by Neha Kaushal

“Let’s Celebrate HER”, a one of a kind event, hosted for the first time at India Center by the Women Empowering Women and Symphony team, on May 12th, 2023 to celebrate Mother’s Day! An evening where we saw 150+ ladies dazzling in their sarees, in Yash Raj theme, ready to celebrate themselves with their support groups, circle of friends, mothers, mother in-laws, daughters, and much more!! India Center was buzzing with laughter, fun, songs, dance, glamor, and glitter!! All the beautiful ladies were extremely happy and delighted when they were welcomed with return favors right when they walked in!

The event was kicked off by WEW chair Prof. Snehalata Kadam, talking about the mission and vision of the platform, where she was heard saying ‘the mission of this platform is to support, motivate, and most importantly empower each other’. Mrs. Sarita Deshpande, ISW Symphony Chair, was then called upon to give an overview of the initiative, ISW's new hub and platform of many popular performing art forms - such as music, dance, theater and visual arts like drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and films and stand-alone art form such as literature. We also had ISW’s Vice President, Prof. Jagan Srinivasan address the audience, giving them an overall update on the new India Center and array of events ISW has been conducting.

Mrs. Neha Kaushal, WEW team member then introduced two very strong community leaders, Mrs. Jaya Pandey, Chief Guest and Mrs. Jharna Madan, Guest of honor, who graciously accepted to be a part of this spectacular event. Mrs. Shiamin Melville felicitated both our guests with plaques and bouquets of flowers. Mrs. Jaya Pandey, talked about her journey as a mother and ideas about what a village should be and why everyone should have a village. Mrs. Jharna Madan also spoke about the power of motherhood, women empowerment and what we can do for each other, including our future generations.

The event then progressed into the fun segment that was planned by integral WEW team members Mrs. Kajal Kaushik Dixit and Mrs. Puja Harkut Rathi. They both took the stage as emcees of the event, giving our audience an overview of the second half of the segment, which included games, singing, dancing, and the most liked section i.e. our “ramp walk”, which was enjoyed by one and all! Everyone in our audience was a model for the evening and walked the ramp in their own unique style!!

We also had singers from the Indian Beatles, Mrs. Neha Maheshwari Rathi and Mrs. Padma Shenoy, who took us back to the nostalgic era of the 90's with their melodious singing. Mrs. Ekta Jain, from Ekta Dance Academy along with her team set the stage on fire dancing to Yash Raj songs, while we could see the crowd cheering and dancing along!!

Thank you to our sponsors Dr. Vinay Nikam from Ekdant Developers (NRI Bungalow Resort Project, Near Goa), and Mrs. Geena Virmani from Homes by Geena, for giving our winners absolutely gorgeous gifts. The group game winners received a gift hamper from Mrs. Geena Virmani, while the second & third raffle prize winners received some beautiful hand-woven sarees. The first winner from the raffle won a handloom stitched Paithani saree! Thank you to Dr. Nikam for bringing them all the way from India!

Lastly, thank you to all our audience who attended the event and made it a grand success!!