Around 200 Indian residents of Jakarta crowded the ballroom of the Kuningan City shopping mall and convention center in South Jakarta to celebrate the Festival of Lights, known as Diwali, with a sumptuous Indian dinner and a musical treat from Bollywood sensation Harshdeep Kaur on Nov. 17.

Several Indonesian business partners of Indian expatriates in Jakarta joined the festivity, which started at 7 p.m.

Diwali is celebrated every autumn in the northern hemisphere, according to the Hindu calendar, to symbolize the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. In the Gregorian calendar, the festival’s exact date shifts from year to year, but it always falls between mid-October and mid-November.

Besides organizing parties with food and music, the Indian community also celebrated the day privately by illuminating their homes with oil lamps or candles. Diwali is a major cultural event for the Hindu and Jain diaspora of the Indian subcontinent, including those who reside in Jakarta.

The main event in Jakarta was hosted by India Club, an organization formed 30 years ago by the Indian Embassy in Indonesia. The organization hosts several Indian community-based festivals in Jakarta, while also striving to build intercultural understanding with Indonesians by introducing them to India’s cultural expressions through various events co-organized with the Jawaharlal Nehru Indian Cultural Center.

According to India Club president Rakesh Jain, celebrating Diwali in Jakarta helps the Indian community maintain emotional ties with their homeland.

The celebration was also an opportunity for the Indian community in Jakarta to enjoy a number of mouth-watering Indian snacks and dishes, such as paneer tikka masala using tofu, green beans and chili as its main ingredients as well as dal bread filled with spinach, which can be spiced up with tahini sauce.

The invitees gathered outside Kuningan City’s ballroom for almost three hours to enjoy the food and mingle with members of their community. Then, the ballroom doors opened, letting guests in for the most exciting presentation of the evening: a musical performance by Kaur, backed up by her band. Abdul Sajjad was the opening act singer, and occasionally he performed a duet with Kaur.

Kaur is an Indian Playback singer known for her Bollywood Hindi, Punjabi and Sufi songs. She is popularly known as Sufi Ki Sultana (Queen of Sufi music), because of her soulful Sufi renditions. After winning the titles in two talent reality shows, Kaur established herself as a lead singer of Bollywood soundtracks. She has recorded soundtracks in various Indian languages, such as Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujrati, Bengali and many more.

Dance… like there’s no tomorrow: Members of the Indian community in Jakarta enjoy the performance of Bollywood singer Harshdeep Kaur in Jakarta recently. Kaur (not seen in this picture) hypnotized them with upbeat Bollywood tunes during the community’s recent Diwali celebration in Jakarta. (Photo courtesy of India Club)

She has collaborated with prominent Indian composer A. R. Rahman.

“It’s such a pleasure to celebrate Diwali here with you in Jakarta. I always like sufi music, because I always enjoy hearing people sing prayers out loud, so let me begin this evening with a prayer for you,” Kaur opened the show before launching into a short rendition of a meditative sufi song to pray for all great things on the occasion of the festival.

The audience went wild when she sang “Zaalima” (The Oppressor) from the 2017 Bollywood film Raees (Wealthy) starring the Bollywood demigod Shah Rukh Khan, alongside her other hits, such as “Ik Onkar” and “Dilbaro”.

The audience was so enthusiastic that, by the end of the gig, all had left their chairs; not to leave the ballroom, mind you, but to approach Kaur’s stage and dance energetically on the sidelines as the diva sang along. No need to be shy, because they could always dance in big groups, whether with their spouses, family members or friends.

When it was almost midnight, the audience was still hypnotized by Kaur’s performance of their favorite pop songs, refusing to leave the room, requesting more encores and dancing until the event committee officially declared the event over.