O-India Pongal / Shankaranti Celebration in Oulu

Pongal / Shankaranti Celebration in Oulu

by

Jacob Matthan

Photographs by

Vishwanath Mallabadi, Sreekanth Kanjarla, Nagendra Kolar

There could not have been a more auspicious celebration to launch the activities of the O-India Group representing the concerns and interests of Indians resident in North Finland (Oulu, Raahe, Kajaani and Rovaniemi).

The season in mid-January represents, amongst many things, the ascendancy of the sun, the abatement of the north-east monsoon and the harvesting season in many parts of India. It is celebrated under different names by all communities in all corners of India.

An event was organised by the local Indian population at the Oulu Kolutuskeskus on Asemakatu where everyone brought a small amount of their home prepared Indian vegetarian food.

The early arrivals waited expectantly for the proceedings to begin.

The evening started with an Introduction by Kiran Kumar Nataraj, one of the founders of the O-India Group.

Then to the melodic voice of Sulochana, four Indian ladies performed the traditional welcome Arathi Pooja.

This was followed by a short talk by Nageshwari who told the audience of the national meaning of this period of the year.

The whole audience were then divided into four groups representing four of the great rivers of India. It was then time for some fun games while the audience enjoyed chips and soft drinks.

Dumb Charades organised by Shalaka and Ashwini was a great fun, and the audience proved to be very experienced at this game.

This was followed by another popular game organised by Kiran, of identifying the songs associated Indian movie clips. It was interesting to see how this young audience was so clued up of hits before they were even born!

The last (luckily for me) game organised by Nisha and Sunil was more active in that blindfolded audience members had to pin thetail on the elephant.

The game which was abandoned due to lack of time was supposed to be make a fun scapegoat out of me!!!! The Good Lord was on my side vis-á-vis the mischievous Mallu couple! :-)

The games were followed by a scrumptious dinner with Srini providing the base with Tamarind Rice and Hot Pongal (prepared in the attached kitchen). A special thanks to Pizzeria Göreme who provided us with the large cooking vessel. The dinner had preparations from all parts of India, as egetable Curry, Dry Spicey Potato, Kheer, Sweet Pongal, plenty of delicious ice cream and lots of Mango phool! The food vanished but there was plenty for all.

(Nagendra replaces Bala as the camerman
in the second shot.)

And after all the O-Indians left the organising team could sit back and relax for a few minutes.

Already calls are coming in for more such events. And we are sure that will be many such events in the coming years as the people who are running the O-India Group are YOU, and all of you are enthusiastic and energetic youngsters.