On the 15th September 2024, a soulful evening celebrating our languages on the eve of #Hindi Diwas was organised by Indian Literary Art Society of Australia (ILASA) and Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan Australia.
What stood very different this year was promoting younger generation with the skills of Hindi reading and recitations. Video entries were invited from all over Australia, and children from Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Adelaide submitted their entries.
Children aged 5 to 18 were invited to participate in a poetry recitation competition, and adults 18 and above were invited to participate in a Katha Vachan/story telling/monologue competition. Participants for these two competitions were required to film their performance and submit it online. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with 60 kids from all over Australia sending in entries.
A huge gratitude to ILASA founder, director Rekha Rajvanshi and all the judges Saba Zaidi Abdi, Vipul Vyas, Dinsha Palkiwala, Dr. Nupur Ashok, Dr. Shailja Chaturvedi, Dr. Subhash Sharma and organisers for their time to go through so many entries and organising this event. Rekha Rajvanshi and Dr Shailaja Chaturvedi emphasised the importance of being rooted in our culture and that it all starts at home, children do what they see and do more when they get encouragement.
The competition for best storyteller and monologue went to Madhu Khanna from Brisbane, Usha Dadhich from Sydney, and Priya Shukla from Melbourne, who took first and second place, respectively.
They all developed their original ideas for stories and expressed them via their reading.
A certificate and a cash amount were given to the children’s poetry reciting competition winners.
In the age group of 5-8 years First prize recipient was Aavya Kohli (Perth, WA), 7 years. On the evening of Hindi Diwas, Aarvi performed “Aarambh Hai Prachand”. Prahar Mehta, a 7-year-old Sydney resident, won third place for his recitation of a poem written by his grandmother. A consolation prize was given to Aarav Shukla from Melbourne.
In the age group 9-12 years, First prize winner was Arnav Soni (Sydney), 10 years. Recited “Koshish karne Walon ki Kabhi Haar Nahi Hoti” by Sohanlal Dwivedi. Second prize winner was Anisha Ahuja (Sydney), 12 years. Anisha recited “Paudha” composed by father and self. And third prize winner was Akshi Kohli (Perth, WA), 10 years. Akshi recited “Mahaan Bharat ki Gaurav Gatha” composed by her grandmother.
In the third age group of 13-18 years, First prize winner was- Rudransh Bhargava (Sydney), 13 years. Rudransh recited “Srishti Srijan” composed by his father. Second prize winner was Yashvi Oswal (Melbourne), 17 years. She recited “Agrani Bharat ka Prateek”. And Third prize winner wa Sunshia Mathur (Sydney), 17 years.
Another highlight of the evening was the launch of the book of Hindi poetry book “Thoda Gaon Thodi Chaon” written by Sydney’s young talented poet Mr Mrinal Sharma, who recited 2 poems from the book, and enriched audience with the beauty and expressiveness of Hindi language.
Rashmi Rathi, a famous poem of Rashtra Kavi Dinkar was recited beautifully by Kuldeep Yadav.
SAFAL fest sponsored the venue while Global reach and other sponsors looked aftter the prize money. Preservaing our culture and literature and passing it on to the younger children is our responsibility.
Those who couldn’t make it, come next time and celebrate your culture, your identity.
