It was a night of patriotism, a night that displayed unity in diversity.
The night marked people gathering from various walks of life to celebrate India as a republic state. The venue was Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Over 800 participants performed on the stage at the India Nite hosted by Indian Association of North Texas.
There were 3500 odd guests who turned up for the event all with a single slogan "Jai Hind".
The event began at 4.00 PM with national anthems of America and India reverberating the auditorium. This was followed with what is considered a marathon of programs that kept the audience tapping their feet.
A total of 66 performances were rendered. Age wasn't a barrier for the dance performances, the range included performers of ages between 5 and 65. They performed with full fervor and the audience supported with same the spirit.
The songs included "Lakdi ki Kathi" to "Dhuniki", but the clear winner among the choice of the songs was "Chamak Challo" being played the maximum times and the whole auditorium true enchanted to its tunes.
Hon'ble Anil K. Matta Counsel, from Indian Embassy, Houston while speaking on the occasion congratulated the efforts of IANT in bringing the whole community together on the eve India's republic day. He mentioned Dallas/Fort-Worth is one of the fastest growing cities in America in all fields and said Indians are playing a major role in keeping DFW vibrant and multi-cultural.
Also Speaking at the occasion was outgoing president Mr. Jack Godhwani who thanked the entire IANT board for keeping faith on him and recalled some great initiatives such as IANT owning a building under his presidentship and a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the heart of Dallas downtown. He welcomed Dr. Sridhar Reddy Korsapati as the new incoming president of the great organization and reposed confidence that IANT will do much better under Dr. Sridhar Korspati's leadership.
Dr. Sridhar Reddy Korsapati thanked the outgoing president, later his family joined in honoring the family of Mr. Jack Godhwani. Dr. Korsapati mentioned his objective was to ensure more community service is done and laid out few thoughts on how to achieve them. He said this year also marks "Golden Jubilee" celebrations for IANT and mentioned the programs will be grandeur in nature reflecting the 50 years of IANT existence. His speech in Hindi was well received by the crowd. He later introduced his board to the audience. Some of his members included Ms. Indu Mandadi, Mr. NMS Reddy, Dr. Srinivas Gunukula.
Ms. Shabnam Motgill, Chair, Board of Trustees thanked Hon'ble Anil K. Matta for joining the event and honored with a plaque.
Mr. Loknath Patro, President elect, IANT thanked the audience for making it a huge success and congratulated the participants for taking time and coming up with a good program.
