Ramesh Soparawala & Dave Vasudevan
India Post News Service
CHICAGO: To the huge credit of the team of Hindi Lovers Club of Illinois, headed by Ms Gurbachan Kaur, it has been celebrating Hindi Divas regularly for the past many years; this year being the eight in a row. Hindi became National language of India on September 14, 1949.
This year the event was celebrated on Saturday September 8 at the Yellow Box, Naperville, a southwest suburb of Chicago, in collaboration with the Consulate General of India, Chicago. It turned out to be a grand affair with members and the Chicago elites along with participants in the colorful program enthusiastically wishing for its continuation year after year.
The near three-hour program started with the Ganesh Vandana prayer dance by Alokita Dhar. Gurbachan Kaur, the founder and President of the club, then called the board of directors, advisory board and guests on the stage for traditional lamp lighting ceremony. The Chief Guest was Dr. Prerna Arya from Indian Consulate and the Guest of Honor was Judge Linda Devonport. There were other distinguished guests among whom were Sunil Shah, a mayoral candidate of Schaumburg Township, Kishor Mehta of MEATF , Mrs Padma Mehta, Rita Singh, Shaily Joshi, Mona Bhalla, Rohit Joshi to name a few.
After the lamp lighting ceremony, Gurbachan Kaur gave an emotional tribute to a great leader and a phenomenal Hindi poet – the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Bajpai by reciting one of his poems and urging everybody to observe one minute silence. This was followed by a short video of Hindi Divas speech delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India.
Garima Vasudev sang a beautiful bhajan with flute maestro. Then the competitions started with kids elocution followed by kids dance, solo kids singing, kids group dance and fancy dress. The performances were so good that the judges had to focus on details to choose first, second and third places.
There were some performances in between the competitions .Suhanee Patel, reigning 2018 National American Miss Illinois Junior Teen, delivered a very inspirational speech for youngsters to know their language and pursue their dreams. Sanjay Sharma read a poem; Archana Gidwani did a Hindi skit “Aaj Etwar Hai.”
The last hour was adult competitions. The evening ended with thanks and prize distribution.
Hindi Lovers Club of Illinois was officially formed in Jan. 2011 to promote and preserve Hindi language (the National language of India) in the foreign land and to bring Hindi in everyday lives like day-to-day talking and expressing thought so that the next generation can be a part of this rich and deeply rooted history. Despite the fact of Hindi being one of the most spoken languages in the world, with each passing year it is becoming less prevalent in Indian American households.
The activities of Hindi Club include celebrating Hindi Diwas, hosting Hindi Poetry nights by local and visiting poets from India, monthly social and interactive meet/gathering to encourage participants to speak in Hind, organizing cultural events ,kids’ Hindi essay competition, Hindi plays etc., publishing monthly Hindi magazine and celebrating Indian Independence Day and Republic Day.
Hindi Lovers Club of Illinois has changed its name and logo. This was announced at the Hindi Divas meet of the club in Naperville. In the new name the word “Lovers” has been dropped as it triggered confusion in the mind of the members and the public at large. The new name is a simplified version of the old name – Hindi Club of Illinois – and the website now will be www.hindiclub.org.
