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Local
October 2013 - 3rd Edition
Durga Puja celebration a great success Alok Sharma, the Member of Parliament for Reading West, has praised Reading’s Bengali Cultural Society on the success of the town’s biggest ever Durga Puja celebration. Traditionally, the festival of Durga Puja is an annual event which is celebrated all over India and across the world and is one of the most important events in the Hindu calendar. During Durga Puja local communities come together to mark the victory of the Goddess Mother Durga over the buffalo demon, Mahishasura, which celebrates the victory of Good over Evil. A three day celebration was held from 11th to 13th October 2013 at the Rivermead Leisure Centre. Each day of the festival began with morning prayers to Mother Durga and was followed by a full programme of activities and workshops for adults and children, as well as stalls selling food, jewellery, beauty treatments, designer sarees and Indian clothing. Highlights from the cultural programme of events included music and dance performances by the Manoranjan School of Indian Music, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, St. Crispin’s School Chamber Choir and Chamber Orchestra, the Indian Arts Centre, All Saints Church Choir, Dnyaneshwar, Gujarati Samaj Reading, Kalakunj, Udayan from Oxford, Woking Prabashi, Udok Performing Arts, the Bengali Cultural Society and many others.
Local sponsors of the event included Berkshire Van Hire, the Bina Tandoori and Specsavers. Some major Indian financial institutions such as the State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank also helped to support the event. Alok Sharma said: “I was delighted to be a patron of this event and work with the Reading Bengali Cultural Society over a
period of months planning for this event. I really think the Bengali Cultural Society has pulled off a brilliant and hugely successful event with attendance from all over the South East. I am sure this event will now become an annual fixture and grow and grow every year.” Sangita Nandi BCS Treasurer said: “Listening to the wonderful feedback and the realisation of how much having this festival in Reading means to people has definitely made
organising this event worthwhile. We look forward to building on this year's success to make it even more successful year on year.” BCS Secretary Prosenjit Banerjee said: “I would like to thank all of the sponsors who made this festival possible. We are already looking forward to next year’s festival.”