TCSers at Schenectady celebrates
the Ffestival
of Lights , along with clients
**************************************
- by Ravi Kandarpa
The curtain was
finally raised for the much-awaited Diwali get-together on December 02nd 2001 at the Jewish
Community
Center. The enthusiastic community members gathered in the hall by noon of the
surprisingly warm Sunday. The members were divided into 4 groups namely -–Peanuts (Group-1), Walnuts (Group-2),- Coconuts (Group-3)- and Cashewnuts (Group-4) at
the time of entry.
For the
first time, our GE clients like Rebecca Nold, Ravindra Tetambe, etc.,along
with their families were invited, for our
community function. This event provided an opportunity for our clients to know
about our Indian culture and tradition, and to interact with our Indian
families. Manga and Suchitra
compered the evening eventsprograms.
Rebecca Nold,
Generator Technology Dept, GE-PS and Chacko Matthew,
Center Manager, GE-ODC Chennai lighted the candle to kickoff the event. After
the prayer song by
Chakri, was it was time for fancy show by kids, which featured, Mmastertser Vishal (s/o Rajesh &
Shailaja) as Krishna and Master VishnuTeja (s/o Bhatala Prabhakar
& JayaSudha)as Radha.. They received a big applause
from the audience. Later the community ladies re-mixed both of the Hindi (by Anitha, Suchitra,
Bhanu & Namitha) and Tamil ( by Nitya, Priya Javahar, Priya Ngendran,
Jayanthi, Thenmozhi
and Aruna) versions to the present the innovative
group song "Ooo la la la".
Karthik organized a
game "Who am I?" in which 5
persons from each group were called and a label was pasted on each of their
backs. They were allowed to converse with each other but barred from actually readout
loudly other’s labels. The task was to find their labeled identity through a
coordinated team effort. Group-4 were declared as
winnerswon of this the game, as . Aall the 5 contestants
identified their labels in a shortest
time.
The next event was the
cake cutting ceremony for the birthday boys n gals, (Sound, Venki, Anand,
Durga Prasad,Padmaja, Naren, Chandra, Rishi, Jayanthi,
Nithya,Karthik,
Prabhakar Bathala and Harish Kumar-- pls get missing names by Manga), the wedding anniversary
couples of November and
December months(Naren & Priya;
Srinivasan & Suchtra; Harish & Samatha ; Prabhakar & Jayasudha --pls get missing names
by Manga), and the new members of our community. Vanitha and Kalyani
conducted "Memory Game" all for these members. A
tray of 20 items was shown to them for one minute. Padmaja emerged as the
winner by remembering and jotting down 12 of those 20 items. The
next game was "Mad(e) for each other"
for the couples
by Basav and Raghu.N. . Initially the
husbands wrote the answers for 6 questions and later their wives were publicly
interviewed to check for the conformity. The newly wed couple Sridhar and
Jyothi had an exciting win in this game.
There was a big cheer of
expectation in the crowd as Manga, one of the striking comperer announced the
skit "Modern Ramayan". The play incorporated the Ramayan theme into
the current computer computer eraage. Splendid
performances on the stage entertained the audience. This comical script brought out some
talented actors of the community like Shiv, Raghavendra, Vishy and others.
Those great performances include Chakri as Dasarath, Vishy and Kalai as Ram and
Lakshman, Raghavendra as Sita and Sudip as Ravan. Of course, Shiv narrated the
story after every scene in an impressive style. Supporting actors were Kalyani
as Kaikeyi, Shraban as Hanuman and Ravi as Vibheeshan.
Soon, the
"Tambola" started and everyone was deeply involved in the game as the
numbers were picked.
But, it had to be given a break as a grand planned potluck lunch was waiting.
Everyone enjoyed the delicious lunch, which included many mouthwatering
cuisines like biriyani, Alu sabjies, pakoda, sambar, curd rice, Ghajar Halva,
kheer and many others.Thanks
to the terrific work of ‘food-team’.
With the
"Tambola" continuing
intermittently, Sound readied his troops for the mime show. The show begins
with how 5 boys use their dancing talent to attract a girl on the crosswalk,
only to realize at the end that she
is blind and was waiting to be escorted. The stars of this hilarious show, featured included Kalyani as the girl,
Basav, Karthik, Kalai, Raghavendra and Sudip as dancers around her. The other shows were the comic
ad-shows of Aptech and NIIT, enacted
by Sound , Kalyani, Vishy and others.
The group song " uthe sabke
kadam....dekho ram..pam..pam..." ( by Raghu,
Raghavendra, Vishy, Chakri, Suchitra, Padmaja and ----- with Kalyani on
keyboard) created big applause
& appreciation
from the crowd. Priya Jawahar entertained the audience with a
sweet Tamil solo. It was time then for some group games by Karthik. They were like the "Words within a Wword", won by Group-4 and "Dumb-Cc" won by the
Group-2. Karthik and Basav
could take the
audience over reels of excitement
during these events.
Final round of Tamboola
was continued before Lakshmikanthan, Project Manager CASE Group GE-ODC, Chennai
distributed the prizes for all the winners of Tamboola, and other
games and mementos to all organizers. The winners of Tamboola were Kannan, Gujeet,
Bhagwan, Ramamurthy and --- (pls ask Manga for
names) Thanks to all the
organizers who have put their best efforts to make this a very successful
event. The fun-filled
evening ascribed to the festival of flights was able to
bring the joy of delights to the community folks and gave an opportunity
for the clients to know about Indian festival, dances, songs, culture and
tradition.
With many thanks
to Raghu, pictures of this event can be found at
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/nagabhra/lst?.dir=/TATASCH-DIWALI2001
****************
Master
Vishal –Son of Rajesh & Shailaja
Master
VishnuTeja- Son of Bhatala Prabhakar & JayaSudha
Hindi
version - Anitha, Suchitra,
Bhanu & Namitha)
Tamil version - Nitya,
Priya Javahar, Priya Ngendran, Jayanthi, Thenmozhi and Aruna
Birthday
Boys n Gals for Nov/Dec: Sound, Venki, Anand,
Durga Prasad,Padmaja,
Naren, Chandra, Rishi, Jayanthi, Nithya,Karthik,
Prabhakar Bathala, Azad and Harish Kumar etc.,
The
Wedding Anniversary couples of Nov/Dec: Naren & Priya;
Srinivasan & Suchtra; Harish & Samatha ; Prabhakar & Jayasudha
Group
Song: Raghu, Raghavendra, Vishy, Chakri,
Suchitra, Padmaja and Anitha with Kalyani on
keyboard
Winners of Tamboola: Kannan, Gujeet, Bhagwan, Ramamurthy etc
