India Fest 2018

Scintillating Indian music and dance performances, arts and crafts as well as food were among the attractions at the India Association of Long Island (IALI) marquee event India Fest held on Sunday, September 23, 2018, at North Hempstead Beach Park, Port Washington, NY. Thousands of Indians, Americans, African Americans, Latinos,Pakistanis as well as other ethnicities attended the festival organized by IALI, with the main purpose of showcasing Indian culture to the Long Island community. All this was set in a beautiful setting of the park with the beach as the backdrop - the same location where the very first India Fest was held in 1990.

Several social and political dignitaries and community leaders attended the event including New York State Senator Elaine Phillips, North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judy Bosworth, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino was represented by Angel Cepeda, Assemblyman Anthony D’Urso, Councilwoman Anna Kaplan and Yogacharya Dr.Dayashankar Vidyalankar from Consulate General of India (also conducted the Yoga Session). Also in attendance were six CBP officers. A key highlight of the event was when Judy Bosworth presented IALI President Gunjan Rastogi and the organization with two certificates and declared September 23rd a day of special recognition in North Hempstead for IALI in honor of India.

All of the attendees were welcomed with a tikka at the entrance and an Indian "costume booth" was set up to allow guests to dress in traditional Indian garb and have them feel the ethnicity. All the elected officials (ladies) looked stunning in their Indian outfits - Saree, lehanga, costume bridal jewelry, bindi, and chunni. There was also a turban- tying station and more than 250 males/females from all different nationalities took part, ranging in age from 2 years to 89 years old. The ladies in attendance were seen making a beeline for the mehendi booth and visiting the variousvendors selling Indian clothes, jewelry, arts and crafts. Many vendors showcased new items, such as Haldi milk by Ravya Drinks and “Nutribites” healthy snack bar made from dates, nuts and jaggery (Gur).

The five hour non-stop cultural program featured beautiful classical performances that represented the many Indian dance styles from north to south and east to west, and popular Bollywood performances throughout the day. The stage was managed very well by Emcees Amita Karwal, Dr. Ujwala Shah, Jyoti Gupta and Pradeep Tandon. Kids were thrilled to visit the kids forum booth where they played games, flew kites and got free face painting. There was also Yoga on the beach and a health awareness booth. The official program concluded with a raffle drawing for a variety of gifts including two 43” flat screen Sharp TVs.

IALI’s 40 th Anniversary sponsors were honored on stage: Benefactor Sponsors Dr. Dev Chitkara, Vimal Goyal, Dev Kini Associates, Shashi Malik, KK Mehta, Satnam S. Parhar, Navin Shah and IALI President Gunjan Rastogi and Patron Sponsors Dr. Urmilesh Arya, Peter Bheddah,Govind Gupta, Sunil Jain, Dr. Bhupi Patel, Vijay Verma. Corporate Sponsor HAB Bank, represented by Rizawan Qureshi, was honored for their generous support for India Fest 2018.

A special guest appearance was made by Javed Pathan of TV serial fame Hum Paanch fir se’ of Balaji, Maharaja Pratap, Jodha Akbar, Balveer, Shani, Hanuman etc. and he has also worked in Bollywood movies Paranormal, Love in Taxi, Horror Love Stories etc. Thanks to Bharat Goradia for this special arrangement.

IALI President Gunjan Rastogi acknowledged all of the elected officials and community leaders for the important roles they all play in supporting the organization. She also thanked the entire IALI team for their hard work in putting together such a wonderful event and made a special mention to her Executive Council for doing a phenomenal job and pointed out that in order for this to come together, each person made an important contribution - no matter how small or large the task seemed. She also recognized all of the teachers who are imparting their knowledge of our culture to the young generation and conveyed appreciation to the media partners for taking IALI's message to the public and allowing them to showcase our rich Indian heritage and culture.