Maitri , the Indian graduate association, organized Diwali Dhamaka to celebrate the Indian Festival of Diwali at the Engineering Building II lawn Friday.
It was meant to show the Diwali celebration to people who are not familiar it.
” Diwali is one of the major festivals in India, which is celebrated across the length and breadth of the nation. We also wanted to showcase the Diwali to people from other countries who were unfamiliar with the festival,” Haritha Malladi , a graduate student and part of Mairti’s committee, said.
The event also gave Indian students who are far from home the chance to celebrate.
” Maitri wanted to get together the Indian community to share the joy and have fun despite being thousands of miles away from home,” Malladi said.
According to Sonika Rawal , a Ph.D . student in the School of Architecture and part of Maitri’s committee, said that a lot of hard work goes into organizing such events.
“Each event that Maitri organizes does have a lot of logistics that go into it. While each of our team members is caught up with regular course work, we work around our schedules to get together and plan the event. Right from booking the venue to planning what programs will take place during the event to getting in the restaurants and even publicizing and reaching out to all the students, Team Maitri has a lot on its plate,” Rawa saidl .
The celebration included traditional performances, exhibits and decorations. Rawal said that the event also included traditional Indian food.
” Maitri celebrates this festival every year and encourages artistic expression through vibrant traditional performances, unique exhibits and colorful decorations. Each year, this event dazzles the crowd with a colorful and energetic cultural program combined with exotic Indian food,” Rawal said.
According to Malladi , fire regulations limited the use of fireworks for the celebration. Additional problems with scheduling arose due to Halloween and the UNC game, but Maitri was still able to make the event a success.
“Strict fire hazard regulations in USA make it very difficult to use even consumer fireworks (with good reason). So the event couldn’t showcase exactly what Diwali is like back in India. Clashes with Halloween and the NC State-UNC game prevented any flexibility in dates. Continuous rain and cold wind made matters worse as all indoor venues were booked solid. Despite this we managed to pull people out into the cold in their traditional attire and dance into the cold till 9 p.m .,” Malladi said.
She said that change in the way of celebration did not affect the zeal and spirit of those who attended the event.
“With the change in lifestyle being in a different country, the way Diwali is celebrated may have changed, but the zeal and the spirit of the celebration was still the same,” Rawal said.
Haritha Malladi said that many Americans turned up and enjoyed the food, dance and Bollywood tunes.
“There were also many Americans and other international students who also stopped by,” Malladi said.
Kyle Ray O’Donnell, a senior in textile technology who was present at the event, said he enjoyed the event with his friends.
“I really enjoyed coming out here to celebrate Diwali festival with my Indian friends, and after a hard day at college, it is great to have such a cultural experience,” O’Donnell said.
