Cultural revelry at its best

Going traditional

The students and teachers were dressed in colourful clothes. 

St Aloysius Degree College celebrated its ethnic day recently. It was unlike any other day as one couldn’t find college students walking around in their favourite pair of jeans. Instead, they were dressed in bright coloured clothes. The professors too joined in the fun adding colour to the event.
As most other college functions, this too started out with a prayer and led on to a welcome speech by the Principal, Maria Mark Alexander. The purpose of such an event was to reintroduce the students to their cultural foundations, lest they forget.

And a reminder it was as the students took the brief seriously and went a step ahead in working on their outfits to present a glimpse of every state in the country. The programme also saw a classical dance presentation by Abhinaya Priya, a first year BCom student that acted as a starter for the cultural revelry that was to follow. Then came the catwalk, where all the students dressed in their ethnic best competed for the position of the ‘Best Dressed Student’. This was judged by Neeraj Katoch, a garment technologist.

The second round of the catwalk with 16 students took place after the initial elimination round. Shortlisted students were required to speak on stage explaining what their outfits meant and which region they came from. This culminated in prizes being awarded to two students, Junaid and Amal.
While Junaid represented a typically Muslim Sharif outfit, Amal stuck to the Tamilian look. Professors were also awarded prizes and it was Nicholas in a Rajasthani outfit and Sowmya with her Kannadiga look who walked away with them.

Part of the function was a prize-distribution ceremony, where students who had bagged prizes at inter-collegiate functions like St Joseph College’s Dhwani and Jyoti Nivas College’s ‘Scintillation’ were felicitated. The awarded groups — Fredrick and group and Manoj and team — presented the respective group dance and ‘mad ads’ performances that had them win laurels.

It was towards the end of the programme that chief guest Neeraj Katoch addressed the audience and spoke about the importance of dressing ethnically. The brigade full of colour then dispersed but only with a lesson on cultural leanings learnt.