Indians celebrate independence and culturev

CHIPPA LEGODIMO & MPHO TLALE
Staff Writers | Friday August 17, 2012 00:00

India is clearly a nation that takes pride in its culture, and Indians who have migrated from their native country do not seem to have in anyway dented their cultural identity.

To mark their national day, Indian women sat quietly dressed in colourful saris flowing as low as ankle-length. To date the sari makes Indian women fashion icons with their dress code. The sari usually is made up of different colours that always blend with each other.

Their male counterparts were also smartly dressed; some in Chinese collar suits while others came in traditional long robes. There seemed to be a feeling of great anticipation as Indian High Commissioner to Botswana Madhara Chandra read a long speech.

The audience waited eagerly for the relaxing activities of the day and their wishes were duly granted afterwards.As he read his speech High Commissioner Chandra reminded the crowd of the good works of India's greatest nation builder and world renowned freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi, 'who fought with unflinching conviction against the mightiest power in history, with a moral force that transformed political thought and whose reverberations echo in great events all around us today'.

Chandra also reminded the audience that India had an enthralling, uplifting civilisation that sparkles in their magnificent art. After the conclusion of the speech, the crowd watched intently as various artists put their country's culture on the spotlight.

The artists had a variety of entertaining pieces on the programme. They engaged the beauty of choreography and music compositions that all in the end combined perfectly to create such a welcoming atmosphere. First on stage was Spoors Gautam who did some poetic voice-overs as the Indian national anthem played softly in the background. Beside him was Nadini Kochar, the dancer who added a little spark to the soft music with her captivating body moves. Clad in an orange sari, Kochar's energy radiated to the entire audience who were mesmerised by her performance.

After Kochar was done with her dance moves, the crowd watched in admiration as Gautam repeated the poems in various Indian languages. One of the poems is a call for national unity among the various ethnic and religious groups in the world's second most populous nation after China. It also calls on the different religions worldwide to come together and not allow their religious differences to tear them apart.

The performance was followed by that of young vocalist Preetha Joseph who, despite singing without any backing instrumentation, managed to maintain the audience's attention. Closing the performances was a band called Sargam whose members did solo acts in honour of the Indian people.

The festivities were crowned with delicious traditional Indian cuisine. The cuisine comprised spinach, lentil soup and basmati rice among the other dishes served. But the icing on the cake, as the saying goes, was no doubt the mouth-watering Gulab jamu dessert.