London PPA Diwali Mayhem
Now, when you put together a Diwali Function and charge £15, it’s safe to say (based on past experience), you do not expect to get sold out! Well, kudos goes to the London PPA this year, because not only was it a sell-out, but a larger hall had to be hired because the demand just kept on coming! A special mention to committee member Hasmukh Meram who helped sell the majority of tickets!
Thanks to the staff and owners of the Dhamecha Lohana Community Centre, in South Harrow, which only opened a few weeks prior, PPA London were able to put on a show for more people than they bargained for, when they transferred us to their larger venue on Sunday 2nd November 2014.
With over 330 tickets sold, not only did the afternoon and evening go with a bang, but we had to force people off the dancefloor at the end the evening. As familes poured into the venue, they were met with an amazing, warm and welcome display thanks to both Pravinaben and Jasuben who were hard at work from midday.
The afternoon began with the traditional lighting of the lamp which was aptly followed by the amazingly, talented daughters of Mira & – Simran, 11 and Ria 8 who performed the Diya Dance from Devdas! Wow, is all I can say and we’ll be posting a video of their dance on iPattni soon – so watch out. This was just the start of what we witnessed when it came to talent sitting within our community.
This was followed by a number of performances by girls of the Kuntal Dance Academ
y – ages ranging from 7-20.
This was enough to get appetites wet and so began the serving of dinner provided by our wonderful caterers Dilipbhai. Although a few hiccups being a brand new kitchen, the food was enjoyed by the majority and did not disappoint!
Whilst enjoying the meal, the crowd was entertained by a resident singer, fiance of Trupti Saileshbhai Pragji Trikum, Dipesh Somaiya. He sang a medley of Kumar Shanu & Kishore Kumar songs and even got his lovely other half on the stage to romance her – pure Bollywood style!
If you thought that was the end…think again! The stageshow ended with a worthwhile finale; Alisha Lakha, daughter of Kalpesh & Saroj Lakha and her best friend from school, Ria took to the platform with their own dance medley and got the whole crowd into the right spirit.
As soon as they ended, everyone’s feet were dancing their own tune.
There was no better time to hand the reigns over to the party experts, Hani and Harry of Vogue DJs.
It only took a couple of tunes before the dancefloor was overfilling – so much so that some of the crowd jumped onto the stage to strutt their stuff.
We had it all! Great Food; Great Entertainment; Great Music; Great Performers; Great Bar (oh yes, wine, beers and spirits run by our very own resident bar managers at the back of the room). All we needed was a Great Raffle – the traditional way to end a Diwali Function! And we had that too with community members winning an Amazon Kindle, a Samsung Flatscreen TV and a pair of Diamond earrings.
But really, none of the above would have happened, if we didn’t have a GREAT TEAM. After all, TEAM WORK makes the DREAM WORK. Below are all of the people who helped, before and during the event, to make this an amazing event. The London President would like to extend his heartfelt thanks to every single one of you!
To see all the pictures taken by our volunteer photographers Ketan Haridas and Rajvi Vaya, just click here!
Did you enjoy the Diwali function this year? Comment below and let us know your favourite bits? What you thought of the performers – I know they’d love to see your feedback?
