Online puja for families in Birmingham

Birmingham and the wider West Midlands are home to large Punjabi and Gujarati communities, with Hindu families in Handsworth, Smethwick, Hall Green, Erdington, Sutton Coldfield and Solihull, and across the Black Country in Wolverhampton and West Bromwich. Many families have lived here for three or four generations and keep strong ties with relatives in Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. As children move to university or work in other cities, getting everyone into one room for a puja is not always possible. Our pandits are based in India and conduct pujas live over Zoom, Google Meet or WhatsApp video, so a family spread between Birmingham, London and India can join the same sankalp on one link. The pandit explains each step in Hindi or English as you prefer. Rituals traditionally done at a tirth, such as pind daan and asthi visarjan, are performed on your family's behalf at Prayagraj, Kashi, Ayodhya or Mathura-Vrindavan and shown to you live. For homes and flats with mains smoke alarms we offer a smoke-free havan: the pandit performs the fire havan live at a tirth in India while your family offers ahutis at home with no flame or smoke, or with only a ghee lamp. We have no office in Birmingham and do not make home visits; every puja is online or at a tirth in India.

Practical notes for Birmingham

• Soho Road in Handsworth and Stratford Road in Sparkhill have Indian grocers for samagri; we send a checklist in advance.
• Birmingham is 5h30m behind IST in winter and 4h30m behind in summer; Saturday and Sunday mornings are the most requested slots.
• Families split between cities can share one link, so students away at university can join the sankalp.
• Choose the smoke-free havan in homes with interlinked alarms; never cover or disable an alarm.
• Please keep offerings and ashes out of local canals and rivers; we arrange visarjan at a tirth in India.
• For Griha Pravesh in a new-build home, the pandit can guide a room-by-room puja as you carry the phone through the house.

Online via Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp video. Online pujas from $51 — see pricing.