Prof. Surendra Gambhir
NEW YORK: The Consulate General of India, New York celebrated Vishwa Hindi Divas on Jan 20, which was held at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan New York. About 150 people including Hindi poets, academics working in the field of promoting Hindi, members of the mainstream and ethnic media and people interested in Hindi language from the Tri-State area attended the function.
Consul General of India Prabhu Dayal acknowledged the efforts of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and its contribution in promoting Hindi language and Indian culture abroad. He highlighted the contributions of the Bhavan in jointly organizing the 8th World Hindi Conference in New York with the Government of India in 2007.
Dayal suggested the use of Hindi as a medium of communication at home and at community gatherings, which would in turn encourage the younger generation to speak in Hindi. He then read out a special message to the country from the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh on the occasion of Hindi Divas.
H. R. Shah, Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the chief of TV Asia spoke about the various activities undertaken by the organization. He announced a program to be funded by TV Asia to sponsor 7-10 children to undertake “Bhavan Darshan” annually to learn about Indian culture and language.
The Hindi Divas program commenced with a presentation by Prof. Surendra Gambhir on the activities undertaken to promote Hindi language in the US, followed by recitation of Hindi poems by young students of the Bhavan.
An entertaining dialogue on the usage of Hindi was performed by Ashok Vyas and Gita Setia, both presenters on the New York-based ethnic channel ITV. Lastly, Dr. Susham Bedi and Anoop Bhargava enthralled the audience with readings from her work and select poems of eminent authors respectively.
India Post News Service
