Since the birth of ‘Indians in Aarhus’ Ripu has always encouraged us to write something for the website. But life has been so hectic and monotonous with challenges and work pressure of project management that I could hardly encourage myself to find time to write anything….

Together with being a PhD student, I have another identity; I am the mother of a 2½ year old girl. When I come back home from the world governed by the exertion to create an original and successful masterpiece, I drain myself to give all the time and love I can to my little one…to make up for my absence in her life during the day. Yes, there were the weekends to find some time in, but in between two frantic weeks, they only make me work even more to make our apartment somewhat habitable and then crave for a moment to relax, since by the time I am done.. Monday starts knocking at the door.. , which for me means waking up in the morning before the birds..

But today although I am at work, I will spend a few minutes to write a bit about the diwali gathering. We have been practicing for the songs we were going to sing, a few times with Vijay, Shirin, my sister Sunirmala and Sureshji (always asking him to give us one more day to practice…what could we do with out our tabalchi! and our beloved guide). Starting from there, meeting Anitaji (who was looking beautiful that day in her Indian attire) and some other Indians and Bengalis (at the bus stand in the Centrum); talking about Durga puja and Phuchkas (golgappas) on our way to the party-venue...…it was a perfect start of a perfect evening for me…

From then on…it was like a smooth flow of enjoyable events…meeting our group members (singing group), getting cold hands and nervous about our performance, making mistakes in our singing turns when we practiced in a small empty room and then trying to hold courage before and through the performance… it was all just so good and rewarding. And yes! How people were shocked at first to see my very short hair (not that I was not expecting that!) but later appreciated it…the rhythmic music, and dancing together with every body (Kaustuv, my sister, Anuja, Cecilia, my daughter and Cecilia’s mother) was just too good!!

I must not forget the ‘desi girl’, who danced so confidently…no fear of performing in public…actually she didn’t even need to be confident…not to forget how Speridon’s and Sureshji’s jugalbandi, Jagjit Singh’s gazal and fun songs about rail gadi/ red wine evoked humor and nostalgia for Indian classical/ old bollywood songs…..and of course Sureshji and Kaustuv’s comedy!….I thoroughly enjoyed it, the way they communicated with each other and made themselves bring out the darkness that lurks both in educated and not so educated Indian minds.. it was very commendable…

It just does not stop here……the game! Rolling the dice and (luckily) winning a prize felt so good!

The food made by volunteers was great! The vadas which I did not eat at first (was waiting for my performance to be over! And then kept on searching for one and finally got a couple) were so delicious!!

Meeting my ‘used to be’ dance teacher (probably ‘going to be’ again soon) with her Bharatnatyam team and my dansk dance friends added an extra spree to the whole event! And of course the quiz…my God!….You guys (the volunteers) did not leave any stone unturned to make this evening a success, the way you involved people by leaving paper slips under their chair…you guys know how to communicate and bring people together …!

Part of it might sound unbelievable, but I also found cleaning together and gossiping in the end quite pleasurable and actually did not feel like leaving….. before all the volunteers were free, but solely because we had children with us and had to catch two last busses to go home, we left by eleven.

What can I say about the volunteers (including the one whose name Ripu did not mention…………its you Ripu!); hats off to you guys, for putting an amazing effort to… (first of all) make a brilliant website, conceive the idea of celebrating Diwali, plan for it, for taking the responsibility willingly on your own shoulders and executing it so enthusiastically and beautifully.

You made it possible for us to have a very fond memory of celebrating the festival of lights so far away from our own families, in an evening which would probably otherwise  have been one of the many cold and dark autumn nights in Denmark . So, thank you…

 Sumangala.