GreNo West: A celebration of pahadi culture at Uttarakhand Mahotsav 2022

GreNo West: Bringing the serenity and beauty of mountains to Greater Noida West is Uttrakhand Mahotsav, a celebration of the unique culture of Uttarakhand. At the Shri Ram Universal School in GreNo West, this festival is going on since November 9 and will go on till November 11, 2022. In this festival which is a celebration of the beauty of mountains, there are replicas of Jageshwar Dham, Kedarnath, Badrinath and more.

At this festival, organised by Sankalp The Rising Foundation, famous folk artists and singers such as Narendra Singh Negi, Gajendra Rana, Manglesh Dangwal, Prakash Kahala, Inder Arya, Jitendra Tomkyal, Kalpana Chauhan, Meena Rai, Maya Upadhyay, Khushi Joshi, Punam Sati, Hema Dhyani and more gave mesmerising performances and made everyone aware about the rich culture and heritage of Uttarakhand. People of the Pahadi community can be seen dressed in the beautiful ethnic attire of Uttarakhand.

The inaugural ceremony witnessed a special pooja done by the priests from Uttarakhand. After that started the performances by folk artists. Residents from all across Noida and Greater Noida witnessed and enjoyed the performances. Apart from the dance and singing performances, there were skits in the languages of Uttarakhand- Garhwali and Kumaoni, giving a taste of the local culture of Uttrakhand.

There was a fashion show as well, in which ladies dressed in colourful ethnic attires participated and flaunted their dresses. The festival also has authentic Uttrakhand delicacies which the residents of Noida and Greater Noida can be seen enjoying to the fullest. There is Bhatt ka Jhola, Gaath ki dal, Jhangoora ki Kheer, Pahadi Raita and much more.

There are also clothing, kitchen and handicraft products from different regions of Uttrakhand such as Ranikhet, Almora, Dehradoon and more like oils, Pahadi hat, artificial jewellery, pahadi namak, organic honey and more. For the people belonging to Pahadi community, this program is a slice of their homeland.

Neetu Rawat, a resident of Cherry County says, "This is for everybody where Non-Uttrakhandi people are also enjoying. We celebrate such programs so that more and more people understand our culture. We were doing the month-long preparations for this festival. Today we feel so fresh, alive and happy that after Covid we can celebrate this day."

Sarita Khatri, another resident of Cherry County says, "We all worked really hard to make this festival happen. Seeing these cheerful faces, today our efforts have paid off."