Variety of jaggery on display at a stall in the expo, organised as part of Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana, in Mandya.
Credit: DH Photo
Mandya: All roads led to 87th Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Mandya which was plunged in festive fervor, all decked up in yellow and red decorative clothes.
Donning yellow and red shawls or hats or dressed up with attire of these colours a sea of over one lakh people mainly students, women from self-help groups besides 6000 registered participants flew to celebrate Kannada literary fair.
Besides 31 sessions including four Kavighoshtis at 87th Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahithya Sammelana, people enjoyed food, shopping and music too.
Expo
Large number of people including Sangeetha from Belakwadi among others thronged 350 commercial stalls in Expo at Sammelana and bagged organic jaggery in varieties of shapes, millets, Khadi kurtas, traditional handloom cotton sarees including Ilkal sarees by weavers of Bhagyanagar from Koppal, Hattharagi from Belagavi among others.
They even enjoyed sugarcane juice, mirchi bajji and even shopped eatables like Chakkuli, Karji kayi.
Besides huge sale of yellow and red shawls, Roshan and team from Mangaluru painted yellow and red flags on the hands and faces of people.
Government portrayed their various programmes including guarantee schemes in 55 stalls by various departments, boards, commissions and corporations.
The Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary sciences displayed varieties of breeds like Giriraja Koli, Naati Koli, Beetle breed Sheep among others.
Food
The fest had a huge variety of cuisines prepared by 350 cooks and served by 900 people in 300 counters in six different places. People enjoyed thatte idli, vade with chutney and sambar, upittu, Mysuru pak for breakfast.
The fest had lunch with a spread of Kayi holige with ghee, jolada rotti with badanekayi ennegayi and chutney pudi, veg cutlet, pasta salad, Avarekalu (hyacinth bean) pulav with raitha, rice with Hurali kattu sambar (horsegram sprouts sambar), rasam, curd, along with kosambari, palya pickle, papad and fruit.
People also enjoyed dinner with a spread of Mysuru pak, poori-saagu, avarekalu pulav with raitha and curd along with kosambari, palya, papad, pickle and fruit salad.
Literary lovers enjoyed over 200 cultural programmes by artists from different parts of the state and teams from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha at five venues.
Since Mandya is a land of agriculture, in order to encourage farming community cucoon garlands were presented to guests at inaugural event.
Since Mandya is in Cauvery basin, statues of Cauvery Matha were presented to them. A man held a placard urging for implementation of Mekedatu project at the downstream of Cauvery basin.
Navya a student from Mallankuppe Government school of Maddur taluk, expressed her excitement to attend such a huge Sammelana and learn about so many literary figures who hailed from Mandya.
Chaos
Even as the entire Sammela has been organised in a 70-acre land, with a six-acre main stage, three acre 'Samaananthara' stages, food counters were arranged in a 12-acre land, expos in four-acre land. Parking has been arranged in 33 acres.
Despite elaborate arrangements, chaos prevailed due to huge crowd which flew for Sammelana in open field amid high temperature due to Sun, despite enough shelter being arranged.
With road diversions and restrictions, people struggled hard to reach the Sammelana venue. Many people struggled to reach their work places and colleges in Mandya.