A 30-feet tall Ravana effigy made by Long Island-based artist Krishna Gopal Singhal with his assistant Bacchu Bhai Patel; Ramleela choreographed by Varsha Naik
Our Bureau
Edison, NJ
Indo-American Festivals, Inc, a NJ-based not-for-profit organization, organized the 23rd Grand Dussehra festival at Lake Papaianni Park in Edison, NJ, on Saturday, October 9, 2021. The festivity drew more than 10,000 people throughout the day.
The main features of the program were the cultural program consisting of over 120 participants from various local dance schools, the state-of-the-art Ramleela that was choreographed and directed by Varsha Naik of Navrang Dance Academy and most importantly, a 30-feet tall Ravana effigy that was developed and built from concept through implementation by a local Long Island talented artist Krishna Gopal Singhal with his assistant Bacchu Bhai Patel.
Though it was very cold at the later part of the event and some drizzle also started showering but still thousands of people did not leave the ground without seeing the finale of the festivity that provide a message of Victory of Good over Evil, that was burning of the Ravana effigy and the spectacular ground fireworks.
The event started at 1 pm and ended at about 8:30. The inauguration ceremony started at 5 pm with traditional lamp lighting. Many dignitaries, community leaders, and our sponsors were present during the lamp lighting.
Senator Sam Thompson, Edison councilman, Ajay Patil, Sam Joshi, the Chief Guest, Gulshan Chhabra and many other dignitaries along with our media partners, Radio Mirchi, Radio Zindagi, ITV, TV Asia, etc. were present.
Many community leaders, Sudhir Parikh, Sunil Hali, Chandrakant Patel, Raj Pandya, Ajay Kumar CPA, Devendra Singh, along with many attended the ceremony.
Indo-American Festivals has been celebrating Dussehra festival for the last 23 years and this is one of the biggest events in the Tri-state area and it draws that many spectators. Organizing an event of that magnitude with free admission and parking for thousands of spectators requires a lot of planning and combination. Our team of dedicated volunteers work throughout the year to bring this quality product for the public of tri-state.
The main executive committee consists of the following members: Chanchal Gupta, Raj Mittal, Atul Sharma, Dinesh Mittal, Varsha Naik, Pratibha Nichkavade, Ashwini Kumar, Kamal Daga, Sharad Agarwal, etc.
The event was supported by New York Life, Vadi Lal, USA, Hindi USA, Embassy Manor, Pandya Foundations, and others. “Our special thanks go to Middlesex County, Cultural and Arts Division for providing generous grant that full fills a part of the funding for this event. Last but not least, we would have not gathered that huge a crowd without publicizing the event by major media sponsors such as ITV, Desi Talk, Radio Mirchi, Radio Zindagi, TV Asia, etc,” said the festival committee.
