INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM

January 18, 20136 January 18, 20136

Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan will perform in Houston on April 20 at Reliant Arena

Adnan Sami will perform in Houston on March 23 20 at Arena Theatre

COMMUNITYHOUSTON: Showman Re-

han Siddiqi has brought over 250 events in the last 17 years in vari-ous venues like Reliant Arena, Berry Center, Sugar Land Skeeters Stadium, Stafford Civic Center, George Brown Convention Center, Arena Theater, Cullen performance Hall and many other. Siddiqi has successfully promoted and hosted many big name stars such as Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sonu Nigam, Jag-jit Singh, Pankaj Udhas, Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Priti Zin-ta, Akshay Kumar, Adnan Sami, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghosal, Kailash Kher, Anu Malik, Umer Shareef, Shazad Roy, Hadiqa Ki-yani, Jawed Ahmed, Sukwinder Singh, Shazia Manzoor, Fariha Perwaiz, Amanat Ali, Ali Zafar, Atif Aslam, Himesh Reshamiya and many more.

In 2012, Rehan successfully pre-sented the first south Asian event at the Sugar Land Skeeters Stadi-um. It drew over 10,000 attendees, exceeding the stadiums capacity. This was the first time that a record breaking crowd was noticed at the stadium and people were unable to get in due to the limited capacity of the Sugar Land stadium.

In 2007, Houston witnessed over 8000 people in the Sonu Nigam concert organized by Siddiqi, the biggest ever performance in Hous-ton. In 2010 he brought two Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s back-to-back concerts on popular demand as the shows were completely sold out. One of them was sold out in spite of being scheduled on a weekday. He is one of the first promoters in USA to present a solo singer like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at Reliant Arena with a record sold out crowd in 2011 of over 8000 people.

Rehan has a passion for doing shows and is an expert in orga-nizing them well, in a way very different from others. The sound, light, and stage management in his shows are exceptional; he adds a personal touch to every element of the show, which make him differ-ent from all other promoters. He works hard and delivers top quali-ty shows by working on the minut-est details. Most of the artists only want to come back if his name is associated with the show. The en-tire Houston audience believes in him and knows that if a show is organized under his banner, it will be a world-class event.

Houston is one of the biggest markets in the US for Bollywood and Pakistani concerts. It has even

taken over big cities like New York and Chicago. The average south Asian entertainment busi-ness exceeds 2 million dollar an-nually in Houston and in the years 2009-2012 all the big shows have been brought to Houston by the impresario Rehan Siddiqi. He has announced three big names in the first quarter of 2013. First, he is bringing the world’s fastest key-board player and singer Adnan Sami back to Houston after 8 years on Saturday March 23 at Arena Theater. Second, a Pakistani group called Strings and finally, followed by the biggest singing sensation Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at Reliant Arena, expecting a record crowd of over 8000 people again.

Rehan has introduced many mainstream sponsors in the South Asian community like McDon-ald’s, Mercedes Benz, Silver Eagle, Money Gram, Dish Net-work, Lamborghini of Houston, various banks and builders like Riverstone. Siddiqi also runs the largest 24/7 desi radio network in this city called HumTum Radio on klvl 1480am (www.humtumradio.com). It is the first desi radio to have its own billboard for an en-tire year on Hillcroft, noticed by

the ongoing traffic of over million people, with Shahrukh Khan and Humtum radio on the billboard.

Rehan is presenting the first ever Lam-borghini wrapped with Humtum radio, and this has become the talk of the town including the main-stream market. Own-ing and running the biggest south Asian radio in Houston gives

him great flexibility in running the entertainment business, by using the full potential of his radio and 18 years of experience in the en-

Rehan Siddiqi Takes Over the Concert World of Houstontertainment business.

“Doing a concert these days in-volving million dollars of annual investment is just like choosing a stock. But being in the radio busi-ness for over 18 years and connect-ing with the audience daily gives me the flexibility to choose and present who ever is more popular and in demand just like a stock and above all doing the show with a class is what we are all about and team work is what makes it hap-pen. Away from the world of hate I believe in bringing smile and hap-piness and through the radio and concerts we bring entertainment in many lives”, said Rehan.

In 2012, we brought over 50,000 south Asians to different events

that we presented. When people and specially senior citizens come and tap on our shoulders for brin-ing them close to their culture and entertainment in America, it’s indeed a proud feeling and it’s a feeling bigger than profit or loss. Therefore, whenever we do a show, we definitely do the calcula-tion of the project as its a business but believe it or not, we go out of the way to make sure that it is well presented and organized, so that it is well accepted by our audience,” he added.

For further details about the up-coming shows, see ad on Page 2 and 31 or visit www.humtumradio.com

BY JAYA GHOSHHOUSTON: On the occasion

of the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, Houston Durga Bari society, one of the prominent Hindu organization in TX celebrated Swamiji’s birth-day on Sunday January 13 with full of respect and enthusiasm.

Swami Vivekananda needs no introduction. He was one of the greatest spiritual leaders of the modern world, a great lover of humanity whose unconditional love extended to all people with-out any distinctions of caste, class, creed, race, region or reli-gion. Swami Vivekananda is also remembered as a great patriot, the first cultural ambassador of India to the West.

When Kashmir to Kanyakumari is celebrating Swamiji’s Sesqui-centennial birthday in epic style with different activities and semi-nars nationwide, here in Houston different Hindu organizations have tried their best making this day as remarkable as possible. Houston Durga temple is one of the distinguished and eminent one in Texas, remembered Swa-miji with a full of devotion and joy. Hundreds of devotees visited the temple during the main puja hour. Special puja, lectures about swamiji’s life, his teachings and a devotional music program was organized by Durgabari religious committee to commemorate the auspicious day.

A good crowd of more than 250 people thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon. All the spiritual dis-cussions delivered were of high quality. Local artists presented a

wonderful program with uplifting lectures and songs. Head priest Dr. Bishnupada Goswami first per-formed Radha Krishna puja. After the puja, pushpanjali and Bhog arati, the actual music program started with tribute to Vivekanan-da through an introductory speech and an opening devotional song of Ramakrishna Dev by Rupa ghosh. Audience found Dr. Ananda chat-terjee’s lecture about karma yogi Vivekananda and his life very in-formative and uplifting.

We all know that swamiji’s speeches at the World’s Parlia-ment of Religions held in Septem-ber 1893 made him famous as an ‘orator by divine right’ and as a ‘Messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’. A 2nd genera-tion kid Devangshu delivered that exact speech by heart. Audience was totally amazed by his perfor-mance. Jaya ghosh, a freelance journalist presented ‘witty side of swamiji “with a simple story telling style and received huge applause. Audience was really de-lighted to learn all those unknown stories about Vivekananda’s life. Veteran singer Sanghita Moulik’s vajan and Achintya ghosh’s devo-tional song got tremendous kudos from the public.

Another noticeable presentation was Swapan Dasgupta’s devo-tional Rabindra sangeet ‘matha noto kore dao ” and Kalabhavan students of Durgabari led by Ka-malpriya roy ,a singer of Biswab-harati repute nicely presented a patriotic song ekla cholore” encouraged public to sing along with them.

The extra ordinarily well-pre-

sented serene celebration of Swamiji’s birthday was ended with a melodious Bengali song “braja gopi ‘ by another 2nd gen-eration singer , RJ Samrat Bhat-tacharya of Radio Masti . Af-ter the program, all the visitors enjoyed the scrumptious lunch sponsored by devotees.

Durgabari also observed Janu-ary 1 as the Day of Sri Ramakrish-na’s Self Revelation – Kalpataru Diwas. A good number of local artists and eminent personalities also participated in the program. Swamiji was totally inspired by the philosophy and teachings of his guru Sri Ramakrishna Param-hansha Dev who was one of the greatest religious leaders ever born in India. He believed that all living beings are divine.

By applying as guided by his Master Sri Ramakrishna’s doctrine of Harmony, Swamiji brought about an overall unifica-tion of Hinduism on the basis of the principle of unity in diversity. He was India’s first great cultural ambassador to the West.

Sister Nivedita wrote: “it may be said that when he began to speak it was of ‘the religious ideas of the Hindus’, but when he ended, Hinduism had been cre-ated.”

On the night of July 4 1902, before his Mahasamadhi, he had written to a Western follower: “It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn out garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere until the whole world shall know that it is one with God.”

Houston Durgabari Celebrates Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birthday