Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

The 36th edi­tion of Di­vali Na­gar gets rolling on Oc­to­ber 22 and will run un­til Oc­to­ber 30, with a fo­cus be­ing placed on strength­en­ing the in­sti­tu­tion of the fam­i­ly.

This was an­nounced by In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor De­oroop Teemal, pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC), over the week­end.

He was ad­dress­ing a cul­tur­al show for at­ten­dees of a three-day In­ter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Hin­di at the NCIC Na­gar, Ch­agua­nas.

He said the theme for this year’s Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions is Ghrias Ashram - Build­ing Homes and Build­ing Fam­i­lies. Teemal said the theme would look at par­ent­ing and the in­sti­tu­tion of the fam­i­ly.

“It is an at­tempt on the part of the NCIC to con­tribute to our na­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty,” he ex­plained.

Teemal said the NCIC Na­gar has be­come a unique site through­out the West­ern Hemi­sphere be­cause of Di­vali Na­gar cel­e­bra­tions. He said the Na­gar places In­di­an cul­ture at the fore­front and in a na­tion­al way for all peo­ple to ap­pre­ci­ate.

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr  Amery Browne told the gath­er­ing that there is a lot more work that has to be done in the re­gion to en­sure the growth of Hin­di.

He said, “Hin­di as a lan­guage al­so res­onates across our so­ci­ety.”

He added that T&T has deep ties with In­dia and many lo­cals have gone on to par­tic­i­pate in train­ing pro­grammes in that coun­try which have al­lowed for fa­mil­iari­sa­tion in Hin­di.