17th August. On the occasion of Hindi Day-2013, under the auspices of ICCR-Government of India and the High Commission of India-London, the twentieth anniversary of the Kavi Sammelan was celebrated at The Nehru Centre, London. It was organised by the UK Hindi Samiti with great pomp and show.
The chief guest, Dr Virander Paul, Deputy High Commissioner of India in the UK, applauded the UK Hindi Samiti for the continuity of this great tradition over the last twenty years and congratulated the entire team for putting up a great show this evening. Dr Paul also assured Mission’s support to all the organisations promoting Hindi in the UK.
The Deputy Director of The Nehru Centre, Mr Gowrishankar, welcomed the visiting poets as well as the audience and said that The Nehru Centre has played an important role in this annual series of Kavi Sammelans since the time of its first director, Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Minister (Culture) and Director of The Nehru Centre, Ms Sangeeta Bahadur welcomed the guest poets and the audience through a video link. She insisted that this event should be held at the premises of The Nehru Centre every year.
This event was attended by several distinguished guests, Hindi scholars, authors and media personnel including Shri PR Singh from High Commission of India, the national coordinator of the International Kavi Sammelans, Mr K.B.L. Saxena, Dr Mahipal Verma and Mrs Jai Verma of Kavya Rang-Nottingham, Kriti UK’s Dr K.K. Srivastav, Titiksha Shah and Aman Rampal from Midlands, Dr Shyam Manohar Pandey, Lalit Mohan Joshi, Katha UK’s Tejendra Sharma and Kailash Budhwar, Mahendra Dawesar, Kadambari Mehra, Manju Saxena, Vijay Goyal, Brij Goel, Toshi Amrita, Saroj Srivastav, Dr Renu Bhatnagar and Manjibhai Patel, amongst many many more.
- Dr Piyush Goel
- Convenor, 20th International Kavi Sammellan
- UK Hindi Samiti