Festival a colourful celebration

WELCOME: Kanu Jasmat and Zia welcomes Mayor Lyn Patterson to the Navratra Festival. PHOTOS/SUPPLIED

From staircases to ticket boxes, toy aeroplanes or pistol holsters, Christmas trees and model boats .. you never know what you're going to discover during a visit to the Henley Men's Shed in Masterton.

But one of the more unusual projects spotted last week was musical instruments for a major Hindu festival.

The work of shed member and semi-retired Masterton businessman Kanu Jasmat, 62, the sticks and rattles (reminiscent of Maori stick games and Salvation Army castanets) were for Navratri, a nine nights and 10 days festival dedicated to the worship of the Hindu deity Durga. (In Gujarit state the deity is called Amba, the power from Lord Shiva, and devotees believe this power protects them from the Devil.)

During Navratri women don colourful dresses and saris and celebrate with Dandia Ras (dancing) and music. At the Masterton function at Solway Primary School, a temple for the day, Mayor Lyn Patterson joined in the festivities.

Kanu Jasmat was born in India and came to New Zealand in 1983. He spent 10 years at the Gujrati Language establishment at Mahatma Ghandi School in Auckland before coming to Masterton in 1993 and established the East Side Super Store, now run by his son-in-law. There are now 24 families (110 people) in Masterton with links back to India, plus Indians from other countries .

Today Kanu is very much a Kiwi bloke. He enjoys a beer and barbecue after a day's cricket with the Lansdowne thirds. (He's a spin bowler, of course). He's also into cycling, golf and gardening, growing all his own vegetables as well as the flowers used in Hindu festivals. He's a world traveller, but returning to New Zealand is always "coming home".

"New Zealand is the best country on this planet. We live in heaven, but many Kiwis don't realise it," he says.