Hindi Pakhwada was celebrated at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra from 14 – 28 September 2020 in online mode due to CoViD19 pandemic. Dr. Anil Tewari, Nodal Officer, Hindi Cell and Head, SoPC inaugurated the celebration on the occasion of Hindi Diwas on 14th Sept. 2020 via Google Meet platform. The inauguration also witnessed a kavi sammelan including Dr. Amitabh Dwivedi, Dr. Madhu Mangal Chaturvedi, Dr. Saurabh, Dr. Ajay Singh, Sh. Keval Ram Keval, and Sh. Vivek Kumar. From 15th -27th Sept., many events were organized in which around 150 students, faculty, staff and their kids participated virtually with great zeal and enthusiasm in the most awaited annual Hindi Festival. There were 8 competitive events organized during the fortnight: Drawing, poetry and essay composition, quiz, storytelling, story writing, précis and creative writing. These events were coordinated by a team of students of Hindi Cell led by a computer science and engineering student Mr. Shivam Kumar.
The theme of Hindi Pakhwada 2020 was ‘Constitution of India’ and ‘Mahatma Gandhi’. The valedictory ceremony was held on 28th Sept. in the benign presence of Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, SMVD University Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha (Padma Shri), who blessed the winners and participants and emphasized the importance of mother tongue. He also suggested to use Hindi in administration and office works. On this occasion, two issues of the Hindi magazine “Gyandhara”, a half yearly magazine of Hindi Cell, SMVDU, was also launched by Prof. Sinha. The Sharad Edition (winter 2019-20) was dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary while the Shishir (2020) edition was dedicated to Sardar Patel and National Integrity. The valedictory ceremony also witnessed a poetry recitation by an alum Sh. Vivek Kumar (B. Tech Electronics and Communication Engineering, 2018) which ended with a thanks note by Shivam Kumar, Student Secretary, Hindi Cell. The session was conducted by Dr. Anil Tewari who also congratulated the winners and participants and wished the wellness of students during the pandemic.