Garbo to disco at the fourth annual senior citizen show
On April 27th about 40 seniors (age 60+) from Gujarati Samaj performed in the 4th annual senior citizens show in the presence of about 350 audience members.
Ashwin Shah, the event coordinator, talked about the senior citizen program and how it has impacted the lives of seniors in Atlanta. Program emcees, Rekha Mehta and Jayshree Sampat, started the program with brief descriptions of senior activity and what they have achieved in the last four years. They invited Ajit Dave to start the program with a prayer. “Divas” were lit by Navin Patel and Pankaj Sampat. This was followed by a beautiful ghazal and comedy poetry by Kusum Sinha.
A group dance titled “Shan Banaras ki” directed by Aparna Joshi got lot of applause. Mangaldas Patel, an 85 year old senior, talked about ‘Anubhav Ni Vaat’ and the key for a healthy life. Indu Bhavsar took the audience back in time with melodious songs.
There after the seniors presented “Vividh Bharti.” The seniors in traditional dresses represented various Indian States, such as Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kashmir, Tamilnadu, Kerala, and Maharastra. This was followed by comedy and jokes from Girish Desai, keyboard music by Yashwant Panchal and ‘Raas’ of Radha Krishna on tunes of “He Rangalo.”
Pankaj Sampat, Chairman of the senior citizen program, said, “The senior citizen program was started with 25 seniors, and within four years it has grown tremendously and at present around 500 seniors are enjoying this program.” Sampat commented that transportation for the seniors was required and he appealed to the baby boomers to give a ride to those in need.
The second half of the program started with ‘Gujari Garbo,’ followed by poetry by Praful Shekhada. Then came a comedy play written and directed by Ashwin Shah, which received loud applause from the audience. Following that a ghazal was presented by Gunvan Naik.
Bollywood Hungama was the finale with seniors dancing to tunes of Bollywood music. It started with songs from the 50s and ended with “It the time to Disco.” A standing ovation from the audience was well deserved as the performers changed period outfits quickly for each song.
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