Kenbharti marks Hindi Divas by Sikiladi
Hindi Divas was celebrated by Kenbharti in keeping with the annual tradition. This year’s poetic event was organized at Arya Samaj premises on Sunday September 15th. Organized under the able planning of Kenbharti Chairman, Mr. Abhijeet Gupta and Vice Chairman, Mr. Vikas Vyas the event witnessed a hall packed with approx. a hundred attendees. Kenbharti has over the years promoted Hindi language with lot of dedication and this happened to be the organization’s 23rd Hindi Divas in Kenya. Having started off without a formal banner the organization participated as part of HCI or as Hindi Samiti of East Africa until 2013 when with a small team of Hindi enthusiasts the group was formalized by its current identity.
The guest of honor Shri Hasmukh Patel of the NRI Welfare of USA (visiting Kenya) and the chief guest Mr. Vinay Rathi of Bank of Baroda (also a performing poet) graced the event with lighting the inaugural Diya to commence the program. Later Mr. Rathi entertained with a few short poetries in his own charismatic style.
Self-composed Hindi Kavita recitations kept flowing in entertaining the audience with a wide range of topics and styles of Hindi Kavita. Ranging from nature to patriotism, from self-reflections to relationships and ageing, from daughters to media and crime the poetic caliber from the community members appeared extraordinary.
Sarika Falor an award winning poet & orator and Monica Gokaldas a writer, poet and Reiki therapist who had put together the program details and coordinated the entire event were also the emcees for the afternoon and kept filling in poetic punches in between the performances by various artists. With the growing community of poets in Kenya Abhijeet Gupta expressed his desire to see more Hindi Kavita books being published by the talented community as he encouraged some new faces to perform.
Soft spoken Sarita Mishra, loud and clear Aarti Parashar, a well-known teacher Kavita Gandhi and the man with deep thoughts Vikas Namdeo were among the few poets that performed for the first time to a live audience. Ajay Panchbhai rendered his punches about media, whilst Bipin Nathwani and Sarita Sharma rendered their presentations in sweet songs. Sarika started the afternoon with a short Ganesh Vandana and the spiritual tone was followed by Navnidhi Gupta’s Buddhist attributes. Talented Rupali Varsani expressed her love for nature whilst Arvinder Mehta touched upon age and unending phase of learning. Falor’s humor induced digital love was a sharp contrast to Monica’s tone of crime against women and Jyoti Singh’s Patriotic vibes. Following the sixteen poets there were some short surprise poetic expressions coming from the man with a magical talent Praful Varsani and the lady with a flute like voice Kamlesh Monga and few words of encouragement from Mr. Vimal Chaddha
Needless to say the audience was mesmerized by the ongoing poetry and their applause and encouraging comments .Hindu Council of Kenya Chairperson Mrs. Sujata Kotamraju attended the event and was very appreciative of the performances. And efforts put together by Kenbharti. She remarked, “It gives me immense pleasure to see so much talent and so many upcoming poets in Kenya and we must promote Hindi poetry and literature to greater heights”.
