HAYWARD, CA: A live musical show called the “East West Musical Jam” was held at the Golden Peacock Banquet Hall in Hayward, CA. on Friday, April 28.
This was hosted by Srini Veeraraghavan, as a platform for his young daughter, Aditi, who was accompanied by two other immensely talented artistes, Steve Balram Singh and Neel Nadkarni.
Jitender Makkar of Ohomez, a real estate specialist and consultant,was the chief sponsor for the program that included dinner and drinks for the assembled guests, seated at formal white-tablecloth covered tables in front of the stage.
The evening began with a brief introduction by Aditi’s mother. The first performance was a dance on the floor by teenager Harman Sodhi.
Rakhi, the emcee, introduced the band members – two of them played the electric guitar, and the other three were on the keyboard, ‘tabla’ and drums – and sound engineers. Neel Nadkarni then took to the stage and sang “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil…” to perfection, kicking off the musical part of the evening.
The youngster, Aditi, who has trained in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music (Alka Bhatnagar has been her teacher) from an early age, captured everyone’s attention with her rich voice, belting out songs that require serious talent such as one sung by the versatile Bollywood and South Indian film singer, Chitra.
Steve Balram Singh turned the mood of the evening to an introspective, sentimental note with his
mellifluous voice that was well matched for the famed ‘ghazal’, “Tumko dekha to yeh khayaal aaya…”.
He and Aditi set the audience’s feet tapping with the evergreen duet, “Churaa liyaa hai …”. Neel followed with a couple of male solo numbers, “Tere sang yaara…” and “Tere liye duniyaa chhodkar… ”
Aditi joined Neel and they crooned numbers such as “Ishq waala love…” and the popular “Rang de mohe geruaa…”.
From East, the evening progressed to the West. Aditi is no average singer performer. She is the first youngster from the Indian-American community in the Tri-City area to score a Hollywood single. Her pop single, “On Your Own”, was played on the projector.
The young lady then proved her versatility and range by paying tribute to some of her favorite pop artists by singing their numbers, such as Adele(“Rolling in the Deep….”), Miley Cyrus(“Wrecking Ball…”) and Rihanna (“We Found Love in a Hopeless Place…”). A self-confessed fan of Selena Gomez, Aditi gave a wonderful rendition of the Selena Gomez -Charlie Puth duet “We don’t talk anymore…”, supported by the vocally gifted Neel Nadkarni.
The chief organizer and proud papa, Srini, then thanked and felicitated everyone who had supported his daughter’s journey. They included community leaders such as our very own Dr. Romesh Japra of India Post, Dr. Shakeel Haider, sponsor Jitender Makkar, Srini’s brother Venkatesh and other close family members and friends and Aditi’s guru, Alka Bhatnagar. A cousin of the legendary actor, Dev Anand, “Mike” Kanwal, was also among the honorees.
The dignitaries for the evening included California State Assembly member, Kansen Chu, whose staff represented him while handing out the awards on stage, and the Honorable Teresa Cox.
The evening drew to a fitting end with all the singers singing dance numbers from old and contemporary Bollywood movies, inviting the audience to sway to the beats on the dance floor. And, boy, did the audience respond! It was a fun, energetic, high-spirited social on the dance floor and there were enough endorphins for everyone to carry over into the weekend and beyond.
Lakshmi Iyer
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