The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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10 NEW ZEALAND Friday, August 21, 2020 The Indian Weekender Shri Radha Krishna Mandir celebrated festival of Janmashtami in its full glory SUPPLIED CONTENT The catering team handed out This week we celebrated prasad to every devotee visiting the most awaited festival the temple on the day who couldn’t of the year, Shri Krishna stay till midnight. We thank each Janmashtami. It’s an auspicious and every devotee who came and occasion for all. who made various offerings at the Shri Krishna is the eighth avatar of temple. We are also grateful to all Lord Vishnu who was born on earth the committee members into to restore peace and dharma in the "Stay making this celebration a dwapar yug. home if grand one. Janmashtami is observed on the possible, maintain The day ended with eighth-day of ashtami of the Krishna social distancing, an announcement paksha in the month of Shravan. wear a mask, wash of lockdown level hands frequently. On Tuesday, August 11, we 3 from Wednesday Stay healthy and celebrated one of the world’s midday. safe." most widely observed spiritual “We urged everyone to festivals Shri Krishna Janmashtami strictly follow the guidelines also known as Gokul Ashtami. given by government officials Preparations were in full swing a regarding Covid19. Together we week before the celebration. Temple will win over Covid19. Stay home if was open all day. possible, maintain social distancing, People offered flowers, fruits wear a mask, wash hands frequently. and sweets and took blessings. Stay healthy and safe” Pandit Janmashtami, celebrations started Devrambhai said. The holy month of with bhajans from 7.30 pm conducted by Acharya Shri Dr seemed like we had Lord Krishna Krishna in the decorated cradle. Shravan ended on August 19. The temple will be closed until onwards by the Pushpanjali group Devrambhai Raval. The idol of Shri amongst us. The atmosphere was Devotees broke their fast by further notice. For updates, followed by RK Mandir group until Krishna was placed in a cradle after absolutely divine. traditional and favourite foods of please like the Radha Krishna after midnight. the pooja. Maha Aarti was performed after Lord Krishna: panjiri, makhan, Mandir Facebook page, or if you have any enquiries, you may Krishna’s ritualistic pooja At midnight we replicated midnight by hundreds of devotees malpua, kheer, moong curry kindly ring Acharya Shri Dr includes 16 steps which are part baby Krishna in a basket taken by present at the temple. Devotees etc. which was prepared by the Devrambhai Raval on 3794463. of the shodashopachara pooja was Vasudev from Mathura to Gokul. It lined up to have one glance of Lord catering team. INDIAN AUCKLAND MEETUP: A great way to meet new people and have fun SUPPLIED CONTENT On Sunday, August 9, Rachit Kushwaha and his team hosted 180 people from various cultures, backgrounds and experiences at their 8th Indian Auckland Meetup. With a photo booth, food, chocolate stall, performances, and engaging activities, people made some wonderful memories and friends to cherish a lifetime. “Sometimes all it takes is leaving the boxes we live in, day in, day out and meet people from different walks of life and learn to live out of the box. It’s a simple yet powerful idea of bringing all Indian living in Auckland (New Zealand) under one roof every month to engage with each other in a positive and supportive way,” organiser of the event Rachit Kushwaha said. Over the past eight events, the meetup had an amazing bunch of enthusiastic people willing to participate in activities. Through these meetups, many networks were built, received offers of opportunities, built long-lasting friendships; people met like-minded friends, found a new confidence, developing people’s skills and a lot more. In Indian Auckland Meetup’s Facebook group, one can easily see members post explaining how this meetup impacted them positively and how some came out of their shell rediscovered themselves. In conversation with The Indian Weekender, founder Rachit Kushwaha gives more insight about the group and the meetup, how it has become popular and their future plans. IWK: What is Indian Auckland Meetup and why one should join it? Rachit: A common platform to wake up the social butterfly inside you and meet a potential future best friend, your employer, perhaps a network that might bring a dream opportunity. Most importantly, our meetup aims to “get people off the internet” and make it a family event where we care, we nurture one another and celebrate who we are. IWK: How this meetup started? Rachit: It all started by the saying of 14 people “Khoob jamega rang jab mil baithenge kuch yaar, hongi kuch batien aur kuch mastie”. This basically means there will be colourful happenings and beginnings when those amazing friends will come together, talk about life and have some fun. These 14 people dreamed of this and converted the meetup into a 100 then to a 1000 and today we are 4000 altogether! How amazing is that? Ah! I know you want to join in! IWK: Why this meetup is different from others? Rachit: The uniqueness of this meetup is that we welcome people from various walks of life. Not only that, but the fun activities we organize also encourages everyone to interact with each other, and become more open-minded and accepting towards others. As we all know, moving to and settling in a new country can be hard. These meetups have been especially helpful for the new immigrants as it allowed them to open up about their experiences, which in turn has also helped others. IWK: What were the highlights of your recent meetup? Rachit: Our event was a 3-hour long event. We scheduled and designed everything carefully simply to wake up the social butterfly inside the attendees. Yes! It was a paid event ($10), but as per the reviews we received, people found it worthwhile. We did two ice-breaking activities, a free mingling session while our amazing DJ KAZ (Karan Bhatia), played his tunes in the background. A photo booth was also stationed to allow participants to capture selfies with new-found friends. There were also some fun group activities organized - a comedy standup (Gaurav Juneja), a singing performance (Ashish Ramakrishnan), a group dance performance (Aaja Nachle NZ) and a jam session to end the evening smoothly with. We were also accompanied by some well know personalities like Priyanca Radhakrishnan (MP, NZ Labour Party), Jeet Suchdev (Bhartiya Samaj Charitable. Trust), Mit Patel (Page 3), Jilesh Desai (Radio Tarana), FitNit (Fitness Influencer), Ashima Singh (Legal Associates Papatoetoe) and Giridharan Giri (Relianz Forex NZ). Last but not least, I was amazed to see the dedication and hard work that group moderators showed to make this meetup a successful one. A shoutout to Sabiha Patel, Kanika Rakheja, Yasmeen, Apoorva Ch, Sanjana Macwan, Mayuri Mahadik, Rohit Guglani, Palak Malhotra, Gaurav Juneja, Supreet Kaur and Sarableen Singh. IWK: What are your future plans with the meetup? Rachit: That’s a good question! "Given that we have had such a success with the meetups, I plan to organize nationwide meetups, that is, a separate meetup for each city. This means you don’t have to travel too far plus it will allow people to get to know each other from their own community/city so they can meet up with each other if they want to. "I am also thinking of a meetup app to make it easier for everyone to access the meetup information. We are on a lookout for people who can help us build this community app. "Furthermore, my objective is to promote unity and accepting diversity. This will set the right example for the young generation in NZ. There is a need for everyone to understand and learn that when we are united, we can achieve great things! If you have read this far, I am sure you are interested in joining us at our next Indian Auckland Meetup. Click the link below to join our Facebook group and keep an eye on our next meetup’s updates. Also, don’t forget to look at our albums from previous events to understand what to expect in our upcoming meetups! See you then! Indian Auckland Meetup Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/ groups/Indianaucklandmeetup/
The Indian Weekender Friday, August 21, 2020 NEW ZEALAND 11 Second wave of Covid-19 in NZ: Undeterred Jacinda Ardern holds nerve and continues with elimination strategy SANDEEP SINGH Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has held her nerves and opted to continue with the government’s elimination strategy by keeping Auckland’s current lockdown and rest of New Zealand’s Alert level 2 status for 12 more days. There were concerns in some quarters that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be under pressure especially after the astounding attack by the opposition leader and her deputy last week and compounded by some aggressive probing in the mainstream media around alleged ineptitude in border management, and eventually blink from her focus of eliminating the Covid-19 virus from the country. To be fair to the government and her caucus colleagues, including the coalition partners who are collectively behind the decisions of continuing with the elimination strategy. However, in the end, it is left for Prime Minister Ardern - their ultimate sales-person – to sell those seemingly hard decisions that can cause much inconvenience, distress and weariness among a section of the public – a task that she has repeatedly accomplished with aplomb. Her detractors, including the leader of the Opposition Judith Collins and National Party’s deputy leader Gerry Brownlee, have so far not succeeded in making a successful hit on her political persona, despite many repeated attempts. The suggestions coming from Gery Brownlee about the government’s lack of sharing of accurate information about the second wave of Covid-19, which dangerously bordered closed to conspiracy-theories going around that are already weakening our collective human response to a virus that is far from being tamed MontayKart: Revolutionising the way we buy groceries SUPPLIED CONTENT Last decade has seen steady and continuous growth in the e-commerce business as people are getting used to buying things online rather than going to the stores. Every range of products is available online; however, buying groceries online remains a challenge for many. It is not due to the demand; it is because not many groceries businesses have gone online as there are many challenges like logistics, marketing, request, etc. Covid-19 made things challenging for all of us. Everything was being purchased online by the majority; however, the options for groceries was minimal, especially ethnic Indian groceries. For many, this was a challenge, but for Sameer and Jasmit, it was an opportunity as collectively they build MontayKart which offered a solution to this problem. MontayKart launched its website with a limited range of products like many startups do; however, soon, it became the first choice of many, and people started suggesting and demanding more products. Looking at the demand, both worked their way out and increased the inventory five times within two months and met the requirements of the majority. They still feel that they need to grow even more prominent so that MontayKart can keep or managed, has not gone down well with experts and the public. The members of the public despite having all valid interest in continuous probing of the government, in pursuit of excellence and consistent improvement in our public health response, does not favour a line of attack that ultimately undermines the credibility of the public health system. Our public health system, along with the scientific community who have been providing the cutting edge research and advice to the system, who eventually are preparing official advice to the Minister of Health and eventually to the cabinet and the Prime Minister are the core basis of New Zealand’s successful response to the Covid-19 virus so far. The success that our system had so far achieved in being ahead of the curve in managing the virus or pacing up quickly where the virus had been smart enough to deceive us is also a matter of appreciation and attention. The repeated attempts of castigating the same public health system that has so far not let us down, appears politically motivated, and not hidden from the anxious eyes of the New Zealanders. National has to be mindful, and so should be the section of media that is relishing the opportunity of casting aspersions on a public health system that is consistently rising to the occasion every time the virus has raised its ugly head in the community. The testing capacity was ramped up significantly in Auckland region ever since the decision of moving the supercity to Alert Level 3 was taken on Tuesday, August 11 with a number of pop-up test centres being made available for mass-testing, while several mobile test centres chasing the close and casual up with the demands they are getting. Startups are nothing but a sack full of challenges, and this team has so far overcome all the hurdles they have faced and are dedicated to face anything that comes their way. Currently, Montaykart is offering the majority of the Indian grocery items, including dairy and frozen products. It is a feat in itself as only big players have been able to do that so far. MontayKart offers delivery options all across Auckland, where you can get your groceries delivered at your door within 24 hours and all that with the comfort of ordering while sitting on the cosy couch of your living room. contacts of the family of South Auckland region who are yet believed to be the first case of the second wave of Covid-19. The performance is indeed immaculate and deserves the backing of the nation, and any probing and scrutiny though desirable, should not be seen as politically motivated. So is the performance of Prime Minister Ardern, which is standing out even further, because of clear shortcomings of her main political adversaries. The seeming political immaturity of her opponents is giving her ample political space to successfully manoeuvre through any period of inconvenience within the nation’s politics. The second wave of Covid-19 in the country was never meant to be politically comfortable for Jacinda Ardern and was the opportunity that many political pundits had ascribed to the opposition National party as their opportunity to win back the voters confidence. However, it seems Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been able to deal with the crisis so far, like a walk in the park - at least for now - while the National Party remains as clueless as it was a few months ago when the country had entered into complete lockdown. Covid-19 in New Zealand, Round 2 also goes to Prime Minister Ardern. Visit www.montaykart.co.nz and be the next to try its exceptional service. Why Online grocery shopping is a need of the hour Buying your groceries online is the New Normal. There are many benefits of buying groceries online. Firstly it saves you a lot of time. On average, every week for a household, it takes from 2 to 3 hours for buying groceries and travel. Just imagine if you spend that time with your family or doing something more productive. Secondly, Not just time it saves you the transportation cost or petrol for your car. Sometimes you need the particular grocery item which is not available in the nearest grocery store and for that, you’ll have to travel some distance Buying groceries at Montaykart will save you that hassle and save you some money. Thirdly, Many times when you are in the grocery store, you buy things that you don’t need and regret later on why you wasted money on that product. Buying your groceries online saves you from that hassle as you do not get carried away by seeing a product physically. It is another way of saving money and another benefit of buying groceries online at www.montaykart.co.nz. Fourthly, At www.montaykart.co.nz you can create your account which you can personalise. Once you buy the products from Montaykart, you can save your favourite products for future purchases. It saves you more time when you purchase the next time because you have already saved your favourite products which you buy regularly. You can select those products by default and then add on the extras that you want to buy that time. Again, it saves a lot of time and a lot of effort in travelling, looking for a product and making a list every week. Lastly, we guarantee you the satisfaction of quality and service when you purchase groceries from www.montaykart.co.nz.
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The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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