Weekend Gathering
This Sunday we had invited nearly 6 families to our place over lunch. Though it was mainly for rehearsing the group Bhajan which we are planning to sing in our upcoming Dashara festival under the auspices of BACA. Since most of them happened to be Maitnils, I decided to prepare all the ethnic food of our region. As a result we had cooked Tisi Sajman, Oalak chokha, Kumharauri bhanta aa muniga, Kadima bhujiya chana daal ke sang and many other typical Maithil dishes, followed by Madhurs. It required lots of efforts to arrange for all these items. Tisi was the most difficult to arrange. And to make the Oal not "kabkab", we had to apply lots of innovation. Full credits to Seema as she managed all these items so well that every one was thrilled to eat and enjoy the food.
Since morning we were waiting for guests to show up and it was about 1'o clock when people started showing up. The space in my home was very congested and we accommodated everyone somehow. But more than anything else it was the togetherness, similar language, sharing the jokes and overall Mithilang in the air that we enjoyed very much. Once we had finished our foods, we started thinking about our Bhajans. We decided that there should be three Bhajans in sequence. It was agreed by all that first one will be the famous Bhajan by Maithili's great poet Vidyapati - "Jai Jai Bhiravi.." Followed by this will be either "Payo ji maine Raam Ratan Dhan Payo" or "Shree Raam Kripal Bhajoman". Finally we will have a Aarti Bhajan sung by Mukesh.
Since this was our first gathering, and also we were not sure as which all Bhajans we were to sing, we decided that we will have lyrics for Bhajans and if possible mp3 version of the Bhajans sent to all by e-mail. We also decided that we will meet again once before the real performance and everyone agreed for October 1.
Slowly people started leaving as everyone had to catch up with their arrangements for the next week. But we had a very good discussion started in general about our culture and topics related to Mithila. What interested everyone the most was a discussion I started on how to preserve our culture and motivate the next generation to be interested into it. There were many ideas, experiences shared and suggestions in that direction. I had in fact asked Raja Roy, who is publishing the souvenir for coming BACA festival to include a kind of interview on it. One suggestion from Prof. Vinay came to include the question as why the younger generation do not seek alliance in the Indian community. Over all it was such a good discussion that it lasted for almost 3 hours and finally everyone left at around 7:30 PM. I was so happy and satisfied to have a very good discussion that I am looking for more such opportunities. Toward the end of our discussion, Prof. Vinay had suggested us to join with one Prof. Ramashary Singh at Hamilton to carry on this kind of thought provoking discussions and how to pick some of the ideas for implementation.
One day we will. For now we are still debating the importance of Maithili for our daily conversation and continuing the Maithili culture in our way of life. But one thing is for sure that I enjoy more than any cuisines, the dishes prepared in our old Mithila way, do not know what could be the reasons but I enjoy them the most!
What a weekend was that!
