"Diwali Milan 2010" Joint Community Event 6 Nov - Report

"Diwali Milan 2010"

Joint Community Event 6 Nov - Report

( Anand Vaidya's team & Alok Kadam's team )

- Anand Vaidya

As part of our PUKAR youth fellowship project we have to arrange one Regional Meeting with groups falling in our region. PUKAR had divided all groups in four different regions. Bandra-Jogeshwari-Malad, Matunga-CST-Churchgate, Mulund-Ghatkopar-Govandi & Thane-Kalyan-Navi Mumbai were these four regions. My group fell in the first region, that of Bandra-Jogeshwari-Malad. And so the other 7 groups, namely Alok Kadam's group, Sachin Nachanekar's group, Almaz's group, Siddhesh Surve's group, Mohsin Shaikh's group, Omar Iyer's group & Deshmukh's (Palghar) group.

All of us were planning our Regional Meeting since September but nothing was getting finalized. Around third week of October I read a post uploaded by Rohan Chavan (Alok Kadam's group member & Founder-President of Adhishthan Foundation) on Facebook. He was organizing Diwali Milan 2010 for his organization somewhere around Diwali vacation. I liked his idea. I thought why not arrange our Regional Meeting with this programme. I talked with Rohan & Alok about this. They told me that we will meet for discussion. Accordingly we decided to meet on 31^st October at Madhu Park in Khar(West). We called Siddhesh Surve for our discussion.

31 Oct : I, Siddhesh Surve, Rohan Chavan, Prathmesh Raorane,
Alok Kadam & his team

On 31^st October, myself, Alok Kadam's whole group & Siddhesh Surve gathered at Madhu Park for discussion. Discussion went on for 2 hours and there were agreements as well as some disagreements. The points that we finalized for the event were :

1. It will be a joint event of Adhishthan Foundation, PUKAR Youth Fellowship & My Home India Organization.
2. Chief Guest of the event will be Mr. Sunil Deodhar (Executive President – My Home India). He will speak about North Eastern states & their issues.
3. All PUKAR Fellows will come wearing traditional costume and each fellow has to bring Diwali faral like chakali, laddu, chivda & mithai.
4. Members from North Eastern states will be invited for the programme to share our joy of Diwali festival with them.
5. One folk dance each from Maharashtra & North Eastern states will be performed to signify our unity.
6. Team building games & activities will be played after the programme.
7. All guests will be given Maharashtrian 'phetas' to wear.
8. A small Exhibition-cum-Sale of products made by physically disabled members of MBA Foundation will be displayed.
9. A 'rangoli' will be drawn at the entrance of the venue depicting our Maharashtrian culture.
10. Venue – Bandra Hindu Association Hall, Date - 6^th November, Time – 5:30pm.

Responsibilities that all of us took were :

1. Alok Kadam & his team will invite members of North Eastern states & the Chief Guest.
2. Members of Adhishthan Foundation will look after hall booking, hall decoration & printing banners & accounting.
3. I will invite and inform all other groups from our region & the PUKAR staff about the programme.
4. Adesh Gurav (Alok Kadam's group member) will do anchoring of the programme, Rohan Gopale (member of Adhishthan Foundation) will speak about Adhishthan Foundation & I will speak about PUKAR Youth Fellowship project.

'Diwali Milan 2010' banner at the entrance of the venue

As planned all of us came for the event at 4:30pm to look after hall decoration. I came along with my team members Amod Vaidya, Yasmin Shaikh & Ashok Gupta. Alok Kadam's whole group was present & so were members of Adhishthan Foundation. One by one all PUKAR groups started coming wearing traditional costume. From PUKAR staff only Sunil Gangavane came as other staff members had gone to their native places for Diwali vacation. Members of North Eastern states also came but not wearing their traditional costume.

A Beautiful Rangoli...

Siddhesh Surve & Parvati...

Guddu & others...

Yasmin, Ashok & Shruti Parayane...

members of North Eastern states...

One group from our region was from Palghar. It was very difficult for them to attend this event as it was in the evening. They all wanted to come but could not as there will be very few trains to go back home. But Shruti Parayane of their team promised me that she will come representing her group. I told her not to take any risk as you are coming alone & you again have to go back home & it will be quite late by the time you reach your home. But she told me that she daily commute from Palghar to Dadar, so she is used to it. I really appreciate that she kept her promise & attended the event.

Programme of folk dance each from Maharashtra & North Eastern states was dropped as dance troupe were not available. Also we did not arrange 'phetas' for all the guests as we realized it was quite expensive. So we only bought 15 'phetas' for organizers & the Chief Guest to wear during the event.

Programme officially started at around 6pm. Adesh Gurav welcomed everyone present. Chief Guest of the event Mr Sunil Deodhar lighted a 'Samai' kept in front of a picture frame of Goddess Saraswati. Sunil Gangavane was gifted a 'bamboo hat', which is an indigenous product of North Eastern states, from My Home India. Rohan Gopale spoke about mission, vision & work of Adhishthan Foundation. I spoke about PUKAR Youth Fellowship project and its' mission & vision.

Chief Guest Mr Sunil Deodhar...

Sunil Gangavane was gifted
a 'bamboo hat'

Later Mr Sunil Deodhar spoke about North Eastern states & their issues. Through Power Point presentation he showed us some of the beautiful locations of those states. He said that though these states are integral part of India, people from these states always face discrimination whenever they go outside their states. They are always mistaken as people from countries like China. He said that he wants to see that day when we will ask a Chinese national visiting our country, 'are you from Manipur or Mehgalaya?'. I think it was a very a important message that he gave to all of us and it was also an eye opening experience for all us. He spoke for nearly one & half hours and it was now 7:30pm.

So we requested all the guests to enjoy Diwali faral. As it was already late so we decided to cancel playing games or activity. All groups & members of North Eastern states mingled with each other & took photos of each other. We also distributed forms to all to fill their personal information for future correspondence.

On a table I & Amod arranged all the products made by physically disabled members of MBA Foundation. Amod stood at the counter to receive payments & make bills of the products purchased by guests. The sole purpose of arranging this Exhibition-cum-Sale was to make people aware of the ability of those members as it is rightly said 'ignorance of ability is disability'. But we did make a good sale of around 400 rupees.

Mohsin & I...

Amod, Prathmesh, Siddhesh, Yasmin,
Ashok & Rohan...

members of North Eastern states enjoying Diwali 'faral'
with PUKAR fellows...

Adesh Gurav thanked everyone for coming & wished all a very happy Diwali. I think this was a true 'Diwali Milan' as people from many religions, faiths, cultures & beliefs came together to celebrate Diwali.

But soon we realized our mistake. We had planned it as our Regional Meeting. Did we ask other groups to come for discussion that we had before planning this event? Did we ask for everyone's opinion before finalizing on anything? No, we did not. Then how can we call it our Regional Meeting. All the decisions that we took were by my group & Alok Kadam's group. This is not the way we arrange our Regional Meeting. So Alok Kadam & I decided that we will consider this event as our Joint Community Event.

some masti...

some masti...

Group photo...

Total expense of the event was ` 4292/-. My group's contribution for this event is ` 1500/- + PUKAR contribution ` 500/- = Total contribution from my group is ` 2000/-.

My sincere thanks to Alok Kadam & his team, Rohan Chavan, Prathmesh Raorane, members of Adhishthan Foundation, members of North Eastern states, Omar Iyer & his team, Almaz & her team, Siddhesh Surve & his team, Deshmukh & his team, Shruti Parayane, Sachin Nachanekar & his team, Mohsin Shaikh & his team, Guddu Sapre, Sunil Gangavane and last but not the least my team members for making this event successful & truly enjoyable.

Feedback from guests :

1. Omar Iyer (PUKAR Fellow & Catalyst) – It was real fun & we also got to know more about North Eastern states, which was very important as it is also an integral part our country.
2. Siddhesh Surve (PUKAR Fellow & Catalyst) - We really liked hearing about North-Eastern states & its people and also interacting with them.
3. Bright Star (Resident of Meghalaya) & Devi (Resident of Manipur) – This is the first time we celebrated Diwali festival with so much fun and we also liked everyone wearing traditional costume especially Salwar-Kurta & 'Pheta'. We all really enjoyed the programme.
4. Yasmin Shaikh (My team member) – I really enjoyed this event. It was fun celebrating Diwali with so many people. I made so many new friends. I also enjoyed wearing 'pheta'.
5. Mohsin Shaikh (PUKAR Fellow & Catalyst) – Though I enjoyed the programme, I think Regional Meeting should not be arranged this way. We all must come together at some convenient place & talk about research projects. This way we can find solutions to our problems or difficulties.