Purva Kolkata Maheshwari Sabha hosts Gangaur festival

Gangaur festival is celebrated in reverence to Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati. The Purva Kolkata Maheshwari Sabha recently celebrated the festival of ‘Gangaur’ with much fervour and devotion .
At a time when traditional festivals are gradually losing their lustre with an amalgamation of cultures happening across the globe, celebrating festivals like these at the community level brings the younger generation together and makes them understand the essence of our culture. They get involved in the preparations of the festival and know the meaning behind the rituals,
Elaborating upon this tradition, Hemant Marda, President of the Purva Kolkata Maheshwari Sabha who is very actively associated with Gangour festival in the cty explains, “Gan signifies Lord Shiva or Isar Ji and Gaur denotes Gauri or Goddess Parvati. Gangaur is revered as the perfect embodiment of conjugal bliss so women pray to her for marital accord and unmarried girls pray with the hope of being blessed with ideal life partners.”
He said apart from members and resident of locality, many persons from all over city comes for the Darsan & Puja. The two day program was inaugurated by Vinodkumarji Jajoo, President of Vrihattar Kolkata Pradeshik Maheshwari Sabha(PKMS) . He mentioned since inception PKMS is always organizing programs with a different flavor and in a grand manner. Keeping in view the social welfare, this year stationary items were distributed to 250 girls. MLA Paresh Paul also graced the function as Chief Guest and assured his full cooperation for the charitable work of PKMS. Bhawar Rathi, Suresh Jhawar, Gopal Damani, Bhagwati Mundhra & Narayan Manihar conducted the opening ceremony. Opening ceremony was followed by Puja of Isar -Gawara by Vijay-Komal Chandak. The priest did the puja with vedic mantra and many Rajasthani folk songs too. The mehndi function was well organized by Anita Rathi. Manju Jhawar, Anju Bhutra for around 200 ladies. During Mehandi function, traditional Rajasthani GANGAUR songs were sung. These songs bridge the gap between the old and new generation. The young girls are made aware of the traditional functions. The evening Puja of God & goddess was performed by Shelja & Banwari Bahety. The main attraction is always Gangour geets performed by the members which they practice for around one month and since everyone is familiar with film songs the tunes of some popular numbers are borrowed and replace the lyrics with devotional ones written by Shashi kothari & Vinay Lahoti .The singing team of around 16 male, female singers aged from 28 to 70 plus consist of Vamika Mohta, Ruchika Maheshwari, Padma bagri, Ravi Taparia, Giriraj Kothari, and others. Raj kumar Dujari along with Giriraj Bhaiya coordinated the Gangaur geet function which was held at bhaiya chowk on 3rd April.