The Inspiring Indian Women (IIW), UK’s largest women’s group to bring together women from across the world and work towards bigger goals has, once again spread the feelings of patriotism and Indian culture, right in the heart of London through India’s independence day celebrations, in a recent event at the Kings Cross Station.
The initiative, designed to capture the attention of the diverse London diasporas at the busy, iconic and historic Kings Cross station, made passers-by feel the Indian pulse, spare a moment to delve in the Indian colours signifying unity in diversity and share the Indian folk Bhangra, Garba beats while resonating with the signature Jai Ho song by A R Rahman.Â
The extravaganza Veena Storm from StormV Academy, was the at the helm of weaving the essence of various states of India into one beautiful garland. Most participants were non-professionals, driven solely by a passion to make a difference.Â
The highlights of the show were the Garba and Punjabi Dance by Rhythm Arts & Dance Academy, choreographed by Shine Krishna. The participants were Aman Sharma, Pooja Khetrapal, Deepika nandwani, Ashna and Alka Pardesi.
Nilanjana’s ‘Indhradhanush Kids’ presented Bengali Folk, Jai Ho by Abrita Chatterjee, Shreya Paul, Sneha Paul, Rishika Mazumdar, while the young and talented Srijita Saha sang the national anthem of India: Vande Mataram.
Manali Soni presented Dholna from Rajasthan while Sneha Sanghani Shah performed a patriotic number. Ketaki Ranade Bhat performed the Lavani folk dance from Maharashtra.
Chinu Kishore from the North Eastern Indian Cultural, UK (NEICCUK )presented the beautiful Bihu dance from Assam. The fusion number of Indian SemiClassical and Cuban Salsa dance forms by Alkananda Mohapatra & Dayana Toncheva were a smash hit. Â
Indian classical dance Bharathanatyam was superbly performed by Raeshma Venkatesan and classical fusion of Bharatnatyam and Kathak was presented by Sowmya J Krish and Anusha Jagannathan.
Bhavisha Patel, Manali Soni, Shital Kamdar, Rajeshwari and Usha Parmar performed on a very popular patriotic Bollywood number. The energy with the tri-color costumes while nine-year-old Tanisha Biswas sang the patriotic song Aai merey watan ke logon was mesmerising.Â
The curtain call was equally joyous when everyone including the commuters joined in to various popular songs like Jai ho, Vande Matram. The atmosphere at the iconic station was upbeat. The main event designers/ organisers were Rashmi Narvekar and Sowmya J Krish. The DJ of the day was Ananth while the official photographer was C.K Naidu, and the videography done by Kush.
India celebrates its seventy third year of independence on the 15 August this year. The Independence day celebrations by IIW in London was a patriotic initiative, especially given the recent controversies on revoking Article 370, staying united has never been more important. The event was a gesture for reinforcing the values of love, peace, happiness and brotherhood and take out time to remember the sacrifices made by our freedom fighters, cherish our lives and motherland.
Smita is a multi-cultural freelance journalist, writer, and filmmaker based out of the US, London, Hong Kong, and India. Global Indian Stories is her brain-child. Created to chronicle diaspora stories written by Indians of all age groups, from different walks of life across the globe, Smita makes sure that the platform remains inclusive and positive.
