Let's Celebrate 5 Days of Diwali! (Maya & Neel's India Adventure Series, Book 1) - Hardcover

Ajanta Chakraborty was born in Bhopal, India, and moved to North America in 2001. She earned an MS in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia and a Senior Diploma in Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance, to feed her spirit.

Ajanta quit her corporate consulting job in 2011 and took the plunge to run Bollywood Groove full-time. The best part of her work day includes grooving with classes of children as they leap and swing and twirl to a Bollywood beat.

Vivek Kumar was born in Mumbai, India, and moved to the US in 1998. Vivek has an MS in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas, Austin, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

He has a very serious day job in management consulting. But he’d love to spend his days leaping and swinging, too.

Our story
We are co-founders of Bollywood Groove (bG), a Bollywood dance and fitness company for kids and adults. We started bG in 2008 in the Bay Area, California and then re-started it again in 2011 after we moved to Chicago.

We barely knew a soul in Chicago but were overwhelmed by the warmth and support of our loving Chicago community who showed a very strong interest to learn about and experience Indian culture. We slowly built bG from 1 to 30+ classes per week.

When we started our bG Kids! Program (ages 2-15) in 2011, we wanted our classes to be more than just dancing to popular Bollywood songs. We aspired to make our classes educational and to introduce our students to the rich and diverse culture of India in addition to learning a dance choreography.

To this effect, we introduced CultureZOOM, an immersion into Indian culture, that is taught in each class via fun activities — storytelling, games, craft projects and mini-plays. CultureZOOM has been very well received! Kids (and even parents) are excited to learn more about India and its rich cultural heritage. Over the years we have refined our approach and continue to test the content in our classes.

This book series is a way to share this content with a broader audience and we hope young readers will enjoy a glimpse into the beautiful cultural diversity that makes up India.

In our spare time — who are we kidding? We have a two-year-old toddler. Dancing, running Bollywood Groove, writing books, and chasing our very rambunctious child is all that we can fit in a day!