Seniors of Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust hosted their last event for 2018 – Christmas and New Year celebrations for the seniors – at Mt Eden War Memorial Hall on Friday, December 14.
More than 250 senior members of the community attended the event along with members of parliament, community leaders, supporters and executive committee members of Bhartiya Samaj.
The celebrations started with the Diya lighting, a custom at Bhartiya Samaj events, followed by encouraging speeches by dignitaries and guests at the event.
Bhartiya Samaj also felicitated Asian Liaison Co-ordinator Jessica Phuang for her efforts and contributions towards Bhartiya Samaj.
Present at the event Honorary Consul Bhav Dhillon acknowledged the hard work of Jeet Suchdev, Roopa Suchdev and the entire team of Bhartiya Samaj for arranging such big celebrations for the seniors of the community.
“The energy at this event is contagious, it is so good to see senior members of the community so enthusiastic and energetic and participating at this celebrations,” Mr Dhillon said at the event.
Bhartiya Samaj also felicitated the 29-year-old Indian cyclist Abhishek Kumar Sharma who is on his 35-day all nation tour of New Zealand. Mr Sharma will start his cycle journey from Auckland through towns and cities in North Island to Dunedin and back to Queenstown over the next five weeks.
“We commend the courage of the young man who is on this incredible world tour on a cycle, and we as a diaspora are there to help him make this tour successful,” Mr Suchdev said at the event.
The celebrations continued with solo and group dance performances where the seniors joined the dancers on the stage celebrating the joy of Christmas and New Year.
“Like every Indian festival, Christmas is also very special for our seniors, and they rejoice and dance and celebrate the last big festival of the year,” Mr Suchdev added.
Bhartiya Samaj is conducting a children’s summer camp in January next year where they conduct several learning and excursion activities for the children of the community. The activities include singing, dancing, creative craft, computer workshops, music, motivational and communication skill sessions, elocution etc.
Children from the age of six to 14 can participate in the Annual Summer Camp from 7 to 11 January 2019.
Thursday, December 20, 2018 Rizwan Mohammad
