Vijay Chopra
CHICAGO: With ever-growing popularity, a Chicago based Hindi Club of Illinois (HCI) celebrated Father’s Day this year on Saturday, June 19, 2021 with great enthusiasm and appreciation from all. The Theme was presented by Pratibha Mach under the leadership of Smt Guibachan Kaur Neelam, and it was presided over by noted film director and actor Sunil Babbar
It was a virtual celebration in keeping with the ongoing COVID19 environment. Zoom airwaves were reverberating with tributes and homages about fathers in this 90 minutes emotional yet fun-filled and entertaining event.
Vijay Chopra, Secretary of HCI opened the event welcoming all participants, guests, zoom and Facebook live audience. Presenters joined in from Chicagoland, Milwaukee area, Ohio and, in spite of the late hour, from India. The event was masterly emceed by Anuraag Misraraj, founder and President of Dramatech America.
The program started with evocation of Saraswati Vandana performed by Special Guest Acharya Narender Vashisht, a well known vocalist, music lecturer and poet. Later in the program he also recited a very well written high quality poem about fathers.
Pratibha Phadake sang a self-written song and introduced the Chief Guest, Sunil Babbar, an award winning film Producer and Director. His comments to our audience revealed high level of his passion, energy and commitment in being an artist and celebrating the charter and goals of HCI. Gurbachan Kaur Neelam, Founder/President of HCI, shared some of her fond and amusing memories of her dad while growing up in India. Vinita Gulabani paid an emotional tribute to her father.
Rakesh Malhotra recited his high quality poem ‘Nishabad’ that was very well received. Youngster Vidushi Pandya spoke how she misses her Dad while he is away visiting India. Anil Jha sang two songs in praise of parents, both rendered beautifully. Puneet Chhibber shared his experiences of being a new dad. Sunita Mehrotra’s poem about her dad and his memory was touching. Her husband Vinay, as a change of pace, recited a very funny piece of poetry, which amused us all.
Anuraag Misraraj book-ended the evening with an excellent poem about his dad. The event closed after an impromptu and interesting discussion among participants about generation gap and social and family values. Concluding that it’s not flesh and blood it is feelings and responsibilities that make us fathers. And a healthy two-way dialog and mutual respect transcends generations.
Concluding, Vijay Chopra congratulated all the performers for bringing such high talent together and making this event a success. It was noteworthy that even though the program ran over, all of the participants and audience stayed tuned showing keen interest. In engrossing presentations and stimulating discussion.
For participating in future events or sponsoring write to hindiclubevents@gmail.com or contact Gurbachan Kaur at 847 962 8565 or Vijay Chopra at 708 704 7935.
