U.S.'s Largest Navratri Celebration Faces Cancellation

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Edison, New Jersey, USA (Oct. 8, 2004) - A Hindu festival that has

drawn tens of thousands of Indian-Americans to Edison annually for

the last 15 years has been canceled by its organizers who said

yesterday they don't have enough money to cover the cost.

 

Held in a massive tent in a parking lot at Raritan Center, the nine-

night event in Middlesex County has become the country's largest

Navratri festival, a celebration of music, dancing and prayer

dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shakti.

 

The festival's organizers, International Events, said they informed

Raritan Center management on Wednesday to scratch the event, which

will force revelers to seek out smaller ones elsewhere in the Garden

State.

 

"It's very, very sad," said Kirat Patel, head of International

Events. "The deal is canceled."

 

Patel said his group did not budget for the unanticipated doubling of

the cost to rent a 60,000- square-foot tent that traditionally

accommodates the participants.

 

The company that always provided the event with its white canvas tent

did not have any in stock, Patel said, because they were shipped to

Florida, to provide shelter to hurricane victims.

 

The group found another company to put up the tent, and workers began

installing the tent this week, but stopped when Patel's organization

didn't come through with a payment. About half of the tent is up in

the parking lot of Raritan Center.

 

Patel said the tent company is willing to negotiate, but no deal has

been struck yet.

 

The original deal was hurt when a crucial investor backed out at the

last moment, he said. The celebration still could be scheduled, Patel

said, but the group needs at least $150,000.

 

"We now have only one week to start," he said. "We're still working

on it."

 

Edison Councilman Parag Patel, who is not related to Kirat Patel,

said the township is willing to do what it can to see that the event

takes place, including streamlining the permit process.

 

The councilman worried that the festival's cancellation could

permanently drive it out of Edison. Some of the township's schools

will host celebrations, he said, and other Navratri events will take

place in New Jersey, he said, but none on this scale.

 

"It would be an unfortunate blow to the Indian-American community,"

councilman Patel said.

 

Prominent Indian-American community members who make their home in

Middlesex County said they were outraged that the celebration has

been canceled because of a lack of money.

 

"We are the richest per-capita community, and they are calling it off

because of money?" said Sylvester Fernandez, an Indian-American

engineer from Edison and Republican candidate for Congress. "That's

just wrong, that's just pathetic,"

 

Fernandez said that if the organizers could not find the money to pay

for the event, another group should be allowed to take over. He also

questioned why the organizers did not make a public appeal for funds.

 

"Shame on them," he said. "The community will not just sit and let

this go by."

 

Peter Kothari, community leader and owner of Quick Travel in

Woodbridge, was chief organizer of the Navratri festival until three

years ago.

 

Kothari charged that the event's current organizers were more

interested in making money than serving the community with a

religious event.

 

"We saw this coming for many years," Kothari said. "They should have

thought about this before. It's a huge festival known worldwide and

you don't plan?"

 

Kothari said that his organization, the Indo-American Cultural

Society, will take up the event's organization next year if nothing

is done.

 

"So much of a popular festival they have destroyed," he said. "I'm

very saddened. I worked so hard on it. I hope they can still do

something."

 

Assemblyman Updendra Chivukula (D-Middlesex and Somerset) said the

event has become difficult to manage as it has grown over the years,

and has been a source of debate in the community.

 

The festival also has been dogged in the past by local complaints as

being too loud and overcrowded. In 1995, Edison put limits on the

festival, which spurred a lawsuit.

 

Chivukula suggested that Indian-Americans in New Jersey pool funds to

create a permanent place to hold the celebration. That way, he said,

the burden of having to finance a tent every year could be avoided.

 

"What we need to do is think smarter as a community," he said.

 

Source: The Star-Ledger, New Jersey: "Annual Hindu fest canceled in

Edison: Indo-American community upset," by SULEMAN DIN. Friday,

October 08, 2004.

URL: http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-

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