Janice
Miller’s Impressive Performance in San Francisco Bay
Area
By Talat Sattar
Janice Miller and Akbar Lakhani
perform at the Chandni Restaurant |
It was an absolute joy
to walk into the Chandni Restaurant and to see the décor
that the staff of the restaurant had so painstakingly put
together leaving out very little in terms of detail, taste
and color, right from the reception desk to the well arranged
table settings and the fabric covered posts/pillars.
A musical evening and dinner with Janice Miller at the Chandni
Restaurant in Newark, California, was arranged by the management
of Chandni Restaurant and was one of the most beautiful evenings
in recent history. Over 200 people attended the event and
they came from all over Northern California. Fans of Janice
Miller came from as far as Sacramento, Stockton and Lodi to
listen to the melody queen.
The event started with a delicious six-course dinner prepared
by Chandni Restaurant for which Syed Sarwat and Iftikhar Khan
deserve all credit. The first singer of the evening was Mr.
Akbar Lakhani, who flew all the way from Indiana to sing at
this event. Akbar started the show with Adnan Sami’s
famous song “Tera chehra jab nazar aai” and Amitab
Bachan’s “Shava shava.” Both the songs were
very well received by the audience. Akbar started his singing
career from Dallas, Texas and he moved to Indiana to pursue
his IT career. Currently, Akbar is an IT Operation Manager
for Brightpoint Corporation.
A section of the audience |
Janice Miller was the
second artist of the evening and when she walked to the stage
with her charm and graces the audience gave her a warm reception.
Janice Miller is an artist extraordinaire – she does
not speak any of the Indo-Pak sub-continental languages, but
she sure can pronounce Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu words better
than the average desi. She has enthralled the desi community
with her mellifluous voice and has been singing for several
years. A fan of Noor Jehan and Asha Bhosle she does amaze
you with the tune and her delivery of the words. An American
by birth Janice has gone out of the way to learn the songs
and entertain people as a professional singer-entertainer.
She started the show with Shazia Manzoor’s songs “Bathian
bujai rak”, “Mahi away gaa, main phoolan nal dharthi
sajawongi” and ended the show with Noor Jehan’s
famous song “Dama dam mast qalandar”.
Both performers of the night were very much overwhelmed by
the enormous response they received from the US-based Pakistani
audience, and would welcome a chance to perform live again
in front of them. Syed Sarwat deserves a big hand for bringing
such a quality musical performance to music lovers of the
San Francisco Bay Area. Further Ms. Raana Faiz of Hamrahi
Radio program deserves acknowledgement for her efforts in
making the show a success. Her Hamrahi Radio show has been
successfully run over the past 25 years.
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