Kudiyan kamaal!Teeyan 2010

It was beauty, glamour, tradition, culture, arts – and plenty of laughs – at the Punjabi women’s festival Teeyan, reports GUNEETA KAUR.

Celebrated in its Sydney avatar late July at the UWS Parramatta Campus, Teeyan is an Indian festival, observed at the onset of the monsoon season. Traditionally, it heralds prosperity and marital bliss, and as such, it is a fun-filled festival that celebrates the ‘sisterhood’ – relationships not only with other women in the family such as sisters, cousins and aunts, but also with all the girlfriends from childhood up!  Newly wed women visit their parents’ home, thus strengthening the ties with the family and childhood friends. (History has shown that Teeyan has been a significant annual event right from the time of rajas and maharajas).

The Sydney-based Teeyan Society (made up of Amardeep Kaur Grewal, Harinder Kaur, Navjeet Kaur Sandhu, Gurpreet Kaur Brar, Rajkiran Kaur Randhawa, Dr Nighat Nasim and Amrit Versha) focuses upon serving the community by preserving Punjabi culture and traditions. Their endeavour is to pass on the Indian values through this annual program. The team members come from varied professions, such as medicine, academics, law, social science, health science and economics.

The festivities this year, from morning till sunset, took the form of giddha (folk dance performed by women), jaggo, lok geet (folk songs), boliyaan, charkha (spinning wheel used to turn cotton into thread), Bollywood dances, music and gifts for everyone.

Giddha, compiled of boliyaan (verses) was the life of the Teeyan function, no surprises there, with its story line based on relationships between mother-daughter, husband-wife, and mother-in-law-daughter-in-law. Jaggo brought back fond memories for many a participant. A part of marriage rituals, jaggo (‘stay awake’), is a song and dance procession led by ladies, in the village streets at night. The bride or bridegroom’s aunt carries a clay pot lit with candles on top of her head, while others sing and dance alongside, in a bid to keep the villagers up all night.

The audience members got a chance to be a part of the Teeyan celebrations both through the entertainment and a variety of contests. The titles of ‘Teeyan 2010’ were conferred upon four lucky women picked on the night. Bhupinder Kaur took the Miss Teeyan 2010 title; Parminder Kaur was crowned Mrs Teeyan 2010, Mandeep Bhullar took the title of Teeyan Di Raani (Queen of Teeyan) and the Navi Viahi (newly wed) title was claimed by Sukhdeep Kaur.

The littlies’ Bollywood dance Ahun Ahun (Love Aaj Kaal) set the stage for everyone to get up and shake a leg. Four gutsy young girls Tarana, Nadia, Mansi and Kanan (Platinum Indian Entertainment), added spice to the event with their beautiful smiles, enthusiasm, traditional pink attire and astounding dancing skills. Poornima Sharma and her team from Indian Dance Centre held the audience spellbound, with their 13-minute dance medley starting with O re piya, songs from Bollywood films Fiza, Chameli, Aaja Nachle and a finale sung by the irrepressible Shubha Mudgal.

A play highlighting the issues of women in Australia, had the audience laughing their hearts out. The beauty stall, mehndi and churiyan stall (henna and bangles) had the ladies lining up. Maharaja’s Haveli served up scrumptious Indian delights such as chaat-paapdi, chole-bhathure, samosa, jalebi along with masala chai.

On a more serious note Teeyan Society made it a point to honour four women who have been serving the community in their own way. Among them were, Meera Reheja in her mid ‘80s, still actively involved in community development and service. After partition in 1947, Meera worked in refugee camps for women in Jalandhar. Ms Reheja, one of the founding members of the Indian Seniors Group in Australia, won a state award for outstanding work in the community in 2008. Other ladies honoured at Teeyan 2010 were Kumud Mirani, Aruna Chandrala and Harjinder Dhillon.

The ticket for the day full of fun cost just $5, but what made Teeyan 2010 different from other events, was its endeavour to highlight women’s issues whilst providing entertainment and creating some beautiful memories. And for this, the Teeyan team deserve our kudos.