Hindus of Greater Houston E-Janmashtami 2020 Online Parade
Some of the winners: Group 1:0-3 Years — Rohan Soni, Gangisetty Bharat and Avani Bhat.
By Thara Narasimhan
Houston: Hindus of Greater Houston celebrated E- Janmashtami 2020 Photo and Video parade online this year, that was an outstanding success. Thanks to the parents enthusiasm to register on our website and submit a lovely array of most charming kids with their photos and some with videos. A total of 197 participants were in age groups ranging from 4.5 months till about 12 years old. This was indeed a spectacular collection of multi-various forms Ram, Krishna, Vasudev, Yashoda, Radha Rani and Meera Bai.
The theme selected for this year was highlighted by the massive changes in our world happening right now. We titled the theme as “Krishna Kanhaiya Korona Maaro” and reflect the recent sensational renovation of Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya titled “Ayodhyapati Ram Punar Agaman”.
This idea and execution were planned in exactly five days with extensive publicity on newspaper ads, email, Facebook and radio announcements. The registration came in promptly on our website entry in about five days also and the response was huge. The Age groups were divided from 0-3 years, 4-6yrs. and 7& up. Once entries were sorted and files arranged, the most challenging job was given to five judges.
We are very grateful to the elite panel of Judges Sunita Zamwar, Lakshmi Venkat, Hemant Jadhav, Manisha Gandhi and Rajan Radhakrishnan. They meticulously accomplished their task but each one added one comment uniformly, “it was the hardest and toughest work we have ever done”.
Our task would never been accomplished, but for one person who has taken keen interest for over 10 years, Shital Rathi, our Costume Contest Coordinator. Her expertise to conduct the Costume Parade was systematically approached and much appreciated by Hindus of Greater Houston, Board of Directors. We specially thank her for a fantastic outcome of this year J20 Online Costume Contest.
Every picture and Video submitted were a winner true to the saying “Every child is a special kind of flower, and all together, make this world a beautiful garden.”
This year, the 31st Annual Janmashtami festival was to be held at the Vallabh Priti Seva Samaj temple,but Covid-19 forced festivities to go virtual. We are grateful that technology made the celebration possible in spite of the pandemic
The tradition of Celebration of Lord Krishna’s birthday was started by Raj Syal and team in 1990. Hindus of Greater Houston held a massive free event every year at George R. Brown Convention Center, complete with music, dance and Indian cuisine.
This year the Online Photo and Video Parade was first of its kind, the photos have been uploaded on our website www.hindusofhouston.org and the videos can be accessed on YouTube link:
Group A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A72jSB42TwU&t=1s
Group B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Oon4t4WB14
Group C: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l7dgJ9WAUc&t=1s