sbrobert
Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Lights celebration. Similar to the Jewish Festival of Lights called Hanukkah. A celebration of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil. Such festivals are common in the dark time of winter. Diwali originated in the Hindu religion, but it is also celebrated by Jains and Sikhs and some Buddhists.
Here in the Santa Barbara area we were fortunate to have a big celebration at Dos Pueblos High School on October 26. The event was sponsored by Santa Barbara Sangam and Santa Barbara Desis. “Desis” are the people of the Indian subcontinent: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. “Desi” comes from the word “desh” which means “land” or “country”. As in “Bangladesh”.
Here are my photos and here is my playlist of my many videos and here is the full program as a PDF.
The celebration started at 3:30 in the afternoon with the serving of tea and appetizers. But the main event was the “Diwali Cultural Show” from 5:00-7:30PM.
I have way too many videos and photos to share them all in this article. Please check out the above links to see them all. I will include some highlights here. Starting with the younger performers.
Shaishruti in a Solo Dance.
Saish, Pranav, Reeyan, Hari and Dean from the group Camarillo Ke Baarati
Anika sang a solo song that was not traditional Indian music, but she showed great talent.
Young Jaivik always has something new. In recent years he performed on a hover board and on skates. This year he did a hula hoop dance!
At the Brazil Festival, young Shlok was a crowd pleaser. He was on stage this time with young Aishani for an energetic dance performance.
Young Saanvi performed a traditional dance.
Aishani, Samar, Ridhhan, Abir and Reyansh were Dancing Rockstars
Kunjal, Shailaja, Manasa, Savitha, Kavita, Priyanka, Agyantha, Pallavi, Ridhima and Nishana performed a traditional dance in magnificent outfits. Kunjal is a dance teacher, director and choreographer. She has the rainbow colored skirt. You may recognize her from the Brazil Festival, too.
Here Kunjal posed for me after the event with her kid.
Kunjal, Kavita, Savita, Nishana and Sreejita did another group dance.
Vandana Khare is my connection to this event. At this point near the end, the show took a short break for Vandana to introduce the organizing committee and to give awards to the best dressed performers.
Khushboo and Mohini continued the show with Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge Group Dance
Raj, Seema, Ankit, Shweta, Shivanshu, Indu, Sushant, Aditi did 805 Dance Deewane
Navneet and Aena were Dazzle Divas, performing a sword dance.
Rimika, Akshaya, Srijita, Vrunda, Divyoj, Jayameenakshi and Tegashwini did Vibe n Groove
Purav, Kaustubh, Shravan, Sushant,Pritam and Deepam Gurudatt were the SB Gully Boys. Ending with a confetti glitter bomb explosion!
That required a break as Kunjal and others helped sweep up all that glitter confetti!
The final performance had Deepa, Pooja, Jui and Soumyashree doing the Saree Swaggerinas Group Dance
After the long and varied cultural show, people were definitely ready for the Diwali feast in the cafeteria! Catered by Masala Spice of Goleta. Excellent food!
Huge thanks to the official photographer Vijayan Thattai for gathering all of the many performers and organizers for a group photo and letting me get the shot, too!
Vijayan also very kindly sent me a link to his official video of the entire show: https://youtu.be/RPsaHitgoAM
Here is more information about the Sangam group, which organized this event: https://sangamsb.org/about_us
– Robert Bernstein
