Celebrate Diwali with Ara Library!

By Kumar Chidambaranathan

Diwali, or Deepavali, is India’s biggest and most important festival celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and a section of Buddhists. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light inside and outside their homes to symbolise the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness; in other words symbolises the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.

The exact dates of Diwali change each year and are determined by the moon’s position – usually on or before the new moon in the Hindu month of Karthika, which falls between October and November. In the northern parts of India, Diwali is a five-day-long festival that culminates on the day of Diwali to celebrate the return of Lord Rama to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon King Ravana in Lanka and serving 14 years in exile. In southern India, the festival is usually a one-day celebration called Deepavali to commemorate Lord Krishna’s victory over the demon king Narakaasura.

The business community considers it an auspicious time to start new ventures and marks the closing of accounts for agricultural businesses. This year it falls on Monday, the 24^th of October.

Diwali is celebrated in many countries around the world, and the main day of the festival is an official holiday in Fiji, Guyana, India, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA.

Diwali is not just about lights and legends – Diwali is a time to clean, decorate homes with kolam or rangoli (colourful designs), and have fun with friends and family! It is a time for family gatherings and celebrations. People exchange gifts and sweets, enjoy delicious feasts, watch fireworks, and wear new clothes.

Various Indian Organisations celebrate Diwali in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In Otautahi, Christchurch, the Indian Social and Cultural Club (ISCC) is organising this year’s Diwali festival celebrations on the 22^nd of October at Hagley Park (North). It is a free event, and register here if you are interested: https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/iscc-diwali-2022-tickets-416456010137

Join us in making paper lanterns on 26th of October at 12.00pm at the Madras Street library campus and our Timaru library campus.

Why not try having a go at making nan khatai (traditional cardamom biscuits)!

Cardamom biscuits (nan khatai)

By Roopa Gulati

Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:25 mins
- Cook:20 mins
- plus chilling
Easy
Makes 24 biscuits

Enjoy these traditional Indian cardamom biscuits with a mug of steamy masala chai. Nan khatai are notable for their crumbly texture and butter-rich flavour.

Ingredients

3 green cardamom pods
40g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
70g self-raising white flour
25g gram flour
25g semolina
24 skin-on almonds or chopped pistachios

Method

STEP 1Split the cardamom pods and remove the seeds. Pound the seeds to a powder in a pestle and mortar with 1 tsp of the sugar.
STEP 2Beat the butter until soft, then gradually add the remaining icing sugar and the ground cardamom. Continue beating until light and creamy, about 10 mins.
STEP 3Sieve the flour and gram flour into a bowl and whisk in the semolina and a pinch of salt. Stir into the butter and sugar in two increments. Gently bring everything together into a soft dough.
STEP 4Roll the dough into small, marble-sized balls with your hands and arrange, spaced out, on baking trays lined with baking parchment.
STEP 5Slightly flatten the top of each ball and press a whole almond or some chopped pistachios in the middle of each one. Chill for 20 mins.
STEP 6Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Bake the biscuits for about 20 mins or until golden. Leave to cool before storing in an airtight tin.

Recap on: World Statistics Day

By Shane Dye, Kaitoko Ako | Learning Advisor Maths

World Statistics Day has been and gone on October 20, 2022, so what was it all about?

Connecting the World with Data we can Trust

October 20 is World Statistics Day. This happens every five years and this year’s theme is Connecting the World with Data we can Trust.

Statistics is the art and science of finding meaning within data. Statistics allows us to discover and share the story behind the information. It helps to grow understanding. Statistics can support good decision-making, like which medicines are most effective, which engine modifications best improve performance, how cooking time affects the nutritional value of a food.

Statistical analysis can be exciting – like a detective movie. You start with an interest or question. You collect or find relevant data, and delve into it seeking clues, exploring for its secrets. Possible relationships and effects are uncovered. Statistics helps to distinguish between the real relationships and the red herrings – illusions of the data that disappear under scrutiny.

In this way, statistics can uncover poor understanding, misinformation and lies. Opinions are useful hypotheses – guiding what to examine, the questions to ask. But it is often statistics that helps to see which opinions lead to the best outcomes.

This makes understanding statistics an important skill for everyone to learn.

Opening hours over Labour Weekend

The Library will be closed on Monday 24th October for the Labour Day Holiday.

Labour Day commemorates the eight-hour working day initiated by the labour union movement over a century ago. It is celebrated on the fourth Monday in October.

The ‘eight-hour day’ recognises that each day has eight hours for work, eight for rest and eight for recreation. The origin of New Zealand’s labour movement goes back to 1840.

We will reopen on Tuesday 25th October at 8 am.

From all of us here at the Library we hope you have a restful day.

World Standards Day

Many of you will be familiar with Standards: one of our most popular downloads in the library is NZS3604 Timber Framed Buildings (all 440 pages of it…). Standards are used in many industries, to make sure our houses stay up and keep the weather out, to make sure our electrical sockets don’t kill us, to make sure our cookware and food don’t poison us, to make sure the medical tests we have are reliable.

The world’s three main Standards organizations (International Electrotechnical Commission, International Organization for Standardization, and International Telecommunication Union) get together every year to promote World Standards day on October 14th. There three groups have produced thousands of Standards, which can then be reproduced and adapted by local Standards organisations, such as Standards New Zealand.

Increasingly, though, Standards are being produced to make the word more sustainable, not just to stop it falling apart. The theme for this year’s World Standards day is “Shared vision for a better world”. Their aim is to use International Standards to help countries, industries, and corporations to develop and reach their sustainability goals, guided by the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Ara staff and students have access to Standards New Zealand, and you can find out more about some of their sustainability-focused initiatives here, here, and here. And also here.

So no matter what industry you’re in, Standards can work to make your work safer and more sustainable.

Baby Loss Awareness Week 2022

Baby loss awareness week 2022 9^th October – 15^th October.

Sands NZ: Baby Loss Awareness Week takes place from 9th to 15th October every year, ending with International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day on October 15th.

It provides an opportunity for parents, families and whānau around New Zealand to come together and remember the lives of their babies who have passed. We acknowledge the lives and deaths of all babies, no matter what their gestation, length of life or how they died. It is also a chance to highlight the work done by Sands around the country.

Sands New Zealand – Pregnancy, Baby and Infant Loss Support, New Zealand

A Mother’s Love

I didn’t have to look into your eyes
To fall in love with you.
I didn’t have to hear you cry
To know you loved me too.
I didn’t need to hold your hand
To cherish you always.
Within my womb we shared our hearts
You touched my soul
You sweetened my spirit
You gave me memories I’ll always
Hold very dear
Yes, my heart aches since
You departed so soon
But a mothers love does not
End with death
For you are my child

My Love is Forever Yours. Anon. (1999, March). A Mother’s Love. S.A.N.D.S Newsletter.

Losing a child is with you every day. For me, 20 years on and I remember it like it was yesterday. The heartache, the grief, the loss. You think of what could have been, what your child could be doing now, and you miss them deeply.

It can be hard for others to know what to say and so often they don’t say anything at all, or don’t acknowledge them. I speak of my daughter often to others. For me, by talking about her or bringing her up just in conversation, it helps them to know it is okay. I want them to feel comfortable to say her name or ask me about her – then I also get to talk about her. Even when people ask me how many children I have, I will usually answer 3, and say Nalani was stillborn, and then tell them of my other 2 children, names and ages. I was amazed at how common it is and how many people I already knew who had also lost a baby or a sibling.

I do a special remembrance every year and I keep photos displayed. My other ‘younger’ children also do something special on her anniversary every year, even though she was older and so they never met her or saw her.

Nalani has always been a part of their lives, as their sister. We have matching tattoo’s now, symbolising each of them as butterflies and Nalani’s butterfly has a halo. The heartbreak is still very real, you just develop strategies to hold it together and let it out when you can freely cry if needed.