Rocking on the river Yarra
“The boat down the river was sailing away
Round through the Yarra where to?….. No one cared”
The guests at the recent Sangam ‘World on cruise’ were so busy having a good time that it did not matter to them how far they sailed or how long they remained aboard the Lady Cutler. The family-friendly cruise was organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Sangam Group. It was fun from when the cruise departed from Docklands to its return, when the last guests disembarked, albeit, reluctantly. Even the unpredictable Melbourne weather seemed to be in Sangam’s favour and the boat’s journey was buoyed by a perfect breeze.
Sangam Group is a non-profit, non-political, multicultural group that promotes multiculturalism within the community. As its name suggests ‘Sangam’ is a confluence of a variety of people. “We have no regional barriers and absolutely no political agenda, our focus is mainly on creating a family-friendly and multicultural environment,” said Gurpreet Tuteja, President of Sangam as he introduced the committee members. True to his words, the guests on the cruise belonged to all walks of life and myriad backgrounds with just one common goal for the evening – to enjoy this social event.
The only formal part of the evening was the official cake-cutting ceremony by the Sangam team and presentations to special guests. Certificates of appreciation were presented to Vice Consul Mr. Rakesh Kawra, FIAV President Mr. Vasan Srinivasan, VMC representatives Michael Van Vliet and Caroline Duyvestyn and Indian Link’s Coordinator Mrs. Preeti Jabbal. A special token of appreciation was presented to Sangam founders Mrs. Hardip Madan, Mrs. Usha Sharma and Mr. Suresh Sutrave. “We created Sangam a decade ago to promote harmony and multiculturalism within the community,” said Mr. Sutrave. “The idea was to encourage our younger generation to do the same. It gives me great pride to see how the current Sangam committee has continued that tradition with such enthusiasm,” he added.
An eclectic mix of entertainment created ripples of excitement through the night. Taking off with soft songs and music, the agenda sailed through Salsa, Bhangra, Bollywood and Fijian folk presentations. DJ Arif stirred up the waters with some groovy tracks and kept the guests rocking and rolling through the entire evening. In between people did find time to eat the simple, yet sumptuous dinner catered by Curry Club. The cruise was sponsored by Prasaana and Gerard from Prestige Performance Automotive, Cengiz from Plumbcorp, Gary from GotoPrint and Suresh from Curry Club Atlite Skylights.
Feedback suggests that people appreciated the well-organized multicultural event. “It is so refreshing to attend an event that has no ulterior motives other than having fun. I attend a lot of these community events and most them take a predictable course of lengthy speeches, noisy participants who do not allow you to hear a word and in some cases, utter chaos. I commend the attention to detail provided by the Sangam team, they kept all age groups in mind and that in itself is a remarkable feat,” said a guest.
Kudos goes to the current Sangam team that comprises of Gurpreet Tuteja, Umesh Kumar, Chirag Maheshwari, Ramki Mahadevan, Paresh Parekh, Krishna Arora, Suresh Sutrave and Joel Thankechan. Going forward, they intend to approach local councils in regional Vitoria to hold similar multicultural events.
Simmi Bakshi
