When India and Indians from across the globe were getting ready to celebrate its 74th Independence Day, IndradhanushKids were planning to bring together children of Indian origin from across the globe on to a common platform – celebrating India. Due to the pandemic when every big celebration or gathering was banned, we decided to bring a positive message to our children- life doesn’t stop and we must carry on and win every situation. We wanted to keep the tradition of celebrating Independence Day alive. Hence a huge virtual stage was created where children from all over the world were invited to celebrate this day.
IndradhanushKids is a UK based school of performing arts. The school specialises in teaching Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Hindustani Vocals, and Bollywood Music & Dance to all age groups, both online & face-to-face. However, as the name suggests, the school is more popular with parents with young or teenage children.
Within couple of days of the invite going out to children to join hands and celebrate India and its Independence Day together along with the students of IndradhanushKids, overwhelming responses were received from all over the world. With the increased number of children, the slot filled up within hours. To bring out the true potential of every child and to keep the interest alive in social media viewers, a decision was made and the second slot was opened for 7pm on the same day.
What a colourful rainbow these three hours turned out to be.
First slot: 11.30am: We started our show with traditional flag hoisting by 5 years old Anshika Mazumdar and Jana Gana Mana singing by 4 years’ old Arjun Dubey in his military costume. This was then followed by a beautiful Bollywood style dancing by 11 years old Lakshita Singhania from North Harrow. Next we had 10 years old Ishan Jakkulwar on tabla. We were then joined by 11 years old Ditipriya Banerjee, all the way from Kolkata, India with her patriotic Nazrulgeeti. Isha Amar Yadav, the 8-year-old wonder showed us a beautiful Kathak fusion on ‘Bharat Humko Jaan se Pyara hain’. We then travelled to Edinburgh where we were joined by Vania Jain, a 10 years old budding poet, who recited her self-composed poetry on India. It was the turn for IndradhanukKids next. They performed dance on a medley of patriotic songs with 14 years old Rishika Mazumdar, Shreya Paul, Sneha Paul and 5 years old Anshikas Mazumdar. Next we were joined by 12 years old Sanjana Parashar with her breath-taking performance on the song ‘Teri Mitti’. Rihana Giri, a 7-year-old sang a Bengali patriotic song. Next was 9 years’ old Aryan Shankar with his mesmerising presentation of Sanskrit poetry on patriotism. We then had 10 years old Varnika Mehta with her Bollywood form of dancing. Little 8 years old Jasmine Sarkar sang a beautiful rendition of Vande Mataram. Next we were joined by 13 years’ old Arya Dassi with an energetic Bhangra on ‘Yeh desh hain mera’. Next we were joined from East London by 9 years old Mayukhjit Chakraborty. He played the flute on Bengali ‘ Akbaar Biday De maa’ and ‘Vande Mataram’. The melody stole everyone’s hearts. Our last artist was 12 years old Anya Khandelwal from Kolkata, India with her contemporary dance on ‘Ae Watan’.
After a brief break we went live again at 7pm UK time to celebrate India once again with a new group of children.
We started this segment with 7 years old Saahil Sawant who sang the national anthem. We were then joined by 6 years old Vriddhi Sharma who delivered an energetic talk on Indian Independence Day. Next it was 7 years old Aadhya Godre singing Ae Watan. Our next participant was Rishians Mishra, 13 years old upcoming poet from Sudbery. He recited a self-written poem on India. Next we had 15 years old Riya Patil with her contemporary style dancing on ‘Jagga Jiteya’. This was followed by performance by IndradhanushKids with a medley of Bollywood patriotic songs. Next was 9 years old Yukta Vibhakar with her dance on ‘ek tera naam hain sancha’. We were then joined by 11 years old Krish Parekh from Ohio, USA with his beautiful singing of Sare Jahan se Achcha. We then presented a video sent to us by 14 years old Bhargavi Ravindra Mate from Ankola, Maharashtra, India. We were also sent a video by 13 years old Arnav Bhanwala from Ohio USA with his rendition of Sare Jahan se achcha on guitar. The last two videos that were sent to us and played on the day were Shivanshi Yadav, a 6-year-old on keyboard and 16 years old Arushi Yadav with her energetic dance performance on a patriotic Bollywood song.
We ended both presentations with vote of thanks to all performers, their parents, our teachers Abrita Chatterjee and trainee teacher Rishika Mazumdar.
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Nice way to celebrate the Independence Day snd involve children from all walks and countries on a common theme- Proud to be an Indian