INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, APRIL 04, 2014 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
Friday, April 04 2014 | Vol. 33, No. 14
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Record Breaking Crowd at the Masala Radio Holi
BY IAN CORRESPONDENTHOUSTON: “Itna mazaa kyun
aa raha hai,” Houstonians reveled in sheer ecstasy at Masala Radio’s sun-kissed Holi on Sunday March 30, despite the inclement weather postponement from the original March 23 date. 10 days prior, Facebook and Twitter follow-ers were a flurry with “WHAT? WHY DID YOU MOVE HOLI? BUT WE MADE PLANS!!”
The perfect day packed Sea-bourne Creek Park to the rim at the 7th annual Aapka Colors Houston Holi 2014, also presented by MTV India and Tara Energy. Crowds danced at three different Live DJs and Dholi’s and rocked as Mer-cedes Benz of Sugarland presented pop star Raghav crooning his Sto-ryteller hits “Angel Eyes”, ‘Teri Baaton Mein” and recent Bolly-wood hit “Ishq Shava” to a frenzy of fans both teen and not-so-teen-but-screaming-like-they-were-teens. Youths witnessed for the first time in their lives a real matki-phod sponsored by New York Life. Matkiphod, a traditional event in India where a clay pot containing maakhand (yogurt) is suspended high in the air, and dedicated teams build a human pyramid to break the matki (as Lord Krishna did in his childhood to reach the forbid-den maakhand). The audience held their breath when the three-tier Masala Crew team – after two huge falls – finally broke the clay pot containing color powder. Be-sides mouthwatering food lineup, everything was free. Free park-ing, Free entry, Free brand new Keemat Kids Rides, Free bags and spices from Aapka Colors, Free iced Deep juices and bottle water from Tara Energy, Free Chat Pat snacks and balloons from House of Spices, Sonu Nigam ticket give-aways, 200 Free perfumes thrown by W Perfumes, and hundreds of Free T-shirts from Masala Radio, the movie JINN, and Fiesta, and Free mesmerizing Bollywood En-tertainment hosted by Sunil Thak-kar with his “DOSTI KE RANG”
themed Bullet Motorcycle entry. The “FREES” were made possible by the generous major sponsor-ships of Alings Hakka, The Dosa Factory, Amit and Arpita Bhan-dari, Gopal and Urvishi Savjani, Jugal and Raj Malani, Keemat Grocers, Mercedes Benz of Sugar Land, New York Life, Skai Foun-dation and Chat Pats. Rosenberg Police could not define the sheer number of people, summarizing the count as “way more than the 17,000 we estimated last year.”
“Tune hava mein bhaang mi-
laya,” Indeed, the God-given air-conditioning breezes were in-toxicatingly distracting from the Equinox Sun beaming from a clear sky as thousands reveled in Holi-
madness. And while the ancient official drink of Holi, bhaang was clearly missing, crowds feasted on exotic Dosas like the bean, cheese and salsa dosa of The Dosa Fac-tory, Golas, Kulfis, and Faloodas from Baloch, cookies and brown-ies from Great American Cook-ies, heavenly chaat from Mirch Masala and Kurry Walah, Potato Stix and Indo Chinese from Sa-gar Indian Cuisine, South Indian fare from Madras Pavillion, and Nizam-style cuisine from Hydera-bad House and North Indian cui-sine from the new Signature India Restaurant. The Chatpat Jhatpat eating contest had the audience rolling in laughter as Sunil T had six random contestants race to eat the most Chatpats in one minute.
“Balam pichkari jo tune mujhe maari” ICC’s sold-out pichkaris, and the Aling’s Rain Dance crew’s eight new 6’ high sprinklers added a new level of water play to Holi. Of course the natural side effect was a fresh mud pit which hun-dreds fell victim to. Amee Patel, president of the Gujarati Samaj of Houston ordered double the Holi colored powder than last year in six vibrant colors, and as promised kept the Holi revelers supplied to the end. Holi Pragtya, the of-ficial lighting of the HOLI bon-fire started with a stage pooja by Priest Parimal Joshi with all major Holi Sponsors, followed with a Jaganath Chariot procession and finished with prayers and coconut offerings to the growing fire. The
Chariot held Lord Jaganath, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, who in the story of Holi comes to res-cue Prahlad from burning to death while in the lap of his evil aunt Hollika. Young ISKCON devo-tees from ISKCON chanted “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama” throughout the festival, and invited all to the grand opening of their incredible new ISKCON temple on May 17.
“Haa Jeans pahen ke jo tune
maara thumka,” Masala Radio’s Sunil Thakkar introduced mes-merizing Bollywood dances by Houston’s leading dance schools. 3-5 year olds stole the audience’s hearts. The mesmerizing perfor-mances were by Nuppor Dance School, Bollywood Shake, and UH’s Jannat. The change of date prevented two Holi stalwarts Dancing Starz of Katy and Shivan-gai Dance Schools for performing. But Rhythm India wowed the au-dience with over 65 performers some in stunning neon costumes and precision moves. The finale act by Naach Houston blew every-one away with over 100 perform-ers in non-stop blast of Bollywood hits with surprise Pichkaris, vi-brant costumes, unbelievable en-ergy, and of course synchronized “thumkas!”. The crowds jumped from their seats to finally get to dance themselves as MTV India presented the Battle of the DJs. Bollywood (DJ NISH) vs Bhangra (DJ GEO). MTV India declared it as a tie as the audience were equal-ly screaming during both sets.
“Toh lattoo padosan ki bhabhi ho gayi,” Even the most serious and the seedha saadha caught Holi Fever. Houston Holi was a joint community event organized by Sunil and Sandhya Thakkar of Masala Radio, presented by Aap-ka Colors, MTV India, and Tara Energy, with partnering organiza-
Masala Radio crew with pop star Raghav (front, center) at the Holi Mela at Seabourne Creek Park on Sunday, March 30.
Photos: Meedu Photography, Carlos Pena, and Winston Hsu.
SEE PHOTO COLLAGE ON PG 14-15
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Record Breaking Crowd at the Masala Radio Holi
tions such as Gujarati Samaj of Houston, India Cutlure Center, and Hindus of Greater Houston.
Masala Radio thanks the immeasurable contributions of over 120 sponsors, 12 res-taurants, 55 booths, 20 vendors, and over 115 volunteers from surrounding schools including UH ISA, Austin High School, and Hightower. 36 Masala Crew members led by Event Directors Munira Vejlani, Ruchir Patel, and Rinku Gosh included: Shah, Char-liebhai, Ninad, Chiragbhai, Malav, Sunny, Amir, Sameep, Devan, Devangi, Shivani, Shreya, and Sara. Stage Masala Crew man-aged by Preanka Desai and Dilip Kanabar included: Rajoo, Pankti, Sandeep, Natasha, Priti, Krupa, Ina, Mayur, and Keval. Masa-
la Radio Jockeys promoting the event for 2 months were: Preanka, Rajoo, Dilip, Alka, Bijuria, Kashmira, Priya, Naina, Ajay, Su-shil, Priti, and Ina.
Indeed, there was a record turnout of non-Indians, from mounting publicity and inter-views. Channel 39 News covered the event, and featured it on their Sunday evening prime time news.
For photos by Meedu Photography, Carlos Pena and Winston Hsu visit www.masalaradio.com, houstonholi.com, or fa-cebook .com/HoustonHoli. Edited Video compilation coming soon on YouTube un-der HOUSTON HOLI 2014.
SEE PHOTO COLLAGE ON PG 14-15