The aroma of delicious spices, melodies of Bollywood pop music and excited chatter filled the entrance to the Temporary Upper School as students, teachers and parents waited to try an array of traditional Indian foods at the South Asian Heritage Club’s annual Diwali feast last Thursday.
“My parents, grandmother, and I celebrate by having family dinner with various Indian delicacies and lighting sparklers,” senior and co-president of SAHC Eshaan Mani said. “We also light diyas (clay lamps) around our house and have a short puja (veneration) for the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi.”
At Kinkaid, Diwali is commemorated with an array of delicacies courtesy of the South Asian Heritage Club.
Diwali is the annual festival of lights, celebrating the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. The holiday is observed across the Indian subcontinent and by South Asians around the world.
“The festival started over 15 years ago thanks to some South Asian parents,” Mani said. “The feast was held in the Upper School Moran Library at the time.”
Students in the South Asian Heritage Club planned the event over the course of a month through club and affinity group meetings. They planned everything, including the food, music and decorations.
“It was super fun to coordinate all the different elements of the Diwali feast,” junior and SAHC co-vice president Shaan Dhutia said. “It’s an awesome event I look forward to all year.”
This year’s celebration featured one of the widest spreads of food yet, featuring over a dozen selections, from sweets such as rasgullas to savory delicacies such as pakoras.
“Each year, we try to bring more food for the event and add even more spirit,” Mani said.
A particularly popular treat that students enjoyed was the samosas, a deep-fried snack consisting of a flaky crust stuffed with mashed potatoes, onions and spices.
“The mini samosas were so cute and delicious. They were definitely one of my favorite parts of the feast,” said freshman Riana Pliskin.
The Diwali feast is the club’s main event in the fall; its counterpart in the spring is the Holi-Basant festival.
