Resh­ma Ra­goonath

The tra­di­tion of Chow­tal singing which her­alds the Hin­du cel­e­bra­tion of Phag­wa (fes­ti­val of Spring) is alive and well.This was clear yes­ter­day as hun­dreds of chil­dren par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 15th an­nu­al Chow­tal Sam­me­lan at Par­a­vati Girls' High School, Debe Main Road, Debe.Jainar­ine Shar­ma, pres­i­dent of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha South Re­gion­al Coun­cil, said this year's cel­e­bra­tions saw an in­crease in the num­ber of young peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing. He said it was heart­en­ing to see the num­ber of school­child­ren tak­ing part.Sam­me­lan co-or­di­na­tor Prab­ha Shar­ma said: "This year we had more schools par­tic­i­pat­ing than usu­al.

"I think the in­crease with the Chow­tal comes from the Baal Vikas Chow­tal com­pe­ti­tion that was held last week...Many of the schools get the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case their tal­ent."Even a heavy mid­day show­er failed to damp­en the cel­e­bra­tions which saw close to 30 groups per­form­ing the tra­di­tion­al Hin­du folk songs.Khush­wa­ha Ma­haraj, 17, from the Clarke Road Bha­jan and Chow­tal Group, im­pressed the au­di­ence with his skills on the dho­lak yes­ter­day. He ac­com­pa­nied the group dur­ing an en­er­getic per­for­mance led by singer Pun­dit Robin­ranath Ma­haraj. Mem­bers of the Macaulay Hin­du Tem­ple, of Clax­ton Bay, led by Hema Ram­saran, al­so en­ter­tained the mod­est au­di­ence.

Dressed in match­ing bur­gundy out­fits, women from the Ca­paro Young Lead­ers Chow­tal Group gave the all-male group Kelldeer Vil­lage Ra­mayan and Chow­tal Group stiff com­pe­ti­tion as they show­cased their singing skills.Shar­ma said yes­ter­day's cel­e­bra­tion was the pre­cur­sor to Fri­day's event, the burn­ing of the Ho­li­ka ef­fi­gy and the an­nu­al Chow­tal com­pe­ti­tion which be­gins at 6 pm. This will be fol­lowed on Sun­day by Phag­wa cel­e­bra­tions at Par­a­vati Girls' start­ing at 9 am.On Sun­day, the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty will cel­e­brate Phag­wa na­tion­wide. This cul­mi­nates with pichaka­ree singing and the spray­ing of abeer (coloured dye) on par­tic­i­pants.