Media Release

Michigan, Oct 30: On October 12, India Catholic Association of South-East Michigan (ICA) celebrated 'Sangam 2013', a four-hour event walking down the memory lane of its members and their past.  

Sangam 2013 was a celebration befitting ICA  35th anniversary. With the presence of distinguished guest the Bishop Francis R Reiss bishop of Detroit and about  220 guests, it was one of the distinct milestones in the history of ICA.

The evening began with a special Mass at St Valentine’s church, Redford Michigan with the Bishop Francis R Reiss as the main celebrant of the Mass and con-celebrants Fr Socorro, Fr Selvam, Fr John Peter, Fr Kishore, Fr Henry and Deacon Lawrence.

Teena Ayyagari, president of ICA gave a warm welcome to the congregation and Mass began with a grand promenade of ICA’s Past Presidents who walked to an inspirational music in the background leading the Bishop and concelebrants to the altar.  The procession concluded with a beautiful Aarti performance by Liz Lopes with narration by Bea Nunes.

The idea of the Aarti was to  bring the light to the altar in an Indian way and Bishop received the Aarti and lit the Indian Lamp, to begin mass.  Lesley Tauro led  the choir with hymns infused with Indian languages Konkani and Hindi. Vivienne Lucksom, Agnelo Fernandes, Asha Carvalho,  Carlyle Carvalho and Vijay D’Souza enhanced the choir with their beautiful voices and music. Vijay D Souza’s performance of “Shout to the Lord” was soulful.

Offering of flowers to Mother Mary by little children is nostalgic to many of us from India and it was fulfilled once again with Sangam Celebrations when our little children offered flowers to our Lady who was adorned in a beautiful Indian Saree, accompanied to the singing of ‘Sakkad Sangatha Mellyam’.

The beautiful service at the church continued with a spectacular cultural program and dinner at St Valentine’s gym, with Lloyd Williams as the Emcee. The cultural program began with a beautiful classical Prayer dance performed by eleven ICA women to ‘Sagle srastecha ye rachnara Dayal jesu’ that set the right tone for the evening.

After the Invocation prayer dance, Teena Ayyagari  welcomed the audience and initiated the felicitation of Bishop. ICA’s first president Neville Dsouza felicitated the Bishop with a shawl and a memento as a token of ICA’s gratitude and appreciation. 

Bishop of Detroit Francis Reiss then addressed the audience and blessed the meal.  As a symbol of blessing new harvest, Rev. Fr. Sucorro, ICA’s chaplain blessed the Rice kheer (Novem) with the blessed rice flour that was offered in church, under the supervision of Vijay Pinto. 

 Everyone enjoyed a sumptuous Indian dinner catered by Athidi restaurant, while being entertained with multimedia presentations, which included video presentations of past events and a special movie on tapestry of ICA, which was produced by Aditya Ayyagari and narrated by Kristen D’Souza.
 
Dinner was followed with a Cultural showcase of various dances, live music and a skit ‘Ladru-Pedru’s journey from Bombay to Goa’ that wove the program together. The performances that riveted everyone to their seats were the energetic and foot tapping Mi hai koli Dance, the lively Goan folk dance by the ICA women, elegant & graceful Bollywood Dance by ICA’s young girls and the beautiful YaYa Mayyaya Dance by our little Kids, who stole our hearts with their charming performance.  All these dances covered the breadth of talented ICA in several age limits.   Thanks to all the 50 talented performers who entertained all of us.
 
The evening concluded on a high note with “Curry Rock”, a Live Band Performance directed by Aditya Ayyagari, which featured a mix of Konkani, Hindi and English songs, performed by ICA’s fabulous musicians Agnelo FernandesNorman KuTemperor and Donald Tauro who sang ‘Ami Sagli Ek’, ‘Viv La Goa’, ‘Bombay Meri Jaan’, ‘Papa Kehte Hain’ among many other. Accompanied on the guitars were Carl Carvalho, John Lucksom and Urban DeSouza. Accomopanied on the keyboard was Aditya Ayyagari and on the trumpet was Lesley Tauro.
 
Sangam 2013 demonstrated the ICA’s spirit of unity, talent and commitment.  President and coordinator of the event Teena Ayyagari says “It is a joy to celebrate Sangam with so much of talent and distinguished guests.  I thank from my bottom of heart to all the volunteers and I am glad with your support and talent, nothing is impossible. ”

Kindly contact members at : website http://www.icamichigan.org.

To write to the president of the association teena@cois4u.com and icamichigan@gmail.com