An enchanting evening of Gujarati poetry and ghazals.
 

Presented by The International Gujarati Cultural Society of Atlanta

By Sanjay Pandya

Like a fist celestial event of Solar eclipse on Saturday, March 29, 2025, Atlanta’s Gujarati song and music lovers saw another miracle. The first ever local team of artists put together a musical concert “Pagla Vasantna” (Footsteps of Spring) picking gams of Gujarati poetry of past 100 years!

Gujarati immigrants are known for their business acumen amongst Indian diaspora. Gujaratis do take pride in their skills too! When it comes to fine arts like music, people hailing from Maharashtra or Bengal take lead amongst Indian immigrants. Generally speaking, Gujarati community doesn’t give much importance to fine arts, however this event disproved that perception. This event was a proud moment for the Gujarati in Atlanta!

On Saturday April 29, 2025 the “International Gujarati Cultural Society, Atlanta” also known as IGCSA successfully organized a light-classical musical event “Pagla Vasantna” (Footsteps of Spring) at Gadhpursham Swaminarayan temple (1080 Beaver Ruin Rd., Norcross) where local singers and musicians (a crew of 8 artists) presented an enchanting flower vase of Gujarati literary songs! A delectable mix of the noteworthy composers like Dilip Dholakiya, Avinash Vyas, Purushottam Upadhyay to modern music composers which made it very interesting and enjoyable evening! The three-hour event started at 4:00 pm and culminated with a joyful Garba/Ras with listener’s participation around 6:45, followed by delicious food from the temple!

The program started with Priyakant Maniyar’s famous Lord Krishna-Radha lyric “Aa Nabha Jhukyu…” followed by some very famous Gujarati Ghazals from Mariz, Gani Dahivala and others. The journey started from Balmukund Dave’s immortal classic love duet to latest lyricist Padmashree Tushar Shukla’s “Puchhine Thay Nahi Prem”(Love happens…don’t question…). The lead male singer Ankur Joshi sang soulful Ghazals and nice duet with Mrs. Parul Sevak, Dr. Mona Shah sang heart tugging poetries. Mita Mehta also shared some memorable lyrics.

Kavish Gandhi provided musical accompaniment on tabla, Tejas Chavan on synthesizer Poulouse on Gitar and Jayur Patel on rhythm. Nimish Sevak hosted the event with composure literary flavor! Three young artists who are born and raised here in USA and student of Mr. Joshi’s musical school, but cannot read Gujarati yet, sang and played flute from English rendering, which greatly delighted audience! All singers and emcee worked every weekend for two months to come up with this tasteful bouquet.

Gujarati literature has produced some note worthy poets that can stand tall amongst rest of Indian literary figures. IGCSA is proud of this fact and now it is showcasing their memorable creations with help of these local talents. Two years ago International Gujarati Cultural Society of Atlanta hosted a week-long “Gujarati Film festival” in Atlanta which was warmly received. Last year the, IGCSA organized an outstanding event at the Best Western, Roswell, Atlanta, “An evening with noted writer Madhu Rye & iconic Gujarati poet Shobhit Desai”.

The event was attended by Drs. Naresh & Asha Parikh of Georgi Clinic, Dr. Dhaval Shah of Peach Clinic, Drs. Sanjay & Amita Parikh, Dr. & Mrs. Jayprakash Desai, Mr. Jatin & Chaula Shah, Mr. Paresh Desai & Physicians Protection Group and our beloved cultural ambassador of India, Mr. Mustafa Ajmeri to name a few among the audience.