Expats celebrate Odisha's Nuakhai harvest festival in Dubai

Dubai - The Nataraj troupe enthralled the audience for a good two and a half hours.

Around 500 Indian expats have celebrated Nuakhai Bhetghat - a harvesting festival of the western region of the Odisha state - at the Indian consulate auditorium in Bur Dubai.
The colourful event, mostly participated by the Odisha residents, was organised by the Odisha Samaj of UAE (OSUAE), and saw Prem Chand, consul of Passport and Community Affairs as the chief guest, who inaugurated the event.
Elaborating on the event, Sudhashree Dash, a member of OSUAE, said: "The festival is a celebration of the first harvest of the field. Nua means new and khai means food. So literally it means new food/new harvest from the field. This is celebration time for our farmers as they sell the rice and earn their livelihood. The unique part of us celebrating it here is that we actually got the new rice from Odisha to the UAE and that's what we are serving here to our people for lunch today."
The programme commenced with a Bandana (prayer song) followed by offering of 'Nua Dhana'(new harvested wheat) to the deity Odiyas revere. Apart from local talent performing to the tunes of traditional songs, the famous dance troupe Nataraj Group, flew in all the way from Sambalpur (Western Odisha) to perform. Local performances included some talented kids give their best to the tunes of traditional folk songs of Western Odisha.
The Nataraj troupe enthralled the audience for a good two and a half hours. While the first part highlighted the local talent, the second half of the full day programme was taken over by the Nataraj group. The audience was treated to a typical traditional Odia breakfast as well as lunch prepared by cooks that were also specially flown from Odisha for the event.
The Late Prabhudatta Pradhan, music composer of world famous sambalpuri song 'Rangabatti', was posthumously honoured and his son Asim Pradhan received the honour on his father's behalf. Pradeep Bhol, an acclaimed movie director, was also felicitated at the event.
Amiya Mishra, president of Odisha Samaj UAE, said: "This is part of continuous efforts in bring out our cultural and festive heritage onto this part of the world and celebrate the richness of it among us on a foreign soil. We are proud of being UAE residents and this festival is also promoting peace and harmony in line with the values of the Year of Zayed being celebrated this year."
Sasmita, a participant at the event, said: "Mostly everyone is busy at work and we hardly get chance to socialise with Odiyas here but this is one such occasion when we get to meet and see our people and our culture."
saman@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai