Shas­tri Boodan

Di­vali Na­gar has a come a long way in its 30-year his­to­ry. Hav­ing start­ed as the repli­ca of a vil­lage de­pict­ing facets of cul­tur­al life dur­ing T&T's In­den­ture­ship pe­ri­od, the event was ini­tial­ly staged at the back of the Mid-Cen­tre Mall, Ch­agua­nas.

The event be­came so pop­u­lar and out­grew the venue so that the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) lob­bied for the Na­gar's per­ma­nent home to be lo­cat­ed along the Uri­ah But­ler High­way. In three decades, the Na­gar has be­come part of the cul­tur­al land­scape that has served to de­mys­ti­fy Hin­duism to peo­ple who had lit­tle knowl­edge of the re­li­gion. It has al­so helped to en­cour­age the new gen­er­a­tion of Hin­dus to strength­en their faith.

The an­nu­al themes of the Na­gar fo­cus on var­i­ous as­pects of Hin­duism. These themes are com­ple­ment­ed with a large dis­play on the sub­ject mat­ter that gives a wealth of in­for­ma­tion. This year's theme is Gan­ga Maa, which fo­cus­es on the god­dess of the Riv­er Gan­ga (Ganges). In Hin­duism, the riv­er Gan­ga is con­sid­ered sa­cred and is per­son­i­fied as a god­dess, Gan­ga. It is wor­shipped by Hin­dus who be­lieve that bathing in the riv­er caus­es the re­mis­sion of sins and fa­cil­i­tates Mok­sha (lib­er­a­tion from the cy­cle of life and death).

The Sun­day Guardian sought feed­back from peo­ple at the Na­gar.

Dr Win­ston Tolan, a Ja­maican who or­gan­is­es In­di­an Ar­rival Day cel­e­bra­tions in his coun­try, has been com­ing to the Na­gar for the last 18 years to sing. Tolan said the Na­gar has giv­en a lot of op­por­tu­ni­ty for In­di­ans liv­ing in the re­gion to show­case their cul­ture. Tolan said in Ja­maica there are around 20,000 peo­ple of In­di­an ori­gin. How­ev­er, they are scat­tered across the large is­land and the eco­nom­ics and lo­gis­tics make it dif­fi­cult to stage a sim­i­lar event. He said In­di­an Ar­rival Day in Ja­maica is the largest event the com­mu­ni­ty has an­nu­al­ly.

Gow­tam Ma­hadeo, spokesman of the Blue Bird's Sports and Cul­tur­al Or­ga­ni­za­tion, said his group sells pep­per roti at the Na­gar. He said it was the on­ly fundrais­er the group has an­nu­al­ly to as­sist with sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ty-based ac­tiv­i­ties in the Pe­nal/Bar­rack­pore area. Ma­hadeo said he ex­pects this year to be as good as those gone by de­spite the re­ces­sion.

Pran Ram­per­sad, a res­i­dent of Bar­rack­pore, said he has vis­it­ed the Na­gar since its in­cep­tion. Ram­per­sad said the Na­gar has come a long way. How­ev­er, he would like to see the for­mat changed to in­clude more out­door cul­tur­al ex­hibits as was done in 1986.

Denise Chin­pire, who op­er­ates a booth with poo­ja items, said the food court area needs to be up­grad­ed. Chin­pire said the area could do with the in­stal­la­tion of out­door sinks for hand­wash­ing and places for peo­ple with fam­i­lies to sit and eat. Chin­pire said even though the econ­o­my has slowed down, the Na­gar would see hun­dreds of thou­sands of vis­i­tors dur­ing its ten-day run. She said this would pro­vide an am­ple op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote her busi­ness and in­ter­act with cus­tomers first­hand.

Pe­dro Williams, a corn soup ven­dor who has been at the Na­gar for the past 15 years, said busi­ness has al­ways been good at the Na­gar. Williams said Thurs­day's open­ing night has been one of the best in years. Tra­di­ton­al­ly open­ing nights draw the small­est crowds. William said he an­tic­i­pates more vis­i­tors to the Na­gar this year be­cause the event is free and has prop­er se­cu­ri­ty in place.

Cin­tra Per­sad, a new­com­er to the Na­gar, said her main aim was to pro­mote her graph­ic arts busi­ness, CS de­signs, and de­vel­op a year-round clien­tele based on the con­tacts she makes at the Na­gar.

Ra­jiv De­onar­ine, one of the few male hen­na artistes in T&T, who works for an or­ga­ni­za­tion called Hen­na T&T, said hen­na art is in big de­mand at Di­vali time. De­onar­ine said Hen­na T&T al­so hopes to de­vel­op long-term clients based on the ex­po­sure at the Na­gar.

Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo, PRO of the NCIC, said the Na­gar has grown in qual­i­ty over the years and is still a work in progress that will on­ly get bet­ter. Man­ga­roo said de­spite a fall in gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tions the Na­gar would not low­er its stan­dards of en­ter­tain­ment or the de­liv­ery of cul­tur­al themes and pre­sen­ta­tions. He was con­fi­dent that sup­port will come from all sec­tors for the 2017 Di­vali Na­gar.

The Na­gar clos­es on Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 28, and each night promis­es to be filled with en­ter­tain­ment. The se­cret is to reach ear­ly, make a tour of the grounds, and get a good seat clos­er to the stage.