ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Organised by the Christchurch branch of Yogi Divine Society (YDS) New Zealand at Canterbury Horticultural Society in Hagley Park, the city's annual Navratri festival held last Saturday was a big success with attendance exceeding 500.
Dipak Kalidas, an active member of YDS and the main organiser of the festival informed, “We started this yearly affair in 2012 and have grown since then. We do it in two parts. First is the Ratri before Navratri celebrations held in September, followed by the main event in October. All proceeds from the festival go to a trust fund that we have been raising to build our society's main centre in Auckland, which may still take two-three more years.”
A star attraction at the festival was Neel Patel, winner of MIK Tarana Idol 2015, who sang dandiya raas and garba melodies continuously for almost four-hours. Kalidas, who is a multi-talented musician himself, was at the Octapad, ably supported by Ravi Maisuria, the lead percussionist at Taal Productions – a Christchurch-based music production company.
Notably, the September event was even a bigger success with close to a thousand people attending. “For that event, we invited the veteran raas-Garba and sugam sangeet artist from Gujarat, Achal Mehta, who has been performing this genre for the last 33 years,' added Kalidas.
“Apart from celebrating the age-old festival of Navratri where we worship the nine different manifestations of the Hindu Goddess Durga, our objective for organising these annual events is to spread the YDS's message of selfless service to mankind and living in harmony with self, friends, family, society and environment,” he concluded.
Organised by the Christchurch branch of Yogi Divine Society (YDS) New Zealand at Canterbury Horticultural Society in Hagley Park, the city's annual Navratri festival held last Saturday was a big success with attendance exceeding 500.
Dipak Kalidas, an active member of YDS and the main organiser...
Organised by the Christchurch branch of Yogi Divine Society (YDS) New Zealand at Canterbury Horticultural Society in Hagley Park, the city's annual Navratri festival held last Saturday was a big success with attendance exceeding 500.
Dipak Kalidas, an active member of YDS and the main organiser of the festival informed, “We started this yearly affair in 2012 and have grown since then. We do it in two parts. First is the Ratri before Navratri celebrations held in September, followed by the main event in October. All proceeds from the festival go to a trust fund that we have been raising to build our society's main centre in Auckland, which may still take two-three more years.”
A star attraction at the festival was Neel Patel, winner of MIK Tarana Idol 2015, who sang dandiya raas and garba melodies continuously for almost four-hours. Kalidas, who is a multi-talented musician himself, was at the Octapad, ably supported by Ravi Maisuria, the lead percussionist at Taal Productions – a Christchurch-based music production company.
Notably, the September event was even a bigger success with close to a thousand people attending. “For that event, we invited the veteran raas-Garba and sugam sangeet artist from Gujarat, Achal Mehta, who has been performing this genre for the last 33 years,' added Kalidas.
“Apart from celebrating the age-old festival of Navratri where we worship the nine different manifestations of the Hindu Goddess Durga, our objective for organising these annual events is to spread the YDS's message of selfless service to mankind and living in harmony with self, friends, family, society and environment,” he concluded.
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