January 1, 2012
Bitten by the entertainment-bug, Washington’s noted Indian ‘food and beverages’ entrepreneur, Ananda Poojary, enabled the revelers to euphoric excitement at his sixth Annual (Dec.31) New Year’s Eve Party. It was a ‘Bollywood Bash’— Drink, Dine, and Dance!
By Sam Prasad Jillella – Special to MyDosti.Com
January 1, 2012
Bitten by the entertainment-bug, Washington’s noted Indian ‘food and beverages’ entrepreneur, Ananda Poojary, enabled the revelers to euphoric excitement at his sixth Annual (Dec.31) New Year’s Eve Party. It was a ‘Bollywood Bash’— Drink, Dine, and Dance!
By Sam Prasad Jillella – Special to MyDosti.Com
Some of the New Year’s Eve partygoers
SILVER SPRING, MD. — In many cultures of the world, the beginning of the New Year is celebrated in an extraordinary manner. South Asian communities have different calendars that calculate the New Year, differently.
Won’t the world be a boring place if everyone across the globe celebrated New Year in a ditto manner? If it were not for the various New Year traditions, watching the clock strike 12 across 24 time zones wouldn’t be so interesting.
The South Asians in Metro Washington — the Punjabis, Tamilians, Telugus, Kannadikas, Odiyas, Kashmiris, Maharastrians, Malayalese, Sinhalese, Parsees, Nepalis, Sindhis, Biharis, Bengalis, Banglas, etc — celebrate Nava (“new”) Varsha (“year”) in March or April. For most of these communities the New Year celebration is marked with the beginning of harvest session.
New Year is the time to meet and greet people, and share gifts and sweets. They paint their houses and decorate them colorfully, make rangoli (‘traditional decorative folk art’) in the courtyards, light lamps and sacred fires, and wear traditional garments. The New Year is most importantly treated as a religious festival involving prayers, chanting, fasting, and feasting.
South Asians in Washington who celebrate the beginning of their own calendar year with their own religious and ethnic communities have, since recent years, turned mainstream American celebrating New Year (Jan.01) in full vigor with neighbors, friends, relatives, and workmates alike — enjoying fun, frolic, and fellowship with no regard to race, region, religion, color, or language. They are enjoying diversity in its fullness. That’s pretty cool!
The New Year’s Eve in the US is a festive time — you meet people and enjoy every moment. Nightlong parties, fireworks, live musical performances, and grand feast at every nook and corner of the country defines the festive mood of the people. A common tradition of the Americans is to kiss each other when the clock strikes 12:00 midnight on December 31. With love and free spirit, the New Year is welcomed.
JEWEL OF INDIA Owners Ananda and Sumita Poojary
Ananda Poojary, who is known as the founder/proprietor of Metro Washington’s most popular Indian vegetarian restaurant ‘Woodlands’ in Hyattsville, MD., has in mid-2011 started ‘Jewel of India Restaurant’ (10151 New Hampshire Ave.) in Silver Spring, MD.
Jewel of India, unlike Woodlands, serves Indo-Chinese meat dishes, wines, and spirits. The restaurant has become an instant hit.
The bottom line — Poojary loves to provide his customers what they love. A detail-oriented careful planner, and a caring gentleman, he is particular about being consistent in maintaining high food-quality and top customer service. The Washington Post in its ‘Food’ section (Wednesday, Jan.4, 2012) called Jewel of India “An eclectic Indian Outpost” and, besides other things, praised the staff as being attentive, in fact, “too attentive.”
The previous five times, the New Year Party was held in event-halls in different regions of Metro Washington. But, this year, Ananda and his wife Sumita Poojary hosted the New Year party in their new Jewel of India Restaurant. And, the party was virtually a ‘Bollywood Bash’ with an ‘all you can eat’ 30-piece pot-belly buffet, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and a toast of champagne at 12:00 midnight.
Amir Ashraf rocking the crowd
Popular Bollywood tunes by Washington’s electrifying rockers Amir Ashraf and DJ Raj, and sizzling dances by belly-dancer Ameera had the revelers asking for more.
Bollywood is India's equivalent of Hollywood. The 'B' in Bollywood is for Bombay (now called Mumbai), the home-city of Bollywood. In South Asia, Bollywood sets trends and its actors are greatly idolized. In fact, approximately 4 billion movie tickets are sold in India, every year, for Bollywood movies alone. Bollywood is an all Hindi, all colorful musical extravaganzas and melodrama.
Belly-dancer Ameera
I realize Bollywood tunes and dances have become increasingly popular in the US with A. R. Rahman’s Oscar winning ‘Jai Ho’ of Danny Boyle’s super hit movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire.”
Friends and couples hugged and kissed “Happy New Year” at midnight, but continued dancing till wee hours. The crowd went nuts for the hot sensational ‘Kolaveri Di’ and shouted — “Encore! Encore!”
DJ Raj
The partygoers thanked Jewel of India for the jubilation it brought them at the start of the New Year. As they departed they greeted each other with hugs and high-fives, and counseled: “Do something quotable this New Year;” “Become proactive;” “Do things which make you happy, and inspire others to do such deeds;” and so on.
A famous quote from a famous personality Tom Bergeron, reads: “May all of your resolutions (except the ridiculous ones borne of misplaced guilt) be realized. That should take care of most of them…”
Make it a point to consider your everyday as first day of the year. And welcome the daily sun as you welcomed it on the first day of the year.
Happy New Year! CHEERS!
