Colorful Diwali Fest

The Indian international students held their annual Diwali Festival last year (end of October) in our university. Diwali Festival, also known as the "festival of lights" is an important event for our Indian friends. The lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil signifies the triumph of good over evil, of light over darkness, and of knowledge over ignorance.

Co-sponsored by our university, the Indian students performed a lot of cultural dances in their uniquely colorful clothes and upbeat music. They also invited some of their international student friends, thus I, my daughter and some friends joined the fun. I was privileged enough to join a Bollywood courtship dance to the tune of Bole Chudiyan and a Punjabi pop song to the tune of Tunak Tunak Tun (performed with my daughter). My then 8-year old daughter on the other hand joined a family dramatization with an Indian friend as her dad and an Indonesian friend as her mom. I was so proud of her acting skills and the fact that she memorized all her lines. Towards the end of the program, we then joined a fashion show that showcased various Indian traditional and colorful clothes. A scrumptious Indian dinner followed. 

Here are some of the colorful photos from that fun night:

This colorful flower on the floor greeted the guests. Guess what these colorful stuff made up of? Yes, colored salts. Ain't they resourceful!

My daughter Joey (leftmost) and her little Indian friends in their colorful dresses. 

Dancing Bollywood's Bole Chudiyan (I'm at the right side, front).

A fun dance for couples...

Now, this was me at the far left with our friends and kids dancing a really fast-paced dance. We ran out of breath afterwards lol.

On colorful get-ups. Ain't the kids the cutest! They had a blast!

Joey (leftmost) with her friends and the dancer/choreographer friend.

My daughter in a family funny short dramatization onstage.

 These are professional Taiwanese Bollywood dancers on their colorful dresses. Lovely!

Indian friends dancin' some funny cultural dance.

Colorful fashion show with India's famous hero Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the middle.


Me at the orange Punjabi dress.

With my gorgeous friends on our Indian outfits. Love the exotic feel!

That event was by far one of the most memorable one. We strengthened our friendship with our Indian colleagues and learned a lot about their colorful culture. Indeed, everybody had a blast!