Indians celebrate Kali Puja in Sydney – for causes in India

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 28.10.2008 (IANS): Kali Puja in Sydney has attained a deeper meaning for a group of young professional migrants, mainly Bengali, who have been celebrating the festival with much fanfare to raise funds for charitable projects in India.

“We have all shared a dream of helping the less privileged sections of society in and around Kolkata. We feel, in our own small way, we can make a difference. This year we have been able to raise A$ 4,000 (Rs.123,925), which will go towards funding higher education for disadvantaged students and a mental asylum in Kolkata”, says Aditi Coomar, a town planner who migrated here with her husband, Indranil, five years ago.

“Growing up in India, I could appreciate the difficulties people faced to survive; so when I migrated to Australia, I was determined to help the community back home. Instead of donating to an organisation, I wanted to get directly involved and Kali puja was a good platform to get as many people as possible involved in a good cause,” Coomar told IANS.

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India-born doctor’s teenage attackers charged in Australia

0 Comments read Diaspora, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 25.10.2008 (IANS): Three teenagers have been charged with the savage bashing of India-born doctor and former head of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Mukesh Haikerwal and a spate of attacks on four other people in Melbourne’s Williamstown suburb last month.

The much respected doctor was said to have been attacked by a gang of people aged between 17 and 21, of medium-build and Caucasian-looking, who went on an one-hour rampage, attacking four other people in a five-km radius on the night of Sep 27.

The 47-year-old doctor was hit on the head with a baseball bat and then repeatedly kicked as he lay on the ground near his home at the Dennis Reserve. Continue reading →

Australia in Diwali mood with lights, Bollywood and Indian food

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.10.2008 (IANS): Thousands of people, including many members of the Indian diaspora, gathered in Sydney and Melbourne over the weekend to usher in Diwali festivities that coincide with the flowering of jacarandas and ripening of mangoes in Australia.

While over 20,000 people celebrated Diwali at Olympic Park in Sydney’s Homebush suburb, festivities at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne’s Central Business District drew a staggering 50,000.

Diwali has perhaps become the biggest festival in the Australian cultural calendar as people of Indian origin cross the 200,000 mark and Hinduism becomes one of the fastest growing religions in this multicultural country.

Organised by the Hindu Council of Australia in Sydney and Celebrate India Inc. in Melbourne, the festival in recent years has been attracting almost 50 percent mainstream Australians.

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