Happy New Year India

Oct 26, 2011

FROM a festival of ‘few people’ only recently, the Diwali Festival has morphed into mainstream local festival on the social calendar.

By Alex Balimwikungu 

FROM a festival of ‘few people’ only recently, the Diwali Festival has morphed into mainstream local festival on the social calendar.

The Indian festival marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year and celebrates the victory of goodness over evil).

The thousands (not necessarily people of Indian origin) who descended on Speke Resort and Country Lodge, Munyonyo, can attest to the fact as Munyonyo was transformed into one big kitchen with different culinary delights on show.

Though the aroma of spiced Indian food wafted heavily in the Sunday afternoon air, the Diwali Festival was a blend of cultures.

It drew a good crop of Ugandans and Europeans although people of Indian origin made the best of the festival.

Once there, they all seemed hooked to the food, the culture, the music, and the festive lights and joined in one big cheer as a sporadic volley of fireworks lit the night sky.

 

Sudhir Ruparelia shares a drink

So important is the Diwali festival to the host Sudhir Ruparelia, whose company Crane Bank sponsored the festival, he flew in on the day to mill with the enthusiastic revellers. 

Dressed in casual shorts, moccassins and with his trademark Cuban cigar, Sudhir toured all stalls ranging from Asian sweetshops, jewellers, clothing shops, astrologers and food stalls interfacing with the crowd.

He was bowled by the Serabi cane juice, made by the Jay Shree Swaminarayan temple on Martin Road. He drank it in litres, elating the chairman of the temple, Nitin Vekariya. 

 

There too were several Indian delicacies from the different regions. 

The Patidar Samaj had their tasty papari vada and bhagia with Sagaar Restaurant pulling it off with the tasty chicken biryani, veg biryani and chicken roti. 

The Kerala Samajam too exhibited their heavily spiced food. The winner was a combination of the Bombay Bhel Puri and the Serabi cane juice from the Jay Shree Swaminarayan temple.

 A noteworthy performance from the Indian Symphony musical group led by Dilbag Singh and Edlyn Sabrina (Miss India Uganda 2010) added to the soul of the festival, with songs in Punjabi and Hindi.
                                                                                                             Delicious: The ladies make chapatis

The fact that this very crowd had earlier danced to songs like Mr. Flavour’s Ashawo and Jose Chameleone’s Owakabi highlighted the cosmopolitan nature the festival has taken.

For event organiser, Sanjiv Patel, the fact that proceeds from the festival are to be donated to different charities in Uganda, can only highlight the essence of the festival, which calls for random acts of kindness.   

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Children play on the bouncing castle during the Diwali festival at Munyonyo Resort Hotel

 

 

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