On 4th November 2022, a formal Deepavali dinner called ‘Feast of Light’ by Persatuan Mahasiswa Hindu (PMH) of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) was held at Dewan Tan Sri Ainuddin, UTM Kuala Lumpur. This event’s main goals were to fortify the bonds among PMH Club members, bring out members’ hidden skills through a variety of activities, and foster teamwork. The Feast of Lights method will, in the aggregate, foster togetherness among PMH members and enable them to better comprehend and apply their culture on campus.
The dinner, which started at 5.30 p.m. until 7.30 p.m., was attended by students, guests, and VIPs. The emcees, Janani Paramesvaran and Veena Performance, kicked off the event at 8 o’clock in the evening. The Program Director, Ghayathri Umasangaran, and the Advisor, Sathiabama T. Thirugnana Advisor gave their speech during the opening of the programme.
A dance team was recruited to perform a very special dance performance during the dinner. The attendees also had a very hearty dinner and the meal were so delicious. Entering the second part of the programme, Emcee Jason took over the microphone and introduced distinguished guests to deliver their speech.
‘Thalli Pogathey’ Team served as the event’s honorary guests. ‘Thalli Pogathey’ is a 2021 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy drama film, directed and produced by R. Kannan. The actors Thevaguru, Vicky Rao, Hamshini, and Vhyshantiny are part of a Malaysian Tamil film crew, together with the film’s director, Guna Jayakumar, and its music director, Varman Elangovan. We found their sharing session to be incredibly illuminating and eye-opening. As PMH members, it was such an eye opener to get to know their experience through their speech. Despite all the major projects and shots that were going on, the ‘Thalli Pogathey’ team took their time to visit us and share their thoughts and experiences with PMH members.
After their speech, the attendees were so surprised by an impromptu event prepared by the film team. At the start of the new event, the official soundtrack of the film ‘Thalli Pogathey’ was shown and played. Then, a gaming session based on ‘Thalli Pogathey’ film was held. The attendees had so much fun and the winners from the game received goodies bags specially prepared by Angadi Street. The Feast of Light team ran several additional contests and fortunate giveaways to add to the program’s unforgettable elements.
As a conclusion, we created this wonderful dinner in order to strengthen the familial relationships between the members and lecturers and also to unleash the bonding potential of the members. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn about the principles of collaboration. The juniors also had the opportunity to be exposed and learnt to manage university programmes or events.
Last but not least, as PMH board members, we hope that many people would participate in such activities in the future to acquire more exposure, and leave UTM as a holistic graduate. For this, we would like to express our sincere gratitude. Thank you to the crew’s director, Mr. Guna Jayakumar, for keeping in touch with us, being understanding of our responses and modifications, and for assisting us to make the event a success.
Prepared by: Savitha Saravana Kumar (Treasurer of PMH), Ghayathri Umasangaran (Director of Feast of Light) & Sathiabama T. Thirugnana (Program Advisor)