Festival of Vaisakh mela on the Parliament Hill

Overseas Friends of India Canada (OFIC) in association with Todd Doherty, Member of Parliament for Cariboo-Prince George, with the support of India Canada Association (ICA) and many other local Indo-Canadian organizations celebrated the Festival of Vaisakh Mela on Parliament Hill.

Program Summary:
Shefali Adhikari, Program Director of OFIC was the master of ceremonies.
The program started with a dhol play followed by a welcome speech by Shiv Bhasker, President OFIC. After that, our host of the event MP Todd Doherty addressed the audience. His Excellency, our chief guest, Sanjay Kumar Verma HCI addressed the audience and shared his beautiful and meaningful thoughts. Local MP Chandra Arya addressed the audience and gave a short but beautiful speech. Parmod Chhabra, president of ICA also gave a short speech.
The program was jam-packed with very beautiful and amazingly high-class twelve performances. They were: Kathak dance teens (Divine Rhythm Creative Arts), Bihu Dance (Bollywood Dance Pro), Semi Classical Fusion (TKSN Dance), Kerela Folk Dance (Bollywood Dance Pro), Kathak Kids (Divine Rhythm Creative Arts ), Bollywood Krishan Leela dance (DYS dance), Punjabi Folk dance (Mad over dance), Bollywood fusion dance (Bollywood Dance Pro), Garba dance (Gujrati girls of Ottawa), Tamil folk dance (Agathi Dance) and Bollywood folk dance (Jannat Performing Arts) followed by a vocal song.
The program concluded with a vote of thanks by Dr. Narinder Garg.
Light refreshments were also served.
Organizing Committee:
Shiv Bhasker, Dr. Narinder Garg, Shefali Adhikari, Kulbhushan Kapoor, Puneet Aggarwal, Nagmani Sharma, Haridev Aggarwal, and Mohan Samarasinghe.
Photographers: Raghavendra Rampur, Hemant Gupta
Sponsors:
DTA systems, Chickpeas, Dentistree, Little Caesars, Healthsign, Ottawa Property Shop, Nav Law Firm, 613 Artistry, AVIT solutions, Bollywood Dance Pro, JM Marketing & Events, MARCAN Pharmaceuticals Inc., Phoenix Homes.
The event was a huge success with about 540 people attending the event. The complete recording of the event is available on the OFIC YouTube channel https://bit.ly/oficottawa