COv ER STORy

The Mela milieu

A new dimension was added to the mela milieu this year. The Hindu Council of Australia’s Deepavali Mela saw a smaller but very successful spin-off in the build up to its larger event, bringing the Festival of Lights to Martin Place in the CBD. Hope this becomes an annual affair.

UIA’s India-Australia Friendship Fair had some celebrity attendees in 2012, with PM Julia Gillard and Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott taking time off from the squabbling and the name-calling to share stage space in front of the Indian community.

Other than these two facets, the overall mela scene was pretty humdrum, with nothing new on offer either at the BVB Holi Mela or at the Vaisakhi and Janmashtami fairs. A new entrant on the scene has been the Tamilian Chittirai fest, bringing together Tamil-origin communities from across the globe on the one platform.

Arty farty

The theatre scene was rather quiet, with only Vishwaas Productions’ Bhaktha Meera worth a mention (although we hope Vishwaas picks a more contemporary subject next year!)

The classical scene flourished with the usual Purandarada and Thyagaraja tributes, arrangetrams galore and the high-profile Swaraalaya weekend of music, in the tradition of the annual festivals at Chennai India and Cleveland Ohio.

Local muso Saarangan Sriranganathan’s Tamil number in collaboration with the great Hariharan, She is a fragrant breeze became quite a hit.

The aging Hariprasad Chaurasia still managed to impress at Parramasala, but it was the younger and more contemporary artistes that touched a chord. The youthful and experimental musicians such as Susheela Raman, Circle of Sound, and even Sydney’s own L-Fresh The Lion, all brought the house down.

In dance, Hamsa Venkat’s Kavyam, a dance drama on poetry, was the standout event from among local artistes, while among the ‘imports’, Shobana’s Krishna was top-of-thepops.

The Indian Film Festival attracted its fair share of attention as well, thanks to the comely Malaika Arora Khan and the hugely talented film-maker Rituparno Ghosh.

Stars from India’s entertainment industry largely kept away from our shores this year: all we had surprisingly, were Bollywood singers KK and Sonu Nigam, rapper Hard Kaur, Sufi pop artist Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and dandiya queen Falguni.

The spiritual scene

Another observed trend has been the flourishing spiritual scene: a steep rise was observed not only in terms of the number of programs available but also in the number of people involved. The annual padayatra from Sydney to Wollongong, larger than ever before this time, looks set to become bigger in coming years. BAPS began the grand construction of their temple, and a Lord Ayyappa shrine was opened by the Malayali community. Hindu youth got better organised with their conferences, seminars and scripture classes, and informal lecture sessions took on greater popularity. The Catholic community felt very privileged to have the relic of Goa’s St Xavier visit in a special tour.

Achievers

A number of our community members were listed again in the Australian government honours list in various fields including science and community work.

The octogenarian Minna Batra became the first Indian-origin woman to receive the prestigious AM honour.

Cricketer Gurinder Sandhu who played for Australia’s Under-19 squad and continued to make his mark in the Twenty20 scene, did the community proud. We look forward to seeing more of you in coming years, Gurinder.

Thumbs up also to…

The government’s announcement of travel concessions to international students; easier visa procedures for visiting parents; the growing interest in mainstream political participation such as with Local Councils; Cricket Australia’s Hall of Fame honour for Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid; Bank of Baroda’s entry into Australia; the South Asian gay community getting better and better organised; Indian artist Subodh Kerkar for his striking exhibit The Chilly at this year’s Sculpture by the Sea, and for the Indian Link media group which brought home three of the nine awards at the inaugural Multicultural Media Awards event, including Multicultural Journalist of the Year award for CEO Pawan Luthra.

Thumbs down to...

The general apathy showed by large sections of our community towards cultural events in the mainstream; the continued splitting up of our organisations which gives the community a disunited look; small businesses operating under the guise of ‘community media’ banner.

w: australianvisaspecialist.com.au

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Reimbursement

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