Maa Durga Temple (Maa Shakti Charitable Organisation) based in South Auckland celebrated Dusshera for the community at the Alexandra Park Hall on Saturday, October 20.
One of the many highlights of the event was the Ramleela performance by a group of 15 children from Puja Cultural Centre Trust NZ who re-enacted the life of Lord Rama for the audience. The event started at noon with people coming to the event venue in festive-ethnic Indian wear with their families.
Present at the event as the chief guest was Mayor Phil Goff who lighted the inaugural lamp and addressed the community members on this joyous occasion. He commended the work by the organisers who brought such cultural events for the community.
The event continued with cultural dance, fashion show and singing performances by children- both entertaining Bollywood numbers and classical music and Bharatnatyam that entertained the audience.
The Ramleela re-enactment received a standing ovation from the audience for its creativity, lighting, acting, dialogues and overall performance.
“The Puja Cultural Centre Trust NZ is a team of 15 who practised for weeks for this Ramleela performance, which as we mentioned in our promotion, was the highlight of the event,” the spokesperson for Maa Shakti Charitable Trust, Vijay Gulati told The Indian Weekender.
“We organise such events to get the community together – re-live the memories of our home country and impart our cultural heritage to our children to celebrate our festivals in such grand manner,” Mr Gulati added.
The evening session of the event was attended by National MPs Kanwaljit Bakshi, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Hon. Consul of India Bhav Dhillon, community leader Roshan Nauhria, Baljit Kaur, Jeet Suchdev and member of Puketapapa Local Board Shail Kaushal.
Besides cultural events, there were also activities to engage the children and food stalls for people to serve their taste buds.
Another big highlight of the event that concluded the Dusshera celebrations was the fireworks that amazed the visitors to the event.