Mangaluru: Deepavali is a festival of lights, joy, prosperity and happiness and a celebration of bonding and togetherness. The festival signifies the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. The Centre for Inter-Religious Harmony (CIRH) at SAPUC celebrated this festival of lights with all its splendor and enthusiasm to promote inter-faith harmony and usher in peace and love in society.
The celebration began with invoking God’s blessings through a prayer song by the members of the Shastriya Sangeetha Association. A welcome dance by the members of CIRH highlighting the significance of light set the tone for the celebrations ahead.
The Principal, Rev. Fr Clifford Sequeira SJ and the coordinators of CIRH, Anita Pinto, Mohan Raj, Dexter Saldanha, Diana Joseph, Deevith Kotian and Princia Fernandes formally inaugurated the celebrations by lighting a lamp. The students also illuminated the stage with diyas, lamps and lanterns to complete the festive look. The Finance Officer, Rev. Fr Pradeep Sequeira SJ, Vice Principals, Charlotte D’Souza and Muralikrishna GM, and Deans, Dr Pradeep M and Kiran Shetty were also present on the occasion.
In his message to the gathering the Principal, Fr Clifford Sequeira spoke on how Deepavali is a festival of joy and bonding. He equated the illumination of Deepavali light as the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance and love over hatred. Fr Clifford expressed that all religions have a festival which fosters togetherness, fraternity, sharing and love among people. He told the students to develop a heart large enough to accept and shower love towards all their fellow human beings overcoming the barriers of caste and creed. The Principal voiced his desire that the heart of an Aloysian should be larger than the average size, large enough to accept and accommodate fellow human beings, irrespective of their faith, background and any differences. He concluded his message by stating “as we celebrate this important festival of lights, we ask God the eternal light, the light of lights, the divine light to dispel the darkness from one’s heart and from the society and appealed to all the students to become the lights of the world”.
An innovative dance drama by the students depicting the mythological significance of Deepavali captured the hearts of the audience. The event reached its crescendo with a dance medley that followed and had the entire college pretorium hooked to the music and the moves of the energetic dancers. The curtains to the entertaining event were brought down with bright fireworks display and distribution of sweets.
One of the brightest lights that shone during the event was indeed the host, Shreya Das, I P U student who bonded instantaneously with the gathering with her breathtaking Kanglish, mesmerized the audience with her spontaneous humour and wit and dazzled with her firework performance.
A Goodudeepa – Diwali Lantern making competition based on the theme ‘Bhavaikyatheya Pratheeka’ was also organized to mark the celebrations. The creative lanterns were a delight to watch and admired by one and all.
The winners of Deepavali lantern making competition were as follows:
II PUC
I Place – 8 batch –Shreya, Pranavi, Srujan
II Place – 5 batch –Akshay, Ajesh, Sharadha
III Place – 22 batch – Avni Shetty, Jophel Simon, Anvitha A S
I PUC
I Place – 22 Batch – Ananya, Pratha, Gail
II Place – 8th Batch – Krithika, Avanya, Keerthana
III Place – 10th Batch -Krithi Shetty, Vandhya, Pragathi
