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 Independent Documentary Filmmaker. After a 26-year-career as a television newscast producer and broadcast journalism professor, Somani moved to LA and enrolled in the MFA in Directing/Production, Documentary film program at UCLA. Currently in production is a personal documentary about her role as a caregiver for her Mom who battles depression. The film reveals how much Somani and her mother rely on each other for emotional support. Other films Somani has directed and produced include Life on the Ganges (2017), a 10- minute documentary directed, produced and filmed in Varanasi, India, during Dev Diwali, when people from all over India travel there to bathe in the Ganges River. The film screened in film festivals in the U.S., India and Europe and won Best Short Documentary at the Berlin Independent Film Festival, and the Cannes Short Film Festival. Another film Somani directed, produced and wrote was, Crossing Lines (2007), a 30-minute personal essay documentary about her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father and to maintain and preserve her Indian cultural identity. The film won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, aired on PBS affiliates through NETA from 2008-2011, and has been used by more than 100 universities as a tool to teach intercultural communication in the classroom. Both films are in distribution through New Day films.
Somani’s doctoral research studied the media habits and effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians in the Washington, DC metro area, who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972. She expanded her research to study the media habits, acculturation, and social identity of the same generation in the New York-New Jersey area, San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. For the fall of 2011, Somani was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research Fellowship to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India.
While teaching at Howard University’s School of Communications from 2012-2021, Somani’s research shifted to study Black Broadcast Journalists and how race had an impact on their success in the newsroom. She has been published in several academic journals and has also co-authored two book chapters.
Somani’s academic career was preceded by 10 years as a television news producer, most notably with CNBC and WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Somani has also been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), where she has also won several “Outstanding” awards for her coverage of South Asians in North America. Prior to teaching at Howard, Somani taught 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 Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park in 2008. Somani is expected to earn her MFA in Directing/Production from UCLA by Dec. of 2022.