On Wednesday a wonderful spiritually uplifting evening took place at the Grahamstown Hindu Temple. The celebrations started with prayers and singing of hymns praising Lord Rama and Sita. This was followed by two short items prepared by the Bal Mandal (Sunday school). The first was the story of Rama and Sita, their banishment into the forest, the capture of Sita by Hanuman and eventually her rescue, thus leading to the triumph of good over evil. This was then followed by a dance choreographed by Prarochna Rama, one of our community members, who had a difficult task of teaching the young children, all aged between 3 and 10 years, how to dance in unison.
On Wednesday a wonderful spiritually uplifting evening took place at the Grahamstown Hindu Temple. The celebrations started with prayers and singing of hymns praising Lord Rama and Sita. This was followed by two short items prepared by the Bal Mandal (Sunday school). The first was the story of Rama and Sita, their banishment into the forest, the capture of Sita by Hanuman and eventually her rescue, thus leading to the triumph of good over evil. This was then followed by a dance choreographed by Prarochna Rama, one of our community members, who had a difficult task of teaching the young children, all aged between 3 and 10 years, how to dance in unison.
The evening ended with presentations made to our elderly members, some of whom are not as mobile as they once were. They were honoured by taking Aarti during the service. Aarti is the lighting of lamps. These special guests were presented with a small gift to show our appreciation of their years of wisdom, knowledge and contribution to our community life.
Being a community member does not stop at merely being a Grahamstonian, the evening also saw one of the leading Rhodes Hindu students being applauded and presented with a gift for his academic achievements and being placed in the top 100 students at Rhodes.
As part of the community’s continued outreach programme, the Bal Mandal, following in the footsteps of their parent organisation, the Grahamstown Hindu Seva Samaj (GHSS) planned to reach out to the greater elderly community of Grahamstown and provide a tea for the McKaiser Old Age Home. A warm fulfilling afternoon was spent there, where the children served tea, cupcakes and Indian sweetmeats to the residents.
