Ashish Lohorung Rai

Just today Serena Williams of United States beat Justine Henin of Belgium with set point 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the finals of Australian Open 2010 Women’s singles held in Melbourne, Australia. After winning this title she became the first person to win five Australian Open title within men and women.

Justine Henin made a good comeback after 16 months of retirement but Serena Williams was better in finals. With this title Serena Williams earned the total of $30 m USD as the prize money.  Serena Williams has won altogether 12 grand slams whereas Justine Henin has won 9 grand slams.

Day before yesterday, we Kirat(Rai and Limbu) celebrated the main festival Ubhauli here at Steel Park Sydney. This Udhauli festival is called from different names from different groups. Such as Rai call it Sakela, Limbu call it Chasok Tangnam, and other might call it Bhume, Folsyandar etc.

This is celebrated two time in one year. Ubhauli is celebrated during the full moon of April/May to denote the commence of cultivation and farming where as Udhauli festival is celebrated during the full moon of November/December thanking gods for giving nice crops and harvesting. The program was organized by Kirat Ykthung Chumlung and Kirat Rai Yayokkha. It has been organizing the program every twice in a year. Chitra Tumbahangphe became the Silimangpa of Limbu. Chyabrung dance was also performed in the event. Dhol and Jhyamta were also used during dancing. The style of dance movement called sili were different for different ethnicity. Many kind of sili were performed including Chamling, Bantawa, Bahing, Limbu and Lohorung. Many attendees were dressed in cultural style. The women wore Chawbandi cholo and Guneu with patuka. The men wore Dhaka topi and daura suruwal.

The event went quite well except some misunderstandings with fooding of typical food like pork meat, beaten rice with Jhand (special kind of liquor of Kiratis). It was a great fun to be the part of the event.

सोई सोई ला हो हुर्रा हा हा …………….. !