Celebrating Diwali with OBHS’s first Aarti

Esha Mehta and Veronica Manevich celebrate Diwali with a Garba dance.

BY RITEE KARMACHARYA

The Asian American Club held their annual Diwali fest with a new addition: the first ever Aarti at an OBHS event. Students took part in ritualistic dances, painted diyas, and came together to celebrate the Hindu holiday.

“To me, Diwali is a time of celebration with my family and friends. We light diyas, do rangoli, hang up lights, wear our cultural clothing, and do Garba,” said Snigdha Kandula, one of the Presidents of the club. Students made a circle and performed Garba, a ritualistic cultural dance where people show pride and honor in their religion.

“Garba is meant to honor the god Durga and is done during Navratri,” said senior Vasanth Kumaravadivelu, who led the dance. Kumaravadivelu demonstrated and taught the dance to the students who did not already know how. After a practice session, the students all successfully danced in a Garba circle.

Disha Dhingra, Shreya Patel, and Kaavya Sheth lead the Aarti.

The club also conducted the first ever Aarti in Old Bridge. Students took turns praying and leading the Aarti plate. “This was the first time an Aarti was done in our school, which was extremely exciting to do,” said senior Saloni Gupta. “To conduct Aarti, you prepare a thaali, or a special plate that has a lighted tea light, flowers, and food offerings. We present this plate in front of an idol and move the plate in circles as a sign of respect.”

The event welcomed students and faculty of all religions and races. “The food was surprisingly good even though I’m not particularly fond of spicy food, and I especially liked the gulab jamun because I like sweet things,” said senior Roland Dillon. “The highlight of the event had to be the dancing, specifically the Dandiya. The dances were a bit hard to pick up, but once I got it, I had a good time.”

Harshit Patel, Aarav Gaudani, Vasanth Kumaravadivelu, and Mahin Patel clap along to the Aarti.

In preparation for the event, members of the club volunteered to bring in many traditional foods and decorations. Samosas, gulab jamun, rasgulla, pani puri, and various other South Asian foods filled the table. “We also chose to decorate part of the main entrance to the building to build excitement for the event. We put up lights and flowers on the desk and dressed the knight statue in a sari (a traditional Indian dress),” said Gupta.

The students celebrated Diwali with yet another great event by Asian American Club. “The Diwali fest was a fun event, and the turnout was better than we expected. It’s really cool that I get to share my culture with my school, and it was a very successful event from AAC,” said senior Sharan Minhas.

Disha Dhingra, Shreya Patel, and Kaavya Sheth lead the Aarti.
Seniors Neeti Naik and Jiya Patel practice Garba with their partners, seniors Sharan Minhas and Saloni Gupta.
Priya Rana and Saloni Gupta serve the cultural foods made and brought in by volunteers.
Samee Chandra, Ved Patel, Kunwarpaul Singh, and Ved Patel take a turn to lead the Aarti.
Junior Anya Kaul dances in the Garba circle.