Updates 

SANSKRITI

India Cultural Center

AILIV has launched a new initiative - Sanskriti. Sanskriti is going to be AILIV's cultural wing that will be focused on imparting cultural education to children and adults alike. As part of this effort, AILIV through Sanskriti is offering two very important educational classes in Indian culture to children:

  1. India Immersion Summer Camp: Designed for children ages 5 - 12, this is an inexpensive summer camp run mostly by volunteers that seeks to provide much needed secular Indian camp to improve knowledge of Indian culture for our children. To read more about this and to find out how to enroll, please go the Sanskriti section of this website. The deadline to enroll for the camp without any penalty is July 23, 2010.
  2. Sanskriti School: Designed for children ages 5 - 18, this is our effort to impart a wholesome Indian cultural education to our children. This offering has three components: language, culture and community service. We define Sanskriti as an all encompassing term encapsulating not only our language, custom and traditions but more importantly our whole ethos where community service plays a significant part. Sanskriti will tie up with a few NGOs in India that are working with under-privileged children in the areas of health and education. Children of Sanskriti will follow the life cycle of those children and help contribute to their well being in the process. The Sanskriti section of this website offers greater details about this initiative and allows you to download the enrollment forms. There is an early bird discount being offered to those who enroll by July 23, 2010.
Sanskriti School classes will be held on Sundays from 10 am to 12 pm starting on September 19, 2010.
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A Double Indian Classical Music Concert at the Livingston Public Library

AILIV in collaboration with the Livingston Public Library is hosting a double concert of Indian Classical Music on Jan 30 starting at 5 pm. Shri Shankar Ramani and Smt. Ashtha Shukla bring to us the Carnatic and Hindustani traditions on the same evening. The concert is likely to last 4 - 5 hours. Light refreshments will be served. To help facilitate adequate planning for this event, we will appreciate you taking a survey to indicate your attendance etc. Please click here to take the survey.

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Diwali Dinner & Dance Night

AILIV organized yet another successful event - its second Diwali gala on October 24, 2009 at the Ramada Inn in East Hanover, NJ. We had over 250 adults and children in attendance. Besides great food and Live DJ, we had a magician entertaining children. We used this opportunity to raise some relief funds for the victims of the recent floods in India. We are happy to report that we will be able to donate $1,000 to Goonj, a non-profit organization involved in relief work in the flood affected areas. For more details about this event, please click here.

For some photos of the event, please click here.

Here is a video clip from the event: 

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Diwali Mela

AILIV hosted its first Diwali Mela on October 4, 2009 at the YMCA grounds in Livingston from 11 am to 5 pm. What a spectacular Mela it turned out to be! We had great weather and a continuous flow of people. By all counts, there were at least 1000 visitors. Various artists ,including children, put up great shows; food stalls did brisk business; our free health clinics stayed busy; the Handicrafts stalls and the Mehndi stalls did well too. Click here to view some pictures from the mela. Click here to view video clips of various cultural performances. Here is a clip of a great performance of a Bollywood song-dance by students of Bina Menon:

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Gandhi Jayanti Celebrations at the Livingston Public Library

AILIV celebrated Gandhi Jayanti in collaboration with the Livingston Public Library on October 3, 2009. As part of the celebrations, we organized two 30 minute story sessions in the children section of the Library from 3 pm to 4 pm. We also have a Gandhi display in the Library. The display will be hosted through the end of October. Here is a video clip of the story session:



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Garba Night

On Friday September 18th, AILIV hosted a hugely successful Garba and Dandia Raas night at the Livingston YMCA. Please go to Past Events section to read more about it and to watch some video clips. Click here to read a nice coverage of the event by West Essex Tribune on September 24, 2009 on their front page.

Here is a clip of a video showing Livingston's Deputy Mayor, Arlene Johnson learning Garba from Dr. Madhvi Maniar:


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Food Drive

AILIV was featured in the West Essex Tribune for organizing a successful food drive for the Community Food Bank in Hillside, NJ. AILIV members donated more than 140 items, and volunteered more than 3 hours at the Food bank on July 25th.