The Indian Weekender, 15 April 2022

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10 NEW ZEALAND Friday, April 15, 2022 The Indian Weekender Pitch curator bags Northern District Cricket Association award SANDEEP SINGH Vijay Changotra - a Kiwi-Indian horticulturist who works for Auckland Council’s social infrastructure organisation firm City Care - has bagged the prestigious Northern District Cricket Association Community Groundsman Award. Changotra won the award ahead of some of the veterans in the fray with decades of experience under their belts and was elated when the Indian Weekender spoke with him about the coveted prize at Mountfort Park in Manurewa, South Auckland. – Northern District Cricket Association is the parent body of local district and regional levels cricket associations comprising regions Northland, Counties Manukau, Hamilton, Waikato Valley, Bay of Plenty, and Poverty Bay. Nominations were invited for the award by Northern District Cricket Association along with awards in other categories, including Club of the year, Emerging umpire of the year, Community Official of the year etc., from January 28 to February 27. And the colourful award ceremony to celebrate the success of players and support staff was then held The quality of pitches here had been appreciated by one and all, including players, coaches and other experts” and had compared it to international standards on Saturday, April 9, at the Sky City Hamilton and brought together cricket enthusiasts from the region and beyond. Speaking to us, an emotionally elated Changotra shared how he found his way into the career of ground maintenance and pitch curating and found a hidden passion inside him to know, learn and excel in science and the art of curating a cricket pitch. Sharing his story of joining the role of linesman a few years ago for the firm City Care, which Auckland Council tasks to manage open spaces, building constructions, facilities management along with maintaining all social infrastructure in the Auckland region, he said, “This role has not been just a job for me, it’s a passion. I get goosebumps when I think I am working in the league of pitch curators who decide the nature of the cricketing pitch–whether it will support pace or slow bowling.” Elaborating further on the craft of curating a cricket pitch, he pointed towards a small rectangular block of land in Mountfort Park and said, “The quality of pitches here had been appreciated by one and all, including players, coaches and other experts” and had compared it to international standards.” Originally from the Kathua district of the Jammu region in India, Changotra had been living in New Zealand for the last thirteen years and had been in this role for around five years. Recalling his growing up days in India, he said, “Like all other Indians, I was also obsessed with the game of cricket – but more as a player – and had never imagined that I would make a career in maintaining ground and pitches.” “It was only after getting into this role that I realised that curating pitch is a combination of science and art.” “One has to be a horticulturist – trained or learned – to understand the level of moisture in the ground beneath the pitch and know what moisture can do to maintain the level of green grass on the pitch.” “Now, when I watch international cricket matches, my eyes are busy capturing how the pitch is behaving and impacting different players,” Changotra said. When asked trivially about how pitches are perceived to support or challenge batsmen against different bowling attacks – pace or spin – he said with a philosophical tone, “A good pitch offers equal opportunity to all kinds of players to showcase their talents.” Changotra is keen to share his success story with the rest of the community, hoping that his line of work might find some attention within the Kiwi-Indian community. Protesters make a comeback in Wellington VENU MENON The Bank of New Zealand ( BNZ ) branch on Willis Street in central Wellington quickly downs its shutters as a small group of protesters gathers on the sidewalk outside. “The sooner New Zealanders give up their freedoms, the sooner we’re going to get them back,” a bearded middle-aged man bellows. “Yeah, right,” the crowd roars. “If we can just keep the masses of New Zealand scared and under control, the best we can keep them safe,” the man yells, pacing back and forth on the pavement. “Yeah, right,” the crowd answers. This routine is repeated as speaker after speaker contributes to the theme of the day: the “mis-and disinformation campaign” run by the government on Covid-19. The protesters, who bore the brunt of the police crackdown that ended their 23-day siege of Parliament in March, have re-surfaced. This time around, they are following a different strategy. Rather than amassing at a single point, the protesters have been gathering at various locations throughout the CBD as part of a two-week campaign to draw public attention to what they call the government's misleading messaging and faulty policies around Covid-19. The Willis Street protest was Day 8 of this 14-day campaign. With the vaccine mandates largely lifted, the protest has shifted its focus to the perceived harmful effects and fatalities associated with taking the jab. There is also strong opposition to the Covid-19 legislation brought by the government driving the protest. They see the NZ Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 as a coercive piece of legislation. Joachim Wanihi, 46, who played a vital role during the Parliament occupation, points to the wide-ranging powers granted to inspectors after the post-April 4 changes to the legislation came into effect. Presently, inspectors are still authorised to enter a premise without a warrant. “This means businesses are locked into an agreement of conduct by force, not by choice,” Wanihi argues. While the process of revoking the vaccine mandates is underway, there are questions around feasibility and fairness, with Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood saying those who lost their jobs for failing the vaccine mandates are not guaranteed to get their jobs back. Clearly, the aftermath of the vaccine mandates wind-down is spawning confusion regarding the rules. The protesters are seeing an opportunity to regroup and are tweaking their agenda accordingly. The anti-vaccine mandate protest that raged on the Parliament grounds in March appears to have morphed into an anti-vaccine stir instead, with an ideological shift away from mandates to raising questions about the politics behind the government’s Covid-19 policy, the science behind vaccinations and against the mandate of the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the global authority on public health. But this protest is nowhere close to gaining the traction witnessed in March when NZ held the world’s attention for three tumultuous weeks.
The Indian Weekender Friday, April 15, 2022 NEW ZEALAND 11 AVINASH SEN Happy New Year! Yes, we realise it’s already April of 2022, but that is precisely what you’ll be saying if you were a Bengali. To be more precise, you’d be saying “subho noboborsho” (which roughly means happy new year in Bengali) because you’d be celebrating the beginning of a Bengali new year or “Poila Boishakh.” In India, Poila Boishakh, which marks the beginning of the starting month of Baishakh (or Boishakh, depending on how you pronounce it) on the Bengali calendar, is celebrated on either the 14th or the 15th of April. This year, it is falling on the 15th. It isn’t just Bengalis, though - in India, Sikhs and Hindus also celebrate the beginning of the new year through the festival of Vaisakhi or Baisakhi. But we’re not in India; we’re in NZ. So how does the Bengali community celebrate Poila Boishakh here? Indian Weekender spoke to Debes Bhattacharyya, a prominent member of the Bengali community here in New Zealand, to find out more. He was the President of the Probasee Bengalee Association of New Zealand for many years and also represented the Bengali community in the Indian Central Association (ICM) in NZ. He also works as a priest or pujari for the various community pujas What is Poila Boishakh? (e.g. Durga Puja, Lakshmi Puja, Kali Puja) celebrated by the Bengali community. What is your connection to the Bengali community and its origins? The community was formed through the celebration of Durga Puja. We started in 1992 and held the Durga Puja in our own house for three years. It was a relatively small group of people. Gradually we expanded, and the numbers were increasing, so we finally shifted to the community and school halls. At the end of the 1990s, we formed an Association called the Probasee Bengalee Association. We continued to hold the Durga Puja for a while under a general umbrella. But then we shifted. under the administration of Probasee because other pujas started as well Since then, other groups have been formed. There’s a younger group called Bhavna, which takes the primary initiative for Kali Puja. Often we hold joint programs. Bangladeshi people have their groups as well. Also, there is another group called Nandan. So we maintain good relations with all of them. What is the history behind Poila Boishakh? There is a bit of controversy regarding the origin of Poila Boishakh. Some people say Emperor Akbar started it to ease tax collection. But some people also have argued now that they have found that even during the Vikramaditya Shashanka era, they found what’s called Bongabda, meaning Bengali year. So we can’t say definitely when it started. In Bengal, they invite people and distribute sweetmeats irrespective of religion. They’ve got big processions in Dhaka, and they hold that as a new year festival. We have a prevalent theme of the singing of ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ (songs by Rabindranath Tagore), such as ‘eso he Boishak, eso eso,’ meaning ‘please come to Boishakh.’ Here in NZ, we often cannot hold it precisely on that day because programs are organised depending on the weekends. Sometimes, if there is any problem, we have tried to combine that with the 8th of May, Rabindranath Tagore’s birthday or Rabindra Jayanti. Throughout the month, people buy new clothes. We have dances, music, and get-togethers. You mentioned that you are a priest and that you sometimes hold the pujas (prayers) for the Bengali community. So you still do that? No, I don’t do it anymore. I celebrate at home by cooking some sweetmeats and things like that and invite a few friends. But the community festival is held in a communal form. That means you invite all the other people irrespective of religion. We usually hold it in an auditorium. Of course, it has been disturbed in the last two years due to Covid. So last year what we did, for the Rabindra Jayanti and nobho borsho, we had a zoom festival. It went very well. It had singers from NZ, Australia and India performing, and it continued for more than three hours. So what about this year? Are you planning to do a zoom meeting again? This year, the committee has been very cautious. Last even Durga Puja, I did it at home and telecast the Pushpanjali (offering flowers with prayer) on zoom so that people could give anjali in their own homes. So this year, we are holding back, and if the situation improves, we are thinking of doing something in May. As you mentioned, usually during Poila Boishakh, people buy many new clothes. Is there any particular colour for the clothes that they buy? No. But at the festival, usually, the Basanti colour, the yellowish saffron colour, is prevalent. So usually, the dancers and the young ladies will wear a white (or Basanti saree) with a Basanti/red border. Even the male participants will try to wear that particular colour set. So we try to bring some kind of uniformity there. What is the significance of the saffron colour? The year starts in spring, which is basanto. In Bengali, we call spring basanto, and the colour of basanto is Basanti, signifying the bright colours of spring. Basanti Puja (a form of Durga) is also held during this period. And there you have it. To all our Bengali bhaiyo aur beheno, we hope you have a great Poila Boishakh! Shubo noboborsho to everyone! Happy 75th Indian Independence day to us Talk Hall about and hiring catering needs.
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