BY SHILPA AGRAWAL
Atlanta, GA: Atlanta Hindi Association, in collaboration with International Hindi Association once again brought people together to appreciate poetry that cuts across all borders of age, class and nationality. Judging from the numbers that thronged Berkmar High School on the Saturday Evening of April 29 ,2017, the Hasya Kavi Sammelan was an eponymous success.
The legendary names of Padmashri Dr. Sunil Jogi, Gajendra Solanki and Sudeep Bhola in contemporary Hindi realms served as beacons to attract Atlanta literati to come and enjoy the laughter riot. Over 500 people enjoyed the show this year.
The program began with beautiful rendering of Shlokas and prayers by local children who kept the audience mesmerized throughout their performance. Aslam Pervez who was amazing as the Master of Ceremony introduced the poets. Consul D V Singh welcomed the poets with bouquets. Sanjeev Agarwal, Director of International Hindi Association recognized the never-dying efforts of Shiv Agarwal in the field of social work and Mustafa Ajmeri for his outstanding contribution towards arts and entertainment.
The insane, infectious laugh-a -thon began with the tall Sudeep Bhola. He explained how professional habits die hard and how he stayed faithful to being a poet even during his wedding ceremony in a sing-song, tell-tale fashion. Funny parodies on socio- political issues in his overly soulful voice kept the audience enthralled with continuous kicks of laughter. He left the podium may be an inch taller because of all the admiration he received for the genuine comedy he copied on the popular Hindi songs.
Gajendra Solanki, had a different brand of humor and floored the listeners as he recited his poetry with a punch of everyday humor. Each line he uttered was punctuated with a resounding applause as he, through gentle satire, enlivened morality with wit and tempered wit with morality. He left the podium with a little more insane audience but enlightened with his social messages.
Dr. Sunil Jogi was a true charmer and befits the metaphor of a crowd-puller. As a poet of note and repute he entertained with his long winded rhythmic poems on various issues. His subtle and not-so subtle jibes on the institution of marriage charmed men and women alike. He brought up issues standing large in South-East Asia and came up with funny solutions to those. In his poetry he bore the message that laughter has the capability to bring normalcy back to a fragmented world.
2017 episode of Hasya Kavi Sammelan was a well-organized event with great attention to detail. Food was served before the event to save the audience from hunger pangs while they had to laugh hard through the entire length of event. This event took a great leap by making a rare arrangement to keep the kids young and small occupied in group activities outside the event hall so that the families with kids could enjoy the event without distraction.
This hugely successful sold-out event came to fruition because of volunteers who sweated hard day and night to make everything perfect. Sanjeev Agarwal thanked and recognized his core team which included Pradeep Gupta, Amit Chaurasia, Richa Sinha, Rajesh Agarwal, Hemant Jerath and Dipti Gupta along with all the dedicated volunteers – Parul Gupta, Ruchi Chaurasia , Mansi Singhal, Ankur Singhal, Meera Agarwal, Brijrani Verma, Sandhya Bhagat, Mustafa Ajmeri, Manju Tiwari, Seema Garg, Sapana Dalmia, Om Arora, Pawandeep Singh, Anil Bhagat , Gaurav Jain, Gajendra Pandey, Pankaj Bhutoria, Sachchidanand Shukla, Priyanka Jain, Manish Sinha , Bharti Tiwari, Premal Shah , Rakesh Yadav, Anand Verma , Ashwani Srivastava , Ashish Agarwal , Avi Verma, Praloy Majumdar, Vikas Arora, Vineet Gupta, Devesh Dalmia, Ankur Jain and Sanjeev Arora.
There was a train of Kid volunteers taking responsibility to iron out any creases which included Atharv Chaurasia, Shivam Agarwal, Anish Agarwal, Vaidehi Gupta, Ridhima Agarwal, Eishan Sinha and Ayan Agarwal.
Sovi Salon, MyOrlandoStay.com, Om Arora Tax and Insurance Services, Peachtree Smiles, Sitar Indian Cuisine, ABC Renovations, Suvidha Indian Grocery, Beauty Bar Salon, Global Mall, Master App Labs and The Teak Tree Home Furniture sponsored this event.
The event was supported by Shiv Mandir Of Atlanta, BAJA Atlanta, Agarwal Samaj of Georgia, Dr Deepak Das and Shilpi Das, Dr. Shalini Pandey, BM Yadav, Kaushal Tripathi, Dhananjay Gupta, Indian Bazaar and Shivam Grocery.
The event culminated with raffle drawing and prize distribution. This session of laughter and verse tickled the funny bone of the audience that clamored for more. Atlanta Hindi Association will continue to hold such events and looks forward to bringing people together for entertainment and more in its forthcoming events.
3 comments
I’ve always appreciate if anything happening in the name of Hindi. Thanks for you people who performed in our mother tongue, whereas every other person tries to speak in english. Thansk for all the laughs.
It gives a great feeling to listen that there is a Hindi Kavi Sammelan in Atlanta USA.
I have dependably acknowledge on the off chance that anything occurring for the sake of Hindi. A debt of gratitude is in order for you individuals who performed in our native language, though every other individual endeavors to talk in english.