Fine Arts Society gives I-Day celebrations a cultural touch

The Vashi society organised a dance and music extravaganza to commemorate independence Day

Richa Pinto l Vashi

The Vashi Fine Arts Society (VFAS) celebrated 65th Independence Day by organising cultural programmes at Marathi Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal Hall in Vashi. The event began with welcoming the organisations president MA Narayanan and paying a tribute to former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. This was followed by a traditional prayer by Carnatic vocalist Janani Shrikanth. There was a fashion parade by children who were dressed up as freedom fighters. Surya Maheshwar, a young talent on keyboard, enthralled the crowd. The main attraction of the evening was a Bharatanatyam performance by students and young artistes of Kala Sadan. Anju Sasidharan, Santini Chandran, Manjari Madanan, Nidhi Bhandari, Shreya Bhagole and Usha Shetty gave an entertaining recital. The programme started with a flower tribute to Lord Ganesha. Devotional songs were rendered by Narayanaswamy, founder of Kala Sadan, while Nattuvangam, a classical dance, was done by his sons Sriram and Sarada Ganesan; Uma Narayanaswamy played the violin, Nataraj Gopal was on mridangam and Janaki Kuchelan played the flute. The programme concluded with the strains of Vande Mataram. The entire event was compered by Nandini Ganesan and all the artistes who performed were from Vashi centre. The organisation aims at teaching Bharatanatyam to young aspirants and has been successful in its endeavour for nearly six decades. Kala Sadan has centres in Vashi, Nerul and Kharghar in Navi Mumbai, and in several locations in Mumbai, Narayanaswamy said. VFAS also dedicated the evening to differently-abled persons by inviting a few of them from Sharan, a home run by Father Agnel Charities.

Toastmasters Club in town

Srishti Shinde l Vashi

Although English is the lingua franca in many countries, few people use it correctly. This is understandable, given the fact that it is constantly mutating, borrowing from other languages, adding new words every day to its vast reservoir. Here, however, is your chance to speak the language the way it is meant to be spoken. Fr Agnel Technical Education Complex, Vashi, has taken a gigantic first step towards helping people become better speakers and leaders by starting a Toastmasters Club. The Vashi chapter of the Toastmasters Club has been initiated under the aegis of the Toastmasters movement in Mumbai. A meeting was organised to this effect on Brillian sK, division governor August 9 at Fr Agnels Technical Complex, 2012, by division governor Brillian SK, assistant division governor Arvind Nair, and office-bearers of the region comprising Mumbai, Northern Maharashtra and Gujarat. Toastmasters is a learn-bydoing programme in which every member is encouraged to participate, and is provided with meaningful, constructive feedback for improvement. The first Navi Mumbai chapter of Toastmasters had seen participation from 26 aspiring public speakers above the age group of 18. These participants belong to various nodes of the city Vashi, Belapur, Kharghar, Koparkhairane and Airoli. Each session of the Toastmasters Club will last one-and-a-half hours, and will be conducted once every fortnight on weekends. The striking difference between the Toastmasters Club and any English-learning course is that Toastmasters is a self-improvement programme where there are no teachers. This is not one of the English-speaking courses that run in every small institute in the city. It is a very distinct way of improving your command over the language, along with developing public speaking and leadership skills. Every member follows manuals provided by the club, prepares speeches and presents them in every session. Initially, there will be Toastmasters from Mumbai who will work as timers, evaluators and grammarians and then as the course advances, American Toastmasters will take over these duties, said N Sukumaran, the proposed president for the Vashi club. Participants will be awarded certificates once they achieve an objective. The first milestone in the course is the completion of a participants first ten speeches; he is then awarded a certificate of Competent Communicator. A certification of Distinguished Toastmaster is achieved after the successful completion of forty speeches. By participating in the Toastmasters programme, members enjoy learning and practicing skills in various areas that can improve not just their social lives, but their careers as well.
Printed and published by Deepak Rathi on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. Printed at EL-201 MIDC TTC Industrial Area, Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400705 Phone No. 39802200 and published at 506-507, D Wing, Vashi Plaza, Sector-17, Vashi, Navi Mumbai 400703 Phone- 41515700 Associate Editor: Rajeev D Pai