. A group from Bhuvana Ganesh’s school with Sanjana Rao performed  bhajans.

~by Raj Melville

This year another first for ISW was its sponsorship of the Boogie Woogie auditions for Massachusetts. Boogie Woogie is the longest running dance show put up by Sony Television. The Indian equivalent of American Idol, it draws hundreds of applicants from round the world to its annual contest.  Milan Cultural Association of Connecticut has organized the event for New England for the past several years.

The event included two categories of competition, the junior competition for those 6 to 13 years old and a senior competition for those 14 to 21 years of age. The opening sequence of non-competition performances by Ranjani Saigal’s dance students and the Boston University a cappella group, Suno, warmed up the audience.

By Aniket Lachyankar

On February 14, 2010 The India Youth Group visited a retirement home in the Southgate cetirement community in Shrewsbury. The seniors were excited to learn about some of our Indian heritage and enjoy our rich culture. At the senior center we served some traditional Indian food including samosa and some of our Indian cookies.