February 2016 Newsletter | I for India

Greetings from I for India and it’s always a pleasure to interact with this vibrant and ever growing community. We hope you all enjoyed the romantic Valentine’s Day weekend and many of you may have some days off in the next week for the school half term break.

“F for Fall in Love - Valentine’s Thames Cruise” : a post event update

As you know, the weekend was very special for the I for India community with our first coming together for 2016 in an event aptly themed and titled as “F for Fall in Love” - a Valentine’s Thames Cruise. This newsletter is a post event update of this very successful and enjoyable event.

Despite a slightly damp and grey start to the day, the spirit and enthusiasm of the team and the patrons for the event were as bright and warm as ever... and by afternoon, even the weather was on our side and joined in the party !

Time discipline is a core value we’ve upheld at all events and thanks to all our patrons’ support, the Westminster Pier was buzzing with a bevy of the colourful Indian community across London. As the Big Ben struck five, boarding was nearly complete and we flagged off our scenic ride. The 2-storeyed cruise had the attendees comfortably settling in, with children heading to the secure lower deck after a meet and greet from sought after Disney character Mickey Mouse. Here they were entertained until 7 p.m by professional entertainer Mickro Magic Entertainment with magic shows and interactive games and balloon modelling for every child.

The adults made their way to the upper deck which had an enclosed area with a bar, music area and dance floor as well as an outdoor viewing gallery. Sathish Duraisamy welcomed everyone with a quick introduction of I for India and its journey since spring 2015. Soon after, the music begun with Karthik Raghavan taking over as DJ for the evening. The audience rocked the evening from start to finish with the dance floor belting out English, Bollywood and Kollywood dance beats as well as some romantic couple dance numbers. A complete dinner spread on-board was also part of the evening, open from 7 pm sharp as planned, prioritized first for children and followed by parents.

To add variety to the evening was an engaging Bollywood quiz from Sharath Kumar Sekhar, as well as a Karaoke family performance from patron Dr.Giridhar & family and birthday celebrations on-board by a few of our attendees. The attractive raffle and special sponsor prizes (tablets, ladies fashion watches, Calvin Klein perfume sets, and gold & diamond jewellery from sponsor) kept coming one by one from Sriv Venkatesh, keeping the excitement and thrill going for the evening and needless to say with many elated winners ! Sridhar Balachander had all of the logistics and on-board arrangements in his able hands, and Ramki Krishnamoorthy delivered the vote of thanks and farewells at the end of an enjoyable evening, which also closed on the dot back at 9 pm at Westminster Pier.

So here we start a new page for 2016 with yet another memorable and successful event ! This would not have been possible without the unflinching support and recommendation from all you readers, well-wishers and patrons so thanks again. It was also remarkable that nearly 80% of attendees were newbies at their first I for India event, so the reach of our initiative through social media, word of mouth and attendee recommendation is clearly at work !

Our thanks and appreciation is also due to our sponsors and partner organisations, whose passionate and capable support is crucial to the successful delivery of such large scale events. We would like to especially thank Sri Rathigas for providing a delicious vegetarian and non-vegetarian dinner spread on board the cruise. They were also our partners for the grand New Year’s Eve event and this time around, despite the main promoter being overseas on engagement and the additional logistical challenges with onboard catering, they did an excellent job once again so our thanks are due to the entire team at Sri Rathigas.

We also thank our sponsor Lebara Play, who continue to support us at key events, while also providing our patrons with excusive discounted purchases made on event days to their official and sunning quality Indian entertainment. We also wish to thank and welcome our new partner Lifeline, who facilitates insurance services of all types including life, medical and home insurance solutions. We are really overwhelmed and pleased with their support to our event with some fabulous sponsor prizes in the form of gold and diamond jewellery which had a few ecstatic lucky winners on board !!

Closing

We are truly humbled and pleased with the smooth conduct of yet another large scale event and once again wish to thank all our patrons for making this happen. Our heartfelt thanks and gratitude once again to all the attendees and well-wishers.

We will shortly be updating on events and plans for rest of the year, please stay updated with us in our newsletters or Facebook page.

While we are making every effort to connect the Indian community across the UK, you could support this noble effort through your attendance and recommendations. So please continue to mention this to your friends who you think might benefit from being part of the “I for India” Community or direct them to our Facebook page where they can also sign up for the newsletters. We are also seeing many previous attendees coming with their wider groups which allows them all to enjoy the event even better, while also enlarging the movement.

On behalf of the entire team, partners and volunteers at “I for India”, we thank you for all your support, trust and patronage. We would really appreciate your input, suggestions or ideas including future events and activities. Please email us your thoughts at team@iforindia.uk.

The photos of the Valentine's Day Cruise event attached below.

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