The Indian Association Hannover (IASH) conducted an online event to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanthi on the 18^th of April 2021. About 20 – 25 participants attended this event. Apart from IASH members, Mr. John Ruolngul, the Consul General of India in Hamburg and Mr. Vikas Rathi from the Consulate General of India, Hamburg, and Mr. Stephan Kaps from the Volkshochschule Hannover attended the event.

The event was anchored by Ms. Kritika Bharadwaj and the welcome address was delivered by Dr. Partha Dabke, the President of IASH. This was followed by an excellent and insightful address by Mr. John Ruolngul, the Consul General of India in Hamburg. He spoke about the Indian New Year celebrated in different forms across India and the great contribution of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar to Indian constitution and our nation.

Ms. Sayali Valsangikar then sang a beautiful Marathi song (Bhaktigeet) commemorating Gudhipadwa, the form of Indian new year celebrated in Maharashtra. This beautiful rendition was followed by a talk on the life and contributions of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar by Prof. Dr. Shruti Tambe, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Pune. She spoke about the work of Dr. Ambedkar and shared some interesting anecdotes from his life’s story.

The next performance was one by some kids of IASH where they explained how the Indian new year is celebrated in different states of India which was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. As IASH is also celebrating April 2021 as the heritage month, on account of the World Heritage Day (18^th April 2021), a very interesting presentation was given by Prof. Dr. Subramaniam Swaminathan on “Art of Ajanta”. Dr. Swaminathan, a retired IIT professor has been studying the Ajanta cave paintings for the past 45 years and his through his presentation he showed some beautiful pictures along with interesting information.

The kids of IASH (Saee and Abhinay) then gave a great presentation of native toys of India which have been around for centuries and generations. They actually showed various toys from the different states of India and shared some interesting information about them. Mr. Pratik Desai, an IASH member then conducted a very interesting quiz on Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar which was received with great enthusiasm. The final performance of the day was rendered by Dr. Sowmya Sundaram where she performed a beautiful Bharatanatyam dance on the occasion of the Indian new year.

The event was concluded with Ms. Sowmya Katar, Treasurer of IASH presenting the Vote of Thanks and informing everyone about the activities of IASH planned as a part of India@75 celebrations this year. This event was a good mixture of cultural performances and informative sessions wherein, both, kids and adults were actively involved. We thank the Consulate General of India, Hamburg for the continuous support and encouragement.