Photos: India Fest Draws Their Largest Crowd

On Sunday, over 1,000 people came to the West Essex YMCA to learn about and celebrate Indian-American culture at the fourth annual India Fest.  The event was sponsored by AILIV (Asian Indians in Livingston), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the cause of Indian culture.  The organization recently expanded statewide and now has the new name of 'Sanskriti of New Jersey.'

This year, the event featured dancers and singers from the Livingston Indian School, 29 different venders and restaurants provided residents with some Indian food to try.

"We are here to promote Indian culture," said Ram Seshadri, one of the events organizers and the co-President of Sanskriti of New Jersey.  "We want to expose our community's arts, music, dance forms to a wider audience." 

Sanskriti of New Jersey has 400 members statewide and reaches over 3,000 state residents a year.  Local officials from all over came to the festival as well to celebrate Indian culture, including Livingston Mayor Stephen Santola and West Orange councilman Victor Cirilo.

"The strength of West Orange is our divirsity," Cirilo told the crowd.  "We try to strengthen that divirsity in our community and that's really what makes our country special."

West Orange recently celebrated the Indian American community by raising the tri-colored flag at West Orange's town hall. 

Santola greeted the crowd with the traditional Indian salutation of Namaste.  Roughly translated, Namaste means "I bow to you"and the philosophical significance of Namaste, is that "from the highest part of me I bow to the highest part of you, for it is that aspect of you and I which is connected to our Creator."

"On behalf of Livingston, I want to congratulate you on the new name and the new function, however we all know that you started in Livingston," Santola told the group.  "This is at the heart a Livingston affair and a Livingston group and we will never forget that.  So we welcome you to bring everybody from the whole state in to our party."

Santola was joined on stage by Cirilo and Sanskriti Co-Chairs Seshadri and Nitin Maniar and members of the executive committee including Chandramouly Sastry, Poonam Bhargava and Dr. Prakash Paragi.

The vendors at the event sold a variety of traditional Indian attire and jewelry.

"I think this event is a great place for Indians and the rest of the community to learn about and celebrate Indian culture," said Pooja Eppanapally, who was at the Amrita jewelry table.

Sanskriti of New Jersey currently hold around 10 events a year according to organizers.  The organization serves the residents of Livingston and neighboring towns including the Oranges, Maplewood, the Caldwells, Montclair, Verona, Cedar Grove, Summit, Millburn, Short Hills, New Providence, Madison, Chatham, East Hanover, Florham Park and Roseland.