By Poppy Charnalia
BOSTON—In response to coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, Hindi Manch went virtual and organized a ‘Dream Meet’ or ख़्वाबों में मुलाक़ात on the evening of March 21st, 2020. Ninety-one people joined from five states in the United States and India.
On public demand, Hindi Manch will organize another such event on Sunday, March 29th at 4 pm. The Honorable Consulate General of India in New York, Mr. Sandeep Chakraborty will be joining from New York.
The program on March 21 was conducted virtually given this time of social distancing. It was a nectar filled evening with a confluence of musical and poetic offerings by various artists and poetry loving fans.
Some participants recited their own poems/prose or another poet’s work, sang songs or just listened providing beautiful and meaningful feedback on video or via the chat feature. The virtual forum enabled a very unique level of interaction amongst performers and the audience, usually not witnessed in other settings.
The program was orchestrated under the leadership of Hindi Manch President Preetesh Shrivastav.
Anish Khanzode, Jharna Madan, Gaurav Jetly, Rohit Soni, Monisha Prakash and Ajay Jaisingh played a key role in ensuring a smooth flow from a process and technical stand point specially given the outstanding attendance
This virtual program cohesively brought the community together and rendered a sense of hope in these challenging times.
उम्मीद का अहसास ही,
उम्मीद की वजह हो जाये,
रौशन ये अंधेरा,
हम सबके उजले ख़यालों से,
बेवजह हो जाये…
Here are all the participants who performed with immeasurable enthusiasm in the March 21st Hindi Manch event.
Poetry by – Anoop Bhargava from New Jersey, Poppy Charnalia, Prashanth Palakurthi, Syed Ali Rizvi, Kumkum Pareek Malik, Chandu Shah, Preetpal Singh Jasleen Kaur, Animesh Chandra from Connecticut , Suresh Ajnabi Saxena (Samiksha Saxena) from India, Varsha Uke Nagpal from India, Amit Khare, Gunjan Kuthiala, Jaya Pandey, Sonamita, Eshani Shah, Sonali Doshi, Yogen Pathak,
Songs by: Anuradha Palakurthi, Sanjay Jain, Ajay Jaisingh, Dilip Gehlot.