The festival is something every Indian looks forward to – for its delicious sweets, colourful rangolis and the excited joyfulness that surrounds the festival altogether.

Rangoli is an art form in which patterns are created on the floor using materials such as powdered lime stone, dry rice flour among others.

Vaishali Prashant Bafna, a Guinness World Record holder for crochet, and someone with a huge passion for creating extravagant rangolis, has been excitedly gearing up for this year’s Diwali, as most of her friends and family have been vaccinated.

When asked about what Diwali means to her, she says that Diwali is not what it used to be. “Earlier, it used to be less about the decorations and more about the actual celebration. Now, it has become more of a commercial event.”

Talking about her passion rangoli, she said that the original, and most traditional way to make rangoli is to use dry rice flour, but now out of convenience, people get ready-made Rangoli powder from Indian stores.

Vaishali usually makes a huge one in her building’s corridor either the day before Diwali, or on the day itself, and it usually takes her about 2-3 hours to complete. Sometimes, she uses a stencil to map out the design, and for even more precision, she uses a Rangoli pen.

“While making smaller ones, I usually map it out by hand and it takes less than an hour. Things have become much easier now compared to when I was younger.”

Vaishali also makes flower rangolis, which take quite a long time to complete as she has to keep in mind the colour and shape of the flower while designing the rangoli. “If someone wants to make the process easier, they could buy acrylic or ply rangolis, as those are pre-made designs, and can just be placed on the floor.”

When asked about Diwali in 2020 and now, she said that the main difference is the people. “The way Diwali is celebrated is by handing out sweets and snacks to neighbours, families and friends – the joy of celebrating Diwali is spread around as much as possible. In 2020, people celebrating Diwali all sat at home with their hands clasped, with no real celebrations outside of the main puja (prayer). Usually, wings of the Indian Social Club, like the Gujarati wing, the Karnataka wing – also hold Diwali celebrations. That could not take place last year.”

This year, with most of her family and friends getting vaccinated, she hopes to at least hold small-scale celebrations and distribute sweets among neighbours.

To celebrate Diwali this year, Vaishali says her family and friends are planning a small party, maybe with a few games and stories told around the table, but nothing too large-scale. “The pandemic is still ongoing. We want to stay as cautious as we can.”

(Contributed by Rianna Lobo)

Ambassador Hunaina is an economist with an extensive business background. Since taking charge of her diplomatic position, she has been a strong advocate for the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement and has focused much of her energy on improving relations between the US and Oman. She is also the Chair at the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in Washington which focuses on promoting knowledge and awareness of both, the US and Oman’s shared history and civilisation as well as building bridges between the two nations.

From 1999 to 2005, Ambassador Hunaina served as representative of the Omani Center for Investment Promotion & Export Development in New York, from 1996 to 1998 as director general for Investment Promotion at the Omani Center for Investment Promotion & Export Development, and from 1991 to 1996 as advisor to the Undersecretary for Industry at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

She was also director of Industrial Planning and Research at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (1985-1991), and worked in the Permanent Mission of Oman to the United Nations in Geneva (1984-85).

Sara al Maskary, who started out in 2010 as a bright bowling prospect at the age of 13, was the youngest member in Oman’s national team. Her sister was also in the Oman national team when they were on the lookout for young girls to join the team.

“In the beginning I wasn’t interested because I rarely play bowling,” says Sara who was coerced by her sister who was a constant source of encouragement. Sara took up practice in all earnestness and soon found herself growing fond of bowling as she was able to improve her performance steadily. She had never imagined that she would someday be part of the national bowling team.

In 2011, Sara participated in the GCC tournament, which helped her gain good experience playing alongside other teams and get used to the atmosphere of a bowling tournament. In 2014, she participated in the women’s tournament in Oman and won medals in the singles and doubles events.

After a break of two years, Sara came back to the fray in 2017 for the women’s tournament in Oman and won medals in the singles, doubles and team events. In 2018, she participated in the Arab Tournament in Oman and won medals in the double and team events. In 2019, she again participated in the Arab Tournament in Egypt and won in the team and masters events. Her last appearance was in the GCC women’s tournament in Kuwait where she won medals in the doubles and team events.

Sara attributes her success to the strong encouragement and support she gets from her family, friends and people in Oman who want to see her moving from strength to strength.

Laila al Hadhrami, senior executive-Digital Transformation in the eTransformation team in Ministry of Transport, communications and IT, is also the director of Building Capacity and Awareness in Smart City Platform. She has experience as well as credentials in different relevant fields including Government Innovation, Change Management – UX, Re-process engineering, Business Analysis, Project Management, and Knowledge Management.

Laila has also participated as a speaker in many conferences and seminars in Oman and overseas. Currently, she is leading national projects in Oman, like Government Innovation in emerging technologies in Oman, and other projects related to digital transformation. She is also founder of the Smart City Ambassadors initiative that has been awarded by ITU Innovation Challenges Winning ideas from the Ecosystem best practice challenge category 2020.

Laila is a member in different committees in Oman and overseas as well as in the UN standards evaluation internal committee and the UNESCO ICT Programme in Beirut. She also has a current collaboration with international organisations like ITU and UNI-EGOV to document Oman’s experience in Smart City Ambassadors as a Global Best Practice.

Founder of @oman_traveler, Laila has published two translated books, some short stories, and is currently working on two new books about her experience in travel which is one of her hobbies as she visited more than 50 countries.

Nadhira al Harthy, an ambitious youth with an overwhelming adventurous spirit, is the first Omani woman to scale Mt Everest, the tallest peak in the world in the Himalayas, on May 23, 2019. The day became a red letter day in the history of Oman wherein women achievements reached an outstanding zenith, thanks to her determination and drive.

Nadhira had started out in early April 2019, along with three other Arab women, and their entire journey was filmed and documented by Canadian adventurer and filmmaker Elia Saikaly who had scaled Everest in the recent past. She was inspired to take up this challenge by Late Khalid al Siyabi, the first Omani to climb Mount Everest in 2010, and underwent rigorous training for over two years before venturing out for her mission.

Being an ultra athlete herself, who has undertaken the 42km Muscat Marathon twice, as well as then 90km Oman UTMB race, she was equipped with what it takes for a challenging expedition to Mt Everest. When she had set out to climb Mt Everest, being the first or second woman from Oman to do so did not matter at all to her. What mattered was accomplishing the task at hand against all odds.

“It’s good to have a dream and set a difficult goal before oneself. One needs to build up strength and passion to take on challenges and be successful. It helps in adding some adventure to one’s routine lifestyle, besides improving one’s personality and moving onto another level in life,” Nadhira asserts.

K P Shobha, group general manager of Apollo Hospital Muscat, is a seasoned administrative professional associated with Apollo Group of Hospitals for more than 27 years. In her role as the group general manager, she has been responsible for the overall management of Apollo Hospital Muscat.

Over the past few decades, her vast experience has enabled her to be an integral force to reckon within the Healthcare sector.

Her core areas have been operational excellence, enhanced customer satisfaction, strategic leadership and planning, business expansion, and service improvement wherein she has demonstrated clear strategic vision and sound operational discipline.

She has not only been instrumental in developing and expanding the Apollo hospital brand across Oman but her passion for excellence and dedication towards the patients has also been exceptional. This has led the Brand Apollo to be one of the most sought after healthcare services providers within the Sultanate of Oman.

Apart from successfully heading operations of Apollo Hospital Muscat, she has been profoundly involved with the Management of IMC Sugar Clinic and the newly opened Apollo Healthcare Center at Ghala which has been successfully catering to citizens from all walks of life in Oman.

Shobha’s mantra has always been ‘Customer is King’ and she dedicates all her efforts towards maintaining a social responsibility in society in a bid to provide a healthy future for people in Oman.
 

Sayyida Tania al Said has been a champion for environmental causes since a very young age. She grew up in a household that was committed to the environment as her father served as the Minister of environment from 1984-94. She is today an integral part of the Environment society of Oman as a member of the board – a role she has served since its inception.

She recalls that one of the defining moments of her life as an environmentalist was shaped when she learnt to dive in Oman.

“I was exposed to an entire new environment under the sea, that seemed to have been untouched by humans, and when I did come across litter or entanglements it was so rare that it stood out drastically.” This prompted her study Marine and fresh water biology at the University of London, Queen Mary’s and Westfield College.

In 2009 she was awarded the GCC Environment personality of the year.

Since then she has been active in fundraising for ESO and organising campaigns to promote non-polluting modes of transports in Oman and reducing use of plastic bags with awareness programmes run across schools and retail outlets.

Even at home, she refers to incorporate green living ethics and believes that environmental conservation begins at an individual level. “If we all took responsibility to make changes in our everyday lives, much would change,” she says.

Samiya Said Saif al Jabri is the first sergeant in the Royal Oman Police (ROP) who has been working with the ROP for sixteen years. Samiya has worked in all areas related to public security, civil status, investigating female issues, guarding, and is currently employed in the accidents division.

Samiya’s journey started as a policewoman. Climbing the ladder steadily, she soon graduated to become a Corporal and her sheer dedication later saw her being promoted to the rank of a Sergeant. Today, she proudly possesses a badge as First Sergeant.

Beginning her training in March 2002 at the Sultan Qaboos Academy in Nizwa, after graduation, she began her career in Dhofar where she worked in Police Operations for 4 years. She then was posted in Sohar ROP where she handled varied tasks in Civil Affairs for 2 years before joining the Traffic Department for a year. She then worked in the Accidents Section in Ruwi Police Station for 13 years.

Now posted in Muscat Police Station, Samiya admits that, looking back, she has realised how important the work in the police force is where one needs immense patience and dedication. “A policeman/policewoman should always know how to protect the privacy of people while discharging his/her duties. The job calls for great integrity,” she observes. 

Krupa Khimji , who set up Mosaic Events Oman in December 2011 based on pure passion and without seed capital, transformed the organization into pioneers in conceptualising, creating and executing destination weddings in Oman, an industry that didn’t exist in Oman when she started out.

Over nine years of operations, the company now represents Oman on various international forums for destination weddings and events to bring in more business into the country.

Krupa has also been invited to speak on destination weddings in Oman in India and Dubai.

Some of the prestigious events she has handled so far include the EY Global Conference at Al Bustan Palace Hotel in September 2019 and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Oman in February 2018.

She now considers her company as a Destination Event Management Company not limited to weddings though her company has received awards and recognitions for promoting Oman as a wedding and tourism destination.

Clodagh Cahill, who arrived in Oman 19 years ago on an HR contract at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel, subsequently made Oman her home. With a deep sense of giving back to the community by organising charitable initiatives, Clodagh, who prefers to call herself ‘a conductor of sorts’, has a team of volunteers from all walks of life, nationalities, and ages who readily come together for various projects. She is also in the process of making a set of ‘How to…’ videos to rope in scores of people who wish to join in charitable ventures but do not know whom to approach.

Some of Clodagh’s successful projects include the ‘Bubbas and Mummas’ resuable nappies initiative in 2004, ‘Days of Girls Muscat’ project to distribute sanitary kits to needy females in Oman, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Tanzania, India, and Uganda, the resusable shopping bags project in 2018, and the ‘Yarn Knot Alone Muscat’ project to donate handmade blankets to needy people in hospitals, which also aimed at offering crocheted blankets and booties for infants in NICUs in various hospitals in Oman, in 2019.

Though at the helm of each initiatve, Clodagh prefers to pass on all the credit to her team of volunteers who, she says, are the real heroes of all her charitable ventures.