Anil Pandey Beijing
While living abroad, celebrating festivals gives a different feeling to expatriates and the enthusiasm of the people participating in it is worth seeing. Similarly, the Malayali community and other Indians living in the Chinese capital Beijing, along with foreign guests and embassy representatives, celebrated the Onam festival with great enthusiasm. The ceremony was organized at the popular Indian restaurant Taj Pavilion, where people enjoyed special Kerala dishes served on banana leaves along with various cultural programs. The life-size statue of King Bahubali installed inside the entrance and the beautiful rangoli (Pookkalam) made of flower petals made the atmosphere very beautiful.
During this auspicious occasion, members of the Indian community sang songs in languages like Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. Gajendra Sharma showed his versatility by singing in Malayalam. While Ketaki Thakar and Leela Bhatt sang the Tamil version of the famous film Roja, Chinna Chinna Aasai Siragadikam and the Hindi version, Dil Hai Chota Sa, Choti Si Aasha. The Jugalbandi of Murali Narayanan and Saraswati Narayanan made the event more special by singing Janeman Janeman Tere Do Nayan. Satishkumar Sriharan, Suparna Ojha and Srikumar Meethil also performed.
It was a sight to behold that Hindi and Bengali speaking people performed in Tamil and Malayalam. It shows that music has no language and boundaries. Not to mention that the unique combination of unity in diversity can be seen in the events celebrated by the Indian community.
After the cultural programs, a traditional vegetarian feast sadya with more than twenty dishes was served on fresh banana leaves.
On this occasion, Indian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Abhishek Shukla was present as the chief guest along with his wife Saloni Shukla. And Mrs. Shukla presented gifts to the participants.
Suresh Verma conducted the program on behalf of the Beijing Malayali Association, while Anu Muralidharan, Saraswati Narayanan, Aayushi Sugandhi helped in making the program successful. The team of Mehrnosh Pastakia at the Taj Pavilion Restaurant made excellent arrangements for traditional food of Kerala.
Suresh Verma, who has been successfully organizing Onam festival for the last several years, told Anil Pandey that the purpose of organizing this program is to keep Indians living in China connected with their festivals, civilization and culture. Also celebrations like Onam make people feel at home on a foreign land.
Popular as the harvest festival of Kerala, commemorates the mythical homecoming of the benevolent king Mahabali. Along with this, it is a symbol of unity, equality and gratitude towards nature. During Onam festival, boat race and other events are also organized. It is said that Onam is a festival full of completeness, which fills everyone’s homes with happiness.
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