Third World Hindi Day on March 20, 2008

The Embassy organized the Third World Hindi Day on March 20, 2008 with the cooperation of the Indology Department of Sofia University, Indira Gandhi School, Sofia and Indira Gandhi Kindergarten, Pravetz. After the official inauguration of the function by the Ambassador Shri Lal Dingliana, a DVD on “Hindi in United Nations”, which was prepared by the Ministry on the occasion of the World Hindi Conference in New York in July 2007 was screened. This was followed by an entertaining as well as educational programme amalgamating the usage of Hindi in all forms including dance performances on Bollywood songs by the students of Indology Department, Indira-Gandhi School and a local dance-troupe; a short educational skit in Hindi by the students of Indology Department; singing of Bollywood songs and poetry recitation; a Bulgarian folk-dance by the little children of Indira Gandhi Kindergarten, Pravetz (who came from Pravetz for this dance-performance only which is about 70 kms away from Sofia); Bollywood dances by local group ‘Rajunka’ and Bharatnatyam dance performances by a local dance group ‘Deepawali’. As part of the World Hindi Day celebrations, the Embassy had organized Essay-writing, Poetry-recitation and Story-writing competitions prior to the event in the Indology Department of Sofia University and the Indira Gandhi School, Sofia with their kind cooperation. The winners of the competitions were awarded cash prizes, certificates and books on Indian literature by the Ambassador. A small reception was organized after the function which included some items of Indian cuisine too.

The event received an overwhelming response and was attended by nearly 250-275 people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, contacts of the Mission in different Ministries, students and faculty-members from Sofia University, members of Friends of India Club and East-West Indological Foundation apart from media persons. The event was covered in the news telecast of the Bulgarian National TV (BNT) on the next day. The function was also covered by ‘TV Zdrave’ and a documentary on the event along-with an interview of the Ambassador taken on the occasion was telecast on March 29 at 10.30 A.M local time.

(See the photographs of the event)