The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Sindhis celebrate New Year

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Monday, Apr 07, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Sindhis celebrate New Year

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: As Kannadigas prepare to usher in their New Year with Ugadi, another community celebrated the beginning of their year on Sunday in their own way.

Hundreds of Sindhis in the city came together at the Cheti-Chand-Jo-Mela, organised by the Sindhi Federation of Bangalore, on Sunday.

“We believe that our God, Jhule Lal, is an incarnation of Lord Krishna. He was responsible for bringing peace to the region of Sindh, which was constantly torn apart with strife due to its location along the border of the country,” said Rajkumar L. Kukreja, president of Sindhi Seva Samiti.

The usual fare of singing and dancing competitions apart, the New Year celebrations had contestants delivering dialogues from the Bollywood blockbuster Sholay in Sindhi language.

“This is one of our efforts at keeping our language alive for our children,” says Mr. Kukreja. Offering obeisance to Lord Jhule Lal and Sindhi bhajans were part of the celebrations earlier in the morning.

Keeping alive the tradition of the Sindhi populace and facilitating interaction among members of the community in a large city such as Bangalore is the objective of holding such community festivals, said Madhusudan Ramchand, who attended the event.

The Sindhi Federation is a cluster of organisations that have come together for the past 35 years to organise festivals for the community in the city.

“We started this trend in the late 1960s. For the first two decades after Partition, we were busy settling down and establishing ourselves,” said Mr. Kukreja.

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