Kaushiki Roy –
While Diwali is mostly summarised as a festival of traditional and contemporary Indian dance and music, mouth-watering food stalls and fireworks display, this year’s went an extra mile educating Wellingtonians about India’s most popular observance.
The event was held at the TSB Arena on October 26, 2015.
Educational Tent
The Wellington Hindi School, which has been supporting the Diwali festival for the past several years, put up a colourful educational tent with displays of Diwali. |It also hosted a fun-filled colouring event for children.
While we often get to see snippets of Indian culture and tradition from different parts of the country at community festivals and cultural shows, Diwali 2015 captured the variety of India. The Wellington Hindi School, with its friends and associates brought 40 adults and children to the stage to present ‘Glimpses of India.’
A sari workshop earlier in the day saw participants enthusiastically learning how to drape the nine or six-yard fabric around themselves after a presentation on the history and origins of the sari. “I always wanted to wear one! How can anyone not be happy wearing a sari?” said one lady with delight. It was even more delightful to watch a man assist a lady wrap her sari.
A talk on meditation and yoga titled ‘Soul of India,’ a puppet show telling folk tales and a presentation of stories and customs around Diwali were the other sessions run at the venue during the day, while cultural programmes took place on the main stage of the auditorium.
Skit on Mahabharata
A Hindi skit based on an episode from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata presented by the students of the Wellington Hindi School proved that language was no barrier to learning, as the audience watched with rapt attention and asked where they could find more information on the epic.
The active interest generated by these sessions bore testimony to the fact that New Zealanders are keen to go beyond butter chicken and Bollywood, that may be the usual perception, and delve into the ethos of India.
