Hi everyone, my name is Tanu Nekenti, and I’m here to give you a little recap of last Saturday! If you didn’t already know, the India Society of Worcester (ISW) kicked off the new year with an extraordinary event called The Harvest Festival! It took place last Saturday, February 12th, 2022, from 2-6 pm. The event was a virtual program streamed LIVE on ISW’s Facebook page.

India is popularly known as the land of festivals, considered a colorful nation where people celebrate with full vigor and joy. Harvest festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm to mark the beginning of the new spring and are celebrated in most of India as the new year by Hindus. Being the cheerful nation that India is, the most vibrant harvest festivals of India involve interesting mythological legends and joyous celebrations. They are as incredible and diverse as their people and landscapes and let you experience the beauty of Indian culture. India has 29 states, and every state celebrates harvest festivals at different times in the year. The first yield of the crop is a delight for the people, as it marks a time of prosperity for the farmers. This leads to them celebrating it cheerfully as a festival.

Due to the ongoing pandemic, we could not gather in person as in previous years. However, we invited the extended ISW community to participate virtually in the cultural event and dance competition. This was met with astounding participation.

The show lasted nearly three hours and was emceed by Tanushree Nekenti and Kunal Chauhan. It featured a variety of acts, including Indian traditional dances, semi-classical dances, and Bollywood medleys. Participants included many energetic individuals from all age ranges. All the dances were brilliantly choreographed and incredibly entertaining for both young and old.

As mentioned earlier, each and every single contestant brought a fantastic talent to this one-of-a-kind platform. There were four very accomplished judges to judge the competition: Hema Iyengar, Shaila Verma, Sunita Ramnani, Srinivaas A.B. They did a spectacular job with the judging, though I know it must have been tough for them, as all the performances were absolutely magnificent! However, since it was a contest, the judges identified these gems from the participants.

Age Category - Below 9 years

1st place - Jhankar by Shaswati Basu - Performers - Gavishi Joshi, Rohini Patel.  

2nd place - Bollywood Beats by Shaswati Basu - Performers - Shivani Suresh, Ayushi Dasgupta, Saanvi Karuturi, Thenammai Valliappan  

3rd place - Disco by Ekta Jain -

Performers - 

1.Riya Thiagarajan
2. Isabel Thomas 
3. Pihu Mangarhe
4. Jasmin Grover
5. Niyati Dosala
6. Kaira Agarwal
7. Shanvika Potli
8. Jia Gadhia

Age Category - 9 to 12 years

1st place - Tapori by Ekta Jain. Performers - Naksh Parwani, Neil Dixit, Neil Dave, Anish , Saahith Karthik, Ruhan Lawana  

2nd place - Dancing Divas by Adilakshmi. Performers - 

Sai Jayita Vootla, Pallavi Padala, Pragathi Senthilkumar, Sravya Gollapudi, Tanvi Padmaraju, Tanvika Chintalapudi

Age Category -13 to 17 years

1st place - Kathak Kunj by Shaswati Basu. Performers - Aishani Mukherjee, Safalta Sanjay Shukla, Samvriddhi Sanjay Shukla, Mihika Sengupta, Saanvi Basu 

2nd place - Tarana by Mona Mitra. Performers - Prisha Kumar, Miley Arora, Sanvi Kumar, Dia Arora 

Age Category - 18 and over

1st place - North and South by Ekta Jain. Performers - Geena Virmani, Jyoti Grover, Namita Khungar, Neetu Gupta, Nipun Asija, Manasa Singamsetty, Vaishali Sharma , Ranjan Sharma

2nd place - Agary Nandini by Priya Asthana and Sadhvi Majumdar. Performers - Priya Madhan/Priya Asthana 

Congratulations to everyone, the contestants and the winners. All of you are winners in our hearts and performed magnificently! 

All of the contestants and participants brought sensational talent to this one-of-a-kind platform. We thank our participants for sharing their talent and love with us. We also thank our choreographers, emcees, organizers, sponsors, and especially the audience at home; we couldn’t do it without you! I had a great time watching and participating in this amazing event, and I hope you had fun too! If you missed the event, you can still view it on Facebook on the ISW page. We hope to see you at future ISW events as well.

~ Tanushree Nekenti