On arrival of our bandhus to celebrate not only the Diwali festival but also our 15th Anniversary on Saturday, 17th November 2007, at the main hall of The Archbishop Lanfranc School in Croydon, two of our senior founding members, Shree Purshottambhai Jethwa and Shree Umedbhai Vaghela, welcomed and led them to the dining area where delicious hot meal was served by our ever-cheerful volunteers. Those who were fatigued by long-distant travelling looked more relaxed after the meal. Everybody then had an opportunity to meet & greet relatives and friends, and later settle down in the main hall, anticipating our evening programme.

The festival of light began with the grand entrance of ladies with ‘divas in kodiyas’ held in hands, walking graciously from the rear of the function hall towards the mandir in front, placing all the ‘divas’ before Mataji and Gopal Lalji and then lining up with their hands together to greet the audience with ‘Namaste’. The audience appreciated with loud applause!

The honour was given to Shree Pravinbhai Mathurdas Makwana and his family to lead the Hingraj Mataji’s Aarti. Soon after followed the welcome dances – Kathak and Bharati Natyam – by young Sri Lankan girls and by Janki Nitin Mehta respectively.

Our guests of the evening were Shree Dhirenbhai Katwa, the senior news editor of the renowned Asian newspaper, Asian Voice, and Shree Maheshbhai Sonigra, the President of The Vanza Society of London. Also present were Shree Babubhai and Manglaben Gohil, who graced us with their presence by coming all the way from Norway, and our resident-guest Shree Nitinbhai Mehta MBE.

Our Chairman, Arunbhai Tank, warmly welcomed the guests as well as all our members who were present. Our Vice-Chairman, Purshottambhai Jethwa, narrated the past 15 years’ history of the VCSL and gave tribute to three of our past committee members: Kishorbhai Wadhia, Vasubhai Chavda and Narendrabhai Davadra, who had all sadly passed away during this period and who had contributed, in their own way, towards the success of the VCSL.

The Master of Ceremony for the evening was our Secretary, Suchetaben Samant, who controlled the rest of the programme very efficiently and smoothly. The music was provided by ‘Unforgettable Melodies’ whose singers, Durgesh and Malika, started with the ‘bhuli-beesri-yaaden’ songs, leading to more modern ‘Bollywood’ songs and then to the ‘bhangra’ music when all the youngsters were on the floor dancing to the beat. The entertainment programme ended with the farewell dance, performed in true Bollywood style, by none other than our own Minal Dinesh Samant, a young lady with fluent flow of gracious dancing-steps.

The evening came to a close with the Raffle-Draw of five prizes presented to the winners by Pravinbhai Mathurdas Makwana and his family:

The event ended with the vote of thanks proposed by our Secretary.

Our Chairman wishes to thank all the committee members and the volunteers for their participation in making this programme as enjoyable as possible. He also thanks all our members who attended and supported the celebrations of Diwali 2007 and the 15th Anniversary and seeks for members to pledge for their continued support. .