Second Diwali Gala, October 24, 2009

Kudos to all for yet another successful event! The Diwali gala organized by AILIV on October 24th at the Ramada Inn was very well attended (over 250 people) and provided a lot of fun. Moreover, we managed to raise more than $600 between the silent auction and voluntary contributions at the event site alone for the recent flood victims in India. View a slide show of some pictures from the event:

 

 

Art & Writing Competition

As part of this event, AILIV had organized a contest among children in the Art and Writing category.

Here are the winners in the Art category which was for the age group 5 - 7 years:

Writing Competition was for two different age groups. Here are the winners and runners-up:

Ages 8 - 11

  • Ranvir Bhatia - First Prize
  • Rohat Seshadri - Runner-up
Ages 12 & Up
  • Sydelle Barreto - First Prize
  • Sohan Mone - Runner-up

 'Fun, Lights & Colors' by Rohan Nambiar, 7 yrs
First Place winner of the Diwali Art Competition

'Diwali' by Lara Sandeep, 6 yrs
Second Place winner of the Diwali Art Competition

What Diwali Means  To Me

by Ranvir Bhatia

 

What Diwali

What Diwali

What Diwali means to me

 

Fun and Frolic

Fireworks

and being with friends and family

 

What Diwali

What Diwali

What Diwali means to me

 

Dias I light

and the food I bite

and never a crumb left in sight

but don’t forget the methai

 

What Diwali

What Diwali

What does Diwali really mean to me

 

Bravery

and Victory

Never Giving up

and standing free

is the real meaning of Diwali

 

Ram was fighting

Ram was fighting

Not  just for Sita

but for you and me

 

Bravery

Aim! Aim! Aim!

Determination

Get Ready!

 

Good Over Evil

Shoot!Shoot!Shoot!

 

Ravan was shot in the belly button!

Good  Won Over Evil!

Ram comes   back to Ayodhya!

                        

“Deepawali,” the villagers shout.

“Deepawali,” the demons pout.

Deepawali’s

Meaning is

Found in……………….

 

The dias people light

and the food people bite

the family and friends

are the

Rangoli

of

Diwali!

The Essence of Diwali

by Sydelle Barreto, 13 yrs

 A simple earthen lamp

With a cotton wick

Not very big

Not very special

Just a light

 

Light,

Weightless, intangible

 It emanates a quiet power

in this month of darkness

and has many stories

rich with beliefs

and interwoven with culture

 

So on this night

when small stars burn here on earth

images are captured in stories

Stories of gods and goddesses

And their many adventures

Of the never ending battle of good and evil

 

A man with a bow and a regal lady at his side

A beautiful goddess with four arms

dripping with jewelry

and attired in a shimmering sari, the color of a setting sun

Two hands cradle delicate lotus flowers

with the purity of white

and the exquisite rose blush of beauty

She sits astride an elephant

as she sweeps through homes

leaving showers of gold in her footsteps

 

Earrings snatched away

from the very ears of the mother goddess Aditi

A demon killed

by a victorious

sapphire skinned God

A group of brothers returning to their city

from harsh years of exile

as the joyous people light small earthen lamps

 

 Diyas,

small lights

shimmer with a thousand whispers

of age old stories

 

 Diwali

the triumph

of the deep belief

that no matter what

no matter how difficult the fight

or how powerful the darkness is

that light,

that goodness will prevail

 

 Diwali

a series of days

for the enlightenment

of your soul

and to burn away your bad times

nothing left but a curl of smoke

We illuminate not just the world around us

but illuminate inside ourselves

To step away from the darkness

of the dying year

into a cleansed

and brighter world.

Raffle Results

AILIV organized four raffles at this dinner & dance party. Congratulations to the following winners:

  • Pallavur Subramanian - Dinner for two at Mysore Woodlands in Parsippany
  • Raman Bhatia -  Dinner for two at Mysore Woodlands in Parsippany
  • Subrata Ghose - Dinner for two at Spice Grill at East Hanover or Parsippany
  • Deepak Sethi - Dinner for two at Spice Grill at East Hanover or Parsippany
  •  

Vote of Thanks

We owe our gratitude to a lot of people and organizations for the success of this event. First and foremost, we would like to thank our corporate sponsor, HSBC Bank without whose generosity, this event would not have been successful. We also thank them for distribution of Diwali sweets.

We also owe our gratitude to the following for supporting us through their advertisements in our Diwali Brochure:

  •  Beechwood Wine & Liquors & Union Physical Therapy - courtesy Amish & Bhargavi Desai
  • Punam Bhargava
  • Bank of America - courtesy Chandrashekhar Tibrewal
  • Madhvi & Payal Maniar - courtesy Nitin Maniar
  • Urmi Battu
  • Dr. Aruna Eldandi
  • Mysore Woodlands
  • Spice Grill
  • Rothwell Associates - courtesy Amit Shah
  • 1 to 1 Tutoring - courtesy Ram Seshadri
  • Alpha Associates - courtesy Falguni Pandya
  • Benali Patel
  • Jyoti Matta
  • Five Star Mortgage Corporation - courtesy Rajinder Parekh
  • Sir Speedy Printing - courtesy Pradip & Moxa Dave

Spice Grill and Mysore Woodland deserve special mention for allowing us to raffle 2 dinners for two each. 

Irma Maini sponsored the Art & Writing contest for the children in memory of her late father, Professor D. S. Maini. Our sincere thanks to Irma!

Shobha Gunnery burnt a lot of midnight oil in creating the Diwali brochure.  Our sincere thanks to her as well!

Finally, we thank the following members of the Working Committee, Advisory Board and volunteers for their hard work in helping organize the event:

  • Malcolm Barreto
  • Ketan Bhuptani
  • Priyanka Kapoor
  • Sangeetha Nayak
  • Asha Samant
  • Ram Seshadri
  • Pallavi Tawde
  • Urmi Battu
  • Purnima Chakraborty
  • Sandeep Kapoor
  • Falguni Pandya
  • Chandramouli Sastry
  • Anita Shriram
  • Abhay Tawde
  • Punam Bhargava 
  • Shobha Gunnery
  • Irma Maini
  • Arun Samanta
  • Shruti Saxena
  • Hardeep Singh
  • Chandra Shekhar Tibrewal