Diwa i atsc

Celebrate India launches essay competition for primary students

When tbe Ce lebrate

Inclia organisation was founded some eight years ago, the main intem was to undertake activities that would give main s tream Australians a feel of Indian cul ture.

Today, the group can claim iL has accomplished this successfully, given they have taken the festival of Diwali straight to the heart of Melbomne city, attracting thousands of citizens as well as those in the topmost rungs of government, as guests.

But of course Cdebrate India will not merdy rest on their lamels.

Led by Arnn Sharma, the notfor-profic organisation has come up w i th a unique initiative that will take che lndian festival of lights to primary schools across the state.

An essay competition o n Diwali has been bunched for studencs in Years 5 and 6, des igned to encourage them to exp lore and share the ir e:s,.-perience of lncli:an culture. Entrants will submit a p iece of desc ri ptive writing, 300350 words long, on the s imilarities and cliJferences between the lndian festival of Diwali :and Christmas.

Some aruactive prizes have been announced, including cwo Air India tickets to India , and a 6-week APL Leader sh ip Program (including a visit by an APL pl ayer) for the school with the most entries. Winners will be annow1ced at the mega Diwali celebration to be held at Fed Square later this year.

Sharma has been working on the project for nearly two years now.

"l t a.U sea.reed with a little experiment last year," be cold Tndia11 Llnk "We worked witl1 one school that has adopted the study of Hiocli across all year groups. Focussing o n two classes, we ran a simple essay competition on Diwali. Some 2 0 students emered, and ,ve received some beautiful p ieces. We feamred them in our magazine, This got us exc ited, and we decided to cake it furtl1er".

The Ed ucation Deparanent was immecliace in its support to take tl1e initiative across the scare.

"Nearly 5,0UO scliools will now be approached to participate," an excited Sharma revealed. "Even if we get ten entries from each school, it will be a fantastic response!"

And a logistical nig htmare for purposes of assessment, he confessed, bm he is not fazed. Espec iall y given the response h e has received when requesting support. The Education Department jumped at the idea as soon as it was presented, and the Government of India was just as quick to offe r assistance. Air India was happy to ob lige, and the APL, ,vh.ich has been pushing hard recently to increase .its multicultura.l 1·each, ca.me on boa.rd too.

This got some fabulous prizes Li ned up; more are currently being worked out.

"I'm looking at tl1e b igger picture here," Sharma revealed.

" To p r omote social inclusiveness, there's no better place to start than ac me ea.cliesc possible age l evels. Giving young kids a feel of other cultures helps in building familiarity, dec reasing discrimination an d racism, and merefore in prom oting harmony. W ith the essay contest for inst.'lnce, not only the participating kids but ceacliers as well will become involved, for whom we have developed a teacher's resource kit on Diwali. Then, hopefully me families of ilie students will become involved coo".

This possible trickle. effect will ultimate ly help in promoting acceptance.

"I've just been told that when mis venture was described at a schoo l principals' natio n al conference, there was widespread po si tive feedback," Sharma revealed. "No othe r 11on -English speaking communi ty in the country has ever suggested such an initiative. In Victoria at lease, I believe students are required to spend a stipula ted numbe r of hours in activities of a multicul tural nature, and programs such as these eas il y fit in there So we're hoping that other schools, even private schoo ls, take up this or similar projects".

Of course there are other aims too, Sharma revealed , o ne of them being to re:ach out to out o,vn kids in a different way.

"For our second generation kids, who are not as connected to our traditions, ir will be meaningful to see the mainstream communi ty participating in an Incli,m activity and enjoying it''.

Speaking to lndia11 Link before the official launch of the program, Sharma mentioned chat he has been seeking support from a variety of otl1er platforms.

"We've approached the mainstream press, VMC , a nd many parlia.memacians. To tl1e Indian community ac large, we say, get behind this initi:ative a nd hel p us make it a success".

The competition rw1s from 30 July to 20 September

Rajni Anand Luthra

Check out this list of fascinating books that paint a picture of Delhi through the ages ..... ..... ... ........ .. .. .... .. ...... .. ..... .

such as Noida, and the city 's push furtl1er i nto what were once rural Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. There, modern gated colllmtmities jostle for space among erstwhile and urrenc villages, in a nev erending search for new laud for 'deve lopments ' tliat are shorn of an y character or i ngenuity Arvind J\diga, writing i n his novel White Tige1· (2008) , said Gurgaon was built b y tbe rich and had ".no parks, lawn s or playgrounds - it was just buildings, shopping malls, hotels and more buildings. There was a pavement outside, but char was for the poor to Live o n"

Rana Dasgupta, anotl1er novelist who made Delh i hjs home i.n 2000 when he moved tliere from Britain, bas recently written a book on his adoptive city called Capital:

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• ~ , SUOARSHAN

Thomas Metcalfe, while working as the Governor General's Agent at the 1mperial Court of the Mughal Emperor, senr his daughter the 'Delhi Book' in 18 44, which was au album of 120 paintings of the ciry b y Indian artists .!Vfetcalfe wrote his own descriptive text alongside the paintings, and the album remained in the family for almost 150 years before being added co the British Library collection. Ever si nce, Delhi has prompted h istorians, novelists, academics and travel writers, to pm pen to paper ;md capture tbe el u sive spir it and soul of the city. There is the definitive work of Delhi-at- the -time-of-the-Mutiny by Mahmood Farooqi (2010) called Brsieged: Voicesfro111 De/bi 1857 whereby au author, historian and raconrem captures the pall diat fell over the rebel govemmenc of Bahadur Shah Zafar in Delhi, around whom the sepoys rallied and marched against the British in Shahjahanabad. Farooqi laborious ly trans lated Urdu documents from the time of the Mutiny in the National Arch ives to evoke the mood of that seminal momem in Delhi's hjstory.

Two other books N e 111 Delhi: Making of a Capital, by Malvika Singh and Rudrangshu Mukherjee (2009) aod Delhi Metrapolitan by Ranjaoa Sengupta (2007) trace die evol ution and emergence of the modern city from the time the British moved the capital to Delhi in 2011 : from the new city that Lutyens planned, to the colonies that came up to absorb the in Aux of refugees at the time of partition, to the new metropolis of 16 million people that it is today.

Two works of fiction T!11ilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali ( 1940) and Delhi by Khushwant Singh (1990) paint vastly different images of the city tl1rough tli cir protagon ists. Ali's novel chronicles the disintegration of a Delhi family d1at traced its lineage to one of die city 's sultanates \'>;Then tl,e patriarch of the family visits the 191 1 Durbar, he grieves when he sees the d escendants of the exiled Bahadur Shah Zafar begging in the streets. Si.ngh's p r otagonist inimitably describes Delhi as the "mistress to which he returns whe n he h as had his fill of whoring in foreign lands".

Two od1er books can be said to be predominantly about Delhi at the time of the Emergency. They are Salmart Rushdie's Mid11ight's Children (1981) and Emma Tado's U11settli11g Memories (2003). Rushdie riles against tl1e excesses of tbe Eme rgency in his novel; so does Taro, but as an anthropologist who uncovers files of t he Munici pal Corporation in Delhi tl1at in volve the fo t:ced sterilisation of the poor.

Then tliere is the book about Delhi for expatriates by Dave Prager ti tl ed Delinous Delhi (20 l3). Prager and his wife moved co Delhi from New York His was a love -hate relationshi p w ith t he c ity before he found a balance between the best and worst thei r new home had to offer. Prager strucnu·es his book as a guide for ocher expatriates, with chapters on food, shopping, workplace culture and transportation. It especially highlights Delhi's traffic, ab out which Prager seetl,es. Howe,1er, the book is more than just a howto guide. It i~ an appealing memoir, as P rager is a solid storyteller, and the book is an enjoyable tour through the ciry. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to travel to the cicy.

Dalrrmple's Ci-()1 of Djinns (1993) remains one of the most popular bo o ks on the city eve r written. H i s Delhi is the city of multiple empires an d kingdoms, sh aped b y mon ey, food, art and Jiterature. 1fore recent!)\ San1

Miller published D elhi: Adventures in a M egacit) , which is almost entirely h.is view of the place as a wal king city: th.rough manh o les, obstacles and speeding traffic, through Naida a nd G urgaon and the most absurd sights.

This brings us to a recently published book ca ll ed Ud1a11 V ill11ge1; wrinen by Vandana Vasudevan (2013) on the recent urban expansion that has led co tl1e growth of satellite towns

A Portrait of Tiven!J First Cet1t11ry Delhi (2014) le i s a brilliant and compelling book that examin es th e growth of Delh i since die countr y embraced free market principles i.n 1991. He writes with the elegance of a novelist and the incisiveness o f a chronicler, and argues cl1at g lobalisation has been catastrophic for cap itaJism. The nexus between politicians an d developers has only fuelled corruption and the market economy has curtailed the rights o f the poor. It bas ruptured d1e delicate fabric that held the city together since Partition when over one million Hindu and Sikh refugees poured into the ciry A ciLy that once fuelled the ambitions and hopes of millions of peopl e, now serves only the rich. Dasgupta concludes, rather sombrely, chat for tl1is reason, De lhi will never be a city like any in the West.