Online puja for families in London

London's Hindu families are spread across the capital, from Southall and Hounslow in the west to Wembley, Harrow and Edgware in the north-west, Ilford and East Ham in the east, and Tooting and Croydon in the south. Many households are multi-generational, with grandparents who grew up with family pandits in Gujarat, Punjab or East Africa and grandchildren who are learning the rituals for the first time. At the same time, flats, long Tube commutes and weekends filled with children's activities make it hard to fit a traditional home puja around a pandit's diary. Our pandits are in India and conduct every puja live over Zoom, Google Meet or WhatsApp video. They lead the sankalp and mantras in Sanskrit and explain each step in Hindi or English, so younger family members can follow along. Rituals that belong at a tirth, such as pind daan and asthi visarjan, are performed on your behalf at Prayagraj, Kashi, Ayodhya or Mathura-Vrindavan and shown to you live. For London flats with sensitive or interlinked 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 London office and do not make home visits; everything happens online or at a tirth.

Practical notes for London

• Southall Broadway, Ealing Road in Wembley, Station Road in Harrow and Green Street in East Ham all stock samagri; we send a checklist so you can shop in one trip.
• London is 5h30m behind IST in winter and 4h30m behind during British Summer Time; morning and early-afternoon pujas fall in the Indian afternoon and evening.
• In rented flats and new-build blocks with interlinked smoke alarms, choose the smoke-free havan. Please never cover or disable an alarm.
• Do not place flowers, ashes or murtis in the Thames or other waterways; we arrange visarjan and asthi visarjan at a tirth in India.
• Half-term and Christmas holiday weekends are popular for Griha Pravesh and Mundan; book two to three weeks ahead.
• Muhurats are calculated for London sunrise, so festival dates may differ by a day from Indian calendars.

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