Spotlight on rural culture

There was a little village put up at the college premises as a part of the Jaanapada Mela to get the feel of rural life.  The whole campus was decorated with coconut leaves, pots, streamers and other decorative materials.

Moreover, all girls were seen in their traditional attire. The two-day fair was inaugurated by Appagere Thimmaraju, a folklore artiste.

He appreciated the efforts of the students and said that such fests emphasising rural culture should happen in all the colleges.  He entertained the gathering with Kolike Ranga... and many other folk songs. A team of visually disabled students performed many popular numbers, adding to the festive mood.

Anuradha, the Principal of PU College, informed that this is for the third successive year that the college has been conducting this fair.

“Most of our students are not aware of the rural life in depth. In order to revive the folklore culture, we came out with this idea. Each one took an active part in this cost-effective fair,” she informed.

Many competitions like folk dancing, folk singing, traditional cooking, hair-braiding, mehendi, rangoli were held in which students took an active part. Traditional games such as kuntebille, lagori, gaajina bale aata, chowkabara and hagga jaggaata turned out to be entertaining.

Janapada Rani (Folklore Queen) competition was a big hit among the girls.  There were nearly 40 contestants who showed their talent in various fields. Based on their knowledge about rural life, six contestants were selected for the final round.

The main attraction was Sankranthi Santhe in which students put on sale the traditional dishes prepared at home.  There were also big heaps of groundnuts, sugarcane, coconuts, sweet potato, banana leaves, flowers, sesame, sugar moulds and other things on sale which were meant for the festival.

An exhibition under the title Hallimane had also been organised along with a traditional puja set-up, conceptualised by a group of faculty members. Traditional vessels and utensils were also on display which was greatly appreciated by onlookers.

Manjunath C, Head of Kannada Department, said that Jaanapada Mela aimed at inculcating awareness about rural cultures from all over the country. Anusha Desai, a B Com student, felt that it was fun as well as educative too.

“We enjoyed the company of friends, teachers and family members.

The stalls, which we had put here, helped us to gain practical knowledge about marketing, communication and other things,” she said.