The threads that pulled Kriti Dewan and Rohit Chokhani to their current roles with the city’s Diwali Festival formed when they were children. Dewan, the festival chair, moved to Courtenay, B.C. from India when she was 12. At school, her introduction included applause from her classmates and teacher. That confused Dewan. She later found out it was because people assumed the only South Asian person in the school had learned to speak English fluently after being in the country for a week.
“We do know how to speak English in India,” Dewan said, remembering her shocked reaction from that day in 1998. “It was a very bizarre experience for me and that’s where I think the inspiration for me to be involved in something as far as cultural education, awareness and diversity goes.”
Chokhani, the festival’s artistic producer, was enthralled with Bollywood when he was 10. He hosted movie nights, selling tickets to his neighbours who didn’t have television sets in his small community outside Mumbai, and used the money to rent a VCR and movie.
“I was just recycling pocket money,” he recalled. “I wasn’t making money, just throwing parties, same as I do here. Diwali is my favourite festival of Indian culture so I feel very honoured and privileged to do this as a living.”
Chokhani pursued his masters in computer sciences, but he still couldn’t silence the call of the performing arts. He was involved here and there and immersed himself when he moved to Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»six years ago when he joined the Diwali Fest staff in his current role.
It’s the sixth year for Dewan and both she and Chokhani are thrilled with the growth seen in this year’s 13th edition of the South Asian arts and cultural festival, which runs until Nov. 30. Compare that to the first year when it was just one evening at the Roundhouse Community Centre. The “downtown” portion of the festival was held Saturday, again at the Roundhouse. It included multiple classical dance and Indian music performances, a sari tying workshop, a Bollywood performance workshop and a fashion show. In addition to Vancouver, Diwali Fest also hosts celebrations in Richmond, Surrey and the Tri-Cities.
Diwali Fest’s “Light Your Spirit” is a slogan in keeping with traditional sense of happiness of the festival, which Chokhani described as “being like Thanksgiving and Christmas all meshed into one.” The Hindu festival of lights celebrates spiritual beliefs such as light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair. It is celebrated in October or November every year with its origins as a harvest festival where farmers in India would seek the blessing of goddess Lakshmi.
It’s also important for the local version of the festival to sweep aside cultural barriers and encourage participation from all communities, added Dewan who said the board also focuses on gender equality and all ages. Chokhani agreed.  “You’ll see a five-year-old girl dancing and you’ll see a 70-year-old dancing. It reflects the kind of programming we have, we’ve brought a lot of people together.”
Diwali Fest’s theatre component is impressive even on its own. The Elephant Wrestler is at the Cultch until Saturday, Sultans of the Street is at Waterfront Theatre until Sunday, Bhopal is at the Firehall Arts Centre Nov. 21 and Brothel #9 runs Nov. 17 to Nov. 27 at the Vancity Culture Lab, located in the Cultch. (Toronto playwright/actor Anusree Roy wrote Sultans of the Street and Brothel #9 for which she was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for English-language drama in 2012.)
“We have a lot of big shows from India,” said Chokhani. “Not many theatre companies are bringing shows of that caliber over to this countries. There’s only a few and we’re one of those few.”
It wouldn’t be a Diwali celebration without the food, and Diwali Fest has street food-based cooking classes Nov. 7 (pav bhaji) and Nov. 13 (papdi chaat) at the Roundhouse as part of its schedule. For more information about Diwali Fest, check out .
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