American lawmakers join community in celebrating Deepavali
American lawmakers gathered at Bombay Palace Restaurant in New York City to celebrate Deepavali on Oct. 23 in the midst of cultural extravaganza and other celebrations. The event was hosted by Celebrations, a non-profit or- ganization which works to bring recognition to the cul- tural traditions and academic and business achievements of the South Asian community in the U.S. The ceremonial ‘lighting the lamp’ ceremony was at- tended by Consul General of India Ambassador Prabhu Dayal, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, NY State Assembly- man William Scarborough, NY State Assemblyman A David Weprin, NY City Comptroller John Liu, former NYC Comptrol- ler Bill Thomson, and newly elected Manhattan Democratic District Leader Jennifer Rajkumar among others, all of whom spoke on the occasion. Among the major announcements made by the elected officials was the one made by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer who said that New York City will officially celebrate Deepavali every year on October 23 till midnight. The event also recognized numerous South Asians achievers with Congressional Achievement Awards, and New York State Assembly and New York City Citations. ‘Giving a taste of the best of India to the American society’ is the aim of the organization according to its founder New York Demo- cratic Leader Uma Sengupta. To showcase India’s millennia-old culture and heritage, the event had a presentation of Bharathanatyam classical dance performance by Shruti Shankar and Bhavana Lalwani choreographed by renowned dancer, teacher and choreographer Vaishali Chaudhuri, who received the New York City Council Citation for exemplary service in the field of Indian classical dance. Another performance was Bollywood dance numbers by Valeria Quint (Russian American), Fabiana Macedo (Brazilian American), Kelly McCormick (from U.S.A.) adding a cosmopolitan touch to the cultural presentation. The other cultural performance was Indian classical, folk and Bollywood songs by noted singer from India Shantanu Bhowmick and tabla recital by Tapan Modak and Sajid Modak.
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