Vaisakhi | Photo: Sachi Hegde
Manipal: The Sikh Association which mostly constitutes of students and staff belonging to MU celebrated Vaisakhi yesterday at Gurudwara Sahib with enthusiasm galore.
“There is no one organizer or a president. It is basically all of us getting together to organise the celebration of this festival,” said a member of the association and a neurologist from KMC. In spite of being away from their native lands, tremendous effort was put in to keep the traditions alive and also celebrate one of their most important festivals, in this part of the country.
The festivities began at 10:00 am and went till late afternoon. A procession that started of at Gurudwara Sahib ended at Vaishnavi Bhavan with spectacular demonstrations of Gatka on the way which is a form of Sikh Martial Arts.
At Vaishnavi Bhavan the reading out of verse from Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs started the rituals which was followed by two hours of Kirtan. Kirtan included the singing of hymns by anyone who wanted to and knew how to play the instrument. Another prayer concluded the rituals soon after which Gatka was demonstrated again.
Langar (the free food served at the festival without any regard to caste or religion) was served which was mainly organized by the WGSHA students who were also part of the organizing Association. All around one could notice, hands being shaken and people hugging each other with greetings of ‘Happy Vaisakhi’ and ‘Vaisakhi Mubaraka’. Ladies dressed in salwar kameez covered their heads in the traditional way while the men wore their Kurtas.
Sub-edited by Nida Unas |
