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At the reception hosted by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to mark the official start of the UK-India Year of Culture on February 27, 2017 were Lord Karan Bilimoria and well-known actress Nina Wadia from London and dancers Astad Deboo and Shiamak Davar from Bombay.
"The reception at Buckingham Palace celebrating Britain’s cultural ties with India was elegant and stylish. It was quite something to say to Her Majesty ‘An honor to meet you again, Ma’am.’ These are not moments I take for granted,” conveyed Wadia in response to email queries sent by Parsiana. The popular actress who has played lead roles in the TV series EastEnders and Goodness Gracious Me further added, "Every time I’ve met the royal family I’ve been struck by how graciously and pleasantly they conduct themselves. They look you in the eye and give you a genuine smile and offer wonderful conversation. This may be part of their ‘job’ but I can say from personal experience over the years, they do it better than any world leader I’ve ever met.”
Last year Wadia had performed at the Queen’s birthday celebrations at Windsor Castle after which she stood with Damien Lewis, Kylie Minogue and James Blunt to personally greet the Queen. Considering herself "very fortunate to have had more than one occasion to meet the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Edward and Countess Sophie, and now Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate,” she recalls, "I first performed for Prince Philip at his 80th birthday party at Royal Albert Hall and then I performed a small sketch and was asked to introduce Rod Stewart at the Queen’s silver jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace. I’ve since been asked a few times to present the gold awards for the Duke Of Edinburgh Awards at St James Palace, accompanied by my husband, Raiomond Mirza.”

 

 

Deboo went to the Palace "feeling good, but had no expectations and I had no idea that during the course of the evening I (would not only have) the opportunity to meet Prince William, his wife Kate, Prince Andrew, Prince Michael of Kent, but also to meet again the Queen and this time I was introduced to her as the pioneer of Contemporary Dance,” he related. He had planned a four-day trip as he had "to dash back for a performance in New Delhi with the drummers of Manipur.” Among the other interesting people he met in the course of the evening were Britain’s foreign minister Boris Johnson.
"Everything about her is truly graceful and elegant,” remarked Davar who was delighted to meet the Queen in person. "More than anything, it was the joy in my mother’s eyes of her living her dream through me of meeting The Queen that gave me immense joy,” he added. Referring to the personal interaction and the time spent by the Queen with each guest, Davar revealed, "We spoke about the cultural connect and how positively Her Majesty feels towards it.”
Davar was also "pleasantly surprised” that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton "remembered me and spoke about how much they enjoyed the performance” given by Shiamak and his Dance Company during the couple’s visit to India. The dancer who was conferred an honorary doctorate from the Middlesex University, London in 2011 has been conducting dance classes in the UK for the last six years through which he has "reached out to thousands of dance enthusiasts of all age groups giving them an opportunity to educate, entertain and empower through dance and the performing arts,” notes a press release from his organization.
To incorporate Bilimoria’s experience, Parsiana had written to his office and twice sent them a reminder but there was no response until the time of going to press. Among the other guests invited to the event were Kunal Nayyar, Neha Kapur, Ayesha Dharker, Anoushka Shankar, Joe Wright, Wendell Rodricks.