An afternoon of appreciation was organized here to mark three years of ‘Insight Tonight with Ashok Vyas’ and celebrate four decades of the popular Indian channel ITV Gold. The luncheon event at Heritage of India in Queens dwelled on intellectually stimulating themes for the select audience with the help of speakers as well as a satirical play performed by the NJ based theater group named ‘Prayaas’.

‘Insight Tonight with Ashok Vyas’ is a unique, interactive live show with panel discussions on contemporary social, political, cultural and philosophical issues every Monday and Tuesday on ITV Gold.

The event emceed by Ashok Vyas began auspiciously with Vedic mantras chanted by Shastri Jagdish Tripathi. CEO of ITV Gold Deepak Viswanath thanked all program hosts and program producers of his channel.

Author and motivational speaker Sunil Robert Vuppula spoke on the ‘Importance of dialogue’ and emphasized the need to be open to listen to others. Corporate coach and consultant Vibhuti Jha focused on the need of integrity and honesty for a TV news and conversation to be credible. ‘How media is playing its role in stimulating relevant dialogue’ was elaborated by Fellow of World Policy Institute Swadesh Rana.

How politicians, religious leaders and media often exploit the plight of victims to their advantage — this thread ran through a small skit titled ‘Aaj Ka Gaddha’, which generated peals of laughter. The skit’s director Ameeya Mehta and performers Dhana Shri, Dhananjay, Himanshu Joshi and Deepak received generous applause from the audience.

President of ITV Mrs Sathya Viswanath gave away token of appreciation to artists and panelists of the show as well as guests. She had co-founded ITV with her husband, Dr Banad Viswanath who left his mortal frame two years ago.

This was also an afternoon of love and memories and inspirations. Dr Shashi Shah appreciated the role of ITV for the community and touched upon the versatility as well as interviewing skills of Ashok Vyas. In his speech, Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos also mentioned Ashok’s skill of asking pointed questions in polite but firm manner. He also urged Indian Americans to take active role in the political process of their adopted country. Maragos presented citations from his office to Mrs Sathya Viswanath, attorney Michael Phulwani, Dr Hetal Gor and Ashok Vyas.

Leaders of the Indian community present on the occasion included senior advisor to  Comptroller Maragos, Dilip Chauhan, Publisher of The South Asian Times Kamlesh Mehta, Dr Narinder Kukar, CPA Rajeev Kaul, Prof A D Amar, Prof Maya Chaddha, Rashmin Master and Dr Rakesh Sharma.