Bhubaneswar: Odia expats living across Saudi Arabia celebrated Utkala Divas with various cultural programmes at Dammam on Friday.
More than 150 families from Odisha attended the function organised by Kalingan-Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), an association of Odias. The event started with rendering the iconic Odia song ‘Bande Utkala Janani’. It was followed by Mangalacharana performed by Anjana Tripathy and other programmes including folk dances and songs of Odisha.
Women and children participated in the programmes with enthusiasm. Traditional Odia delicacies including Chhenapoda, Rasagola, Podapitha, Mandapitha, Kakera, Dahibara-Aludam were also served to the invitees.
The coordinators of the programme, Santosh Das, Jyotirmoy Dash, Ranjan Rath and Shaikh Sarafat, in a release, said their objective is to spread Odia culture on foreign soil so that people of those countries would contribute towards development of Odisha.
