The Wellington Hindi School on Saturday, September 14, hosted an event celebrating Hindi Diwas in the presence of the Indian community in Newlands.
“Vibrancy, colour, pride, confidence and success are some of the many words that describe Wellington’s Hindi Day celebrations,” Kashmir Kaur, Chairperson of the Wellington Hindi School said.
“Wellington Hindi School is also the Wellington Airport 2019 Regional Community Awards finalist,” Ms Kaur added.
Hindi ‘Diwas’ or Hindi Day is celebrated every year on September 14 around the world to mark the adoption of the Devanagari script that is used to write Hindi, by the Constituent Assembly of the government of India.
Hindi is one of the most spoken languages in New Zealand and is spoken by around 500 million people worldwide, making it the fourth most spoken language globally.
Hindi Day in Wellington was attended by the distinguished guests from the Indian and Fiji High Commission, Bank of Baroda, Newlands Primary School, Mayur Dance Academy, International Muslim Association of NZ, National Party MP and friends of Wellington Hindi School.
“A very captive audience was entertained by poems, songs, plays, dances and a research presentation was also delivered by the very talented and multi-lingual Hindi school students,” Ms Kaur said.
“The diverse attendees were also enlightened by Sunita Narayan’s award-winning play on Girmit (the Indentured labour system) called ‘Yaadein’ commemorating the 140 years of Indian arrival in Fiji.
“Six of the school’s senior students representing the cultural diversity of New Zealand and the preservation of Avadhi and Bhojpuri languages of India, told the story of the indentured labour system in about 15 minutes,” Ms Kaur added.
The event tailed off with a networking session over delectable Indian snacks provided by the Hindi school parents.
About Wellington Hindi School:
Wellington Hindi School is a community-based language school offering Hindi language and culture education to children since 1992. It has three branches with approximately 75+ students and ten teachers who are passionate and enthusiastic about the maintenance and development of Hindi language and culture. Besides teachers, the School often engages talent from the wider community to work with them. Contact Sunita Narayan on sunita.d.narayan@gmail.com or Vijeshni Rattan vijeshni@hotmail.com for more information.