JOIN USA feel of the rural ambience
Students of Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies, Soladevanahalli celebrated Sankranthi recently with all its traditional fervour and depicted the lifestyle and culinary habits of the region.
Students from abroad and from outside the state also joined in the celebration and made it a grand success.
The idea of celebrating Sankranthi was taken up by a team of students to popularise the local culture among foreign students.They drew inspiration from the foreign students who celebrate their traditional festivals and organise special programmes on the campus to create awareness about their culture.The students raised funds from faculty members and friends for this purpose.
The programmes started with a ride on a bullock cart decked with flowers and sugarcane plants. Chief guests for the event, Vijay Kumar, Manager (Human Resource), Acharya Institutions and Prof Gurunath Rao Vaidya, Principal, Acharya Institute of Graduate Studies too enjoyed the ride. The bullock cart signified the relationship between the farmer and nature. The foreign students too got a feel of the rural ambience of Karnataka.
While boys had come dressed in white shirts and white dhothis, the girls came in saris. The students made a rangoli using various food grains and flowers. Rangoli had the pictures of butterfly and spiral shells and was a treat to the eyes.
A model of suggi (a bunch of new crops) was made and worshipped the way the farmers do in their fields. After the puja, the students distributed yellu-bella-kabbu. A traditional folk dance and song was then presented. A dance team comprising Abhi and Sneha from BSc (Fashion Designing) and Thushara from BBM performed classical dances.
A tapanguchi number by one of the students on the song Kuladalli Keelyavudo was highly energetic. The students had also invited a professional dollu kunitha troupe from Davanagere for the festival. The faculty members and students went in a procession across the campus enjoying the Dollu Kunitha.
“It was very colourful and exciting. Today, we mingled with local students and enjoyed the celebration. It was a touching moment to see people thanking mother nature for what it has given to them. Sankranthi is a meaningful harvest festival,” says Asp, a Mauritian student studying for BA.
Another foreign student, Zekria from Afghanistan, says, “This festival helped us to see beyond Bangalore and understand the traditional richness of Karnataka.”
Vijay Shankar, who has organised the festival with the help of his friends, says, “Since there are many foreign students studying in our college, I felt, it is my duty to share and explain our customs and traditions to them. My friends Sunil, Surekha, Chandu, Vinod and Shabrish joined me in this initiative. Bhagya Nadig, one of our faculty members, also supported us immensely. It was indeed a very successful programme. We had a great start this year and we would like to continue with the same enthusiasm,” says Vijay Shankar, a final year BA student.