Ushta-te turns ten

The Ushta-te Foundation, which is in its 10th year, decided to celebrate this milestone by involving not just the ZAGA (Zarathusti Awareness Group of Ahme­dabad) family but the entire community in Ahmedabad, as per an e-mail received by Parsiana from Navroze Kanga.

On November 15, 2009 a fun fair was organized at the Zoroastrian Hall in Kankaria. Since information regarding the event had been publicized well in advance about 15 stalls were put up, many of which offered food items like samosas, seekh kabab, farcha, kheema, kaleji, biryani, the ubiquitous bhel-puri and pani-puri, to be topped by mithhoo monu (sweet) offerings like ghari, pori, chocolates and ice-cream. Other stalls offered ethnic handicrafts, crochet table linen, aloe vera products and much appreciated saris, kurtis and scarves embroidered with Parsi motifs.

A stall selling garments at the Ushta-te fun fair

The games stalls attracted the young and old alike, while the children enjoyed riding the toy train and climbing the moon-walkers. Ushta-te’s own counter offered six lucky hampers. At the lucky dip everyone was assured of a prize, making it a big draw, and many late-comers had to return disappointed. The Watchmakers’ stall was adjudged the best managed one.

Through the evening people lingered to chat, buy, eat and play games including old favorites like musical chairs, resulting in both pleasure and profit for the nearly 500 plus humdins — that’s nearly 30 percent of the community of Ahmedabad — who look forward to many more such programs each year, Kanga noted.