Pin Oak Middle School’s Hindi Club Celebrates its First Diwali Program
Pushpa Prakash, Arun Prakash with Pin Oak principal Ms. Lindsey Vela
HOUSTON: USA’s first Hindi and Culture of India department and its Hindi club at the platinum-rated Pin Oak Middle School celebrated their first Diwali (festival of lights) program in style in the school’s auditorium. Huge crowd of students, their parents and Indian community leaders of Houston, including ABC news reporter Pooja Lodhiya, were in attendance.
This program was organized and presented by middle school students under the leadership of Hindi Club president Anisa Sinha. Other officers Lily, Naina, Farhana and Arnavi did a wonderful job of taking care of every detail of the program from creating brochure to certificates, directing and choreographing dances and being the master of ceremony.
Samar Haque sang the US national anthem and Arnavi Dua sang Bharat’s national Anthem and she also gave a talk on Diwali as well as performed in a Bollywood dance. Janki Pathak, Mythili and Simran Ramchandani performed classical dances related to the festival. A beautiful Indian classical dance in Odissi dance style was performed by a senior at Carnegie Vanguard High School, Nidhi Gupta. Hindi Club students presented several Bollywood dances and the Garba as the concluding performance with the participation of the audience.
Pin Oak Hindi Club students in their Diwali finery.
School’s Dance Company students presented a fabulous Bollywood dance. Students and parents under the leadership of Mrs. Pranika Sinha beautifully decorated the place and provided several Diwali-related games, diya painting and books on Hindu religion were also displayed. Henaa art was a big attraction among all kids, teachers and parents.
No Indian festival is complete without delicious Indian food and there was plenty of it enjoyed by everyone at the end of the show. All of this was possible because of the support from a number of parent sponsorships. Diwali and Holi are India’s largest celebrated festivals in the world but the most remarkable thing is that there is only one middle school in the USA, where 6,7 and 8 graders from every ethnicity celebrated a grand Diwali.