Ashwin Patel
ST LOUIS: On January 27th, HindiUSA St.Louis, a non-profit Hindi language school, hosted its 5th annual poetry recitation at new cultural & educational center building located in Hindu Temple of Ballwin, Missouri, USA.
Over 100 students participated in the 1st round conducted on 20th January 2023 and 38 students qualified to go to 2nd & final competition on 27th Jan 2023.
The Hindi poetry competition started by volunteer teacher Dr. Anshu Jain who welcomed members of the audience followed by singing of the Indian National Anthem. The event continued with Meghna Ji who hosted the Kavya Paath.
All the kids recited their poem by class levels, and mesmerized everyone with their beautiful expression, memorization and clarity in Hindi language.
The patriotic poems recited by the older class level participants impressed the jury, parents, and the entire audience. The event was also judged by jury: Sunita Mehrotra, president of Hindi School of Wisconsin; Meera Jain, Hindi lecturer in Washington University, Saint Louis, and Riz Khan who runs a local non-profit organization that feeds homeless individuals in Saint Louis.
21 out 38 kids, finalists from 7 Hindi grade levels, received top 3 spots! All the participants and winners received recognition medal and trophies respectively for competing in this Hindi poetry competition.
This was the first time that St. Louis witnessed Hindi competition on this scale. Event promoted the passion for Hindi poetry.
Event was followed by light dinner with pizza, donuts and some delicious Indian food.
HindiUSA is a national level body with a vision to develop interest in Hindi language among kids. This volunteer-run organization is the largest non-profit Hindi language school in entire 9 Midwest states of USA. The St Louis chapter of HindiUSA was started by Mayank Jain & his wife Dr. Anshu Jain in 2018 in a local library with 22 students & 3 teachers and in 2022-2023 the school now has 128 students with 24 teachers & 15 spot volunteers.
For more information, visit its Facebook page#HindiUSASTL