Page 108 - Khabar Magazine (February 2020)

Around Town

(Sri Photos)
HTA Navodaya celebrations, with recaps of

special events and “firsts”

More than ten thousand devotees and visitors Tasty food, South Indian vegetarian splendors—
from all over the Southeast thronged the Hindu Tem- spicy idli sambhar, tamarind or curd rice, upama,
ple of Atlanta (HTA) in Riverdale, Georgia on Wednes- boondi ladoos, and spicy snacks—were prepared in the
day, January 1, 2020 to celebrate a joyous and spiritual- kitchen and served by volunteers. Children had fun
ly suffused 17th Navodaya festival. with face-painting, balloon-twisting, popcorn, and
Temple deities had been dressed in ornate finer- cotton candy.
ies and garlanded. The priests, Sri Gopal Bhattar, Sri Sheela Lingam reflected on her first year as HTA
Srinivas, Sri Pavankumar, Sri Ravishankar, Sri Mura- President: “2019 was a very … fruitful year [with]
li Krishna, Sri Shivanaga, Sri Govardhanam, Sri Sunil four major events … Maha Lingarchana in the form
Kumar, Sri Vedavyasacharyalu, Sri Bharath, and Sri of Dwadasa Jyothirlingas, Skanda Shasti along with
Subramanyam, cheerfully and reverently performed Soora Samharan, Soundaryalahari Homam, and
suprabhatam, Siva abhisekham, and Lord Nataraja P r a t i s t a p a n a
abhisekham, followed with Arudra darshan (the golden of 108 Karanas
red star Arudra, Lord Siva in his cosmic dance) and along with Ma-
then half-hourly archanas throughout the day blessing harudram. HTA
devotees. Both temples echoed with prayers, shlokas, is the only Tem-
and devotional songs. ple outside India
Sri Govardhanam performed a pooja ceremony in to install carved
the auditorium to bless the vendors for the New Year. Karanas in mod-
Atlanta-born Kiran Bhat, a young author who now ern times.
resides in Melbourne, Australia, is a globetrotter and “We cele- (Krish Photography)
a polyglot; he sat in his booth, autographing his debut brated our regular festivals during Sankranthi, Andal
novel We of the Forsaken World. Kalyanam, Sivarathri, Ugadi, Sita Rama Kalyanam,
Brahmotsav for Lord Venkateswara and
Lord Ramalingeswara, Ganesh Utsav, Thai-
pusam, Devi Navrathri, and Diwali.
“For children, we introduced the Bho-
gi Pallu ceremony for the first time on our
premises. More than 1,500 kids participat-
ed in our Ganesh Utsav making 2,500 clay
Ganeshas. The Temple has initiated Telugu
teaching class “Manabadi’ in addition to
classes by Balavihar.”
—Mahadev Desai
(Krish Photography) >>

104 • FEBRUARY• 2020 KHABAR MAGAZINE