They say make hay while the sun shines. But Indians in the UK celebrate Diwali come rain, hail or the snow.
Mid-afternoon and the trafalgar square is bathed in soft hues of golden sunshine with arrays formed of traditional pinks, purples, blues and greens. The colours, the maddening crowd cordoned off from the dance floor and the euphoric music indicative of the Diwali celebration if not the hoarding that read Diwali Festival 2018. Hundreds of girls dressed in Rajasthani Ghaghra-cholis formed a postcard worthy picture as they swirled in circles, performing Rajasthani folk dance “Ghoomar” to the bollywood music “Ghoomar”.
And while the girls captured the rich heritage of Rajasthan, this festival celebrated the multiculturalism of the UK like no other. Be it the Sikhs or the Spanish, Bengalis, Brahmakumaris or the Bulgarians, Gujaratis or the English all assembled into one, holding up phones as they filmed their daughters and friends performing to the scores of Bollywood songs.
It's always sunny at Ashiana Charitable Trust:
Dancing, singing, jumping in joy is something that most of us take for granted on a usual day not realising that for some, it is a privilege enjoyed with great difficulty. And performing there on the stage in front of thousands of people was no easy task either for the 15-20 kids of Ashiana Charitable Trust. But they conquered all their nervousness and focussed on enjoying themselves,
Gurleen Kaur, a student from Harrow, beamed, stuttering as she said that she had the most amount of fun dancing to Honey Singh's song Sunny Sunny-
“I enjoyed it a lot. This was my first time dancing and I was nervous. But I had fun.”
Bhavini Sheth, the choreographer of Ashiana Charitable Trust is a volunteer who devotes her time to these children every week by taking dance classes and helping them with co-ordinated movements.
“They have been practising for this event for 2-3 months now! And we were all very nervous but exicited about it. At the end of the day we just wanted the kids to have some fun and enjoy themselves.” said Bhavini.
Ashiana Charitable Trust was formed in 2000 with the singular aim of encouraging and training service users to partake in activities centred around arts and culture.
Other groups who performed at the celebration included the London School of Dhol who are the UK'S biggest Dhol School that showed their passion for Punjabi folk lore by playing the Indian version of drums called the “dhol”. And among all of them was a unique group called Rajunika
Raj of the Rajunika:
Kapka Kumar, is born and brought up in Bulgaria but if you look at her dressed in a Persian Blue and pink Ghaghra Choli with traditional Indian jewellery you will barely be able to tell her origin. And it can became even more difficult when she and her two daughters took to the stage performing classical dance forms of Kathak and a fusion of Mujra.
Dancing since she was 16-years-old, Kapka has embraced so much of the Indian tradition in her that she is even able to speak in fluent Hindi. Talking about her love for Indian culture, she said-
“I never had a “Guru” (teacher) and my only dance guru was the mirror in my room. I love Kathak so much that I even used to have weekly dance classes in Bulgaria. But actually my love for classical Indian dance started since I was a kid when I watched the Bollywood movies and since then I have taught myself these dance forms.”
As the dance and the music continued, people kept strolling about the circle meeting their near and dear ones and picking up hot samosas and bhajias to ward off the biting cold. Mr. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, came to wish the crowd a very happy diwali around 04:30 p.m. And as part of the ceremony he held a one-minute silence to honour all the Indian soldiers who had died in the First World War.
