Indira Somani
Dev Deepavali was celebrated on Nov. 10th. This is the 15th day after Diwali, a full moon day, also known as Kartik Purnima. I came to Varanasi to experience this festival, where the people of Varanasi pay tribute to the Ganges river, the holy river of India. This is my first time in Varanasi, but I have wanted to come here many times, as it is supposed to be the holiest (or at least one of the holiest) city in India. The Ganges river flows from south to north. As most rivers flow from north to south or east to west, this is the only river in India that flows from south to north. In the early morning, thousands of people bathed in the Ganges. I bathed as well, by bathed I mean I went under water five times. This act of expiation means one has washed away their sins and will return home with a pure soul. One can only I hope :). Most of the people were locals, but others from across India came for this act of worship. In the evening, thousands of diyas were lit across the ghats. When I say thousands, one person quoted me 10,000 crores of diyas are now used to light all the ghats for Dev Deepavali. A diya is a small tear-drop shaped clay bowl, filled with oil with a wick. Once it is lit, it burns for several hours. These decorations as well as others, like marigold garlands, are mostly funded with donations from all the residents of Varanasi
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Indira S. Somani, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Media, Journalism and Film at Howard University, Washington, D.C. Somani studies effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972, and their media habits.
She has been published in the Howard Journal of Communication, Journal of Communication Inquiry, International Communication Research Journal, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and the Asian Journal of Communication.
For the fall of 2011, Somani was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India.
Somani is also an award winning independent producer and director of documentaries. Her most recent production, Life on the Ganges (2016), is a 10- minute documentary short about the life of one boatman, who rows tourists along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India, particularly around Dev Diwali when people from all over India travel there to bathe in the Ganges to wash away their sins and purify their souls. The film has been screening in film festivals all over the U.S.
Another production, Crossing Lines (2007), is a personal essay 30-minute documentary about her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father, and about how Asian Indians maintain and preserve their cultural identity. The film has won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, screened on PBS affiliates, and has also been distributed to more than 100 university libraries in the U.S. through New Day films.
Somani brings 10 years of broadcast journalism experience as a television news producer to the classroom, most notably with CNBC and WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. She has been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), where she has also won several “Outstanding” awards on her coverage of South Asians in North America.
Prior to joining Howard University, Somani was an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA) and American University’s School of Communication (Washington, DC). Somani earned her Master’s in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in 1993, and her Ph.D. from the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park in May 2008.
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