'Khela Yaad' takes back parishioners to bygone era

More than 1,200 participants take part in 15 traditional events

Excitement, competitive spirit and an atmosphere of tradition and culture expressed itself in great amounts as Holy Cross church in kulshekhar organised the first of its kind, traditional inter-ward sports day ‘Khela Yaad- 2014’ here on Sunday.

A total of 15 traditional events were conducted at the fest which included dehusking coconuts and peeling arecanuts in a given time limit, making a broom, one-legged race, slow cycle race, lagori, sack race, carrying of the spouse and racing to the finish line, weaving of coconut palms and many more such events.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Convenor Sushil Noronha said that a total of 1,200 parishoners from over 26 wards had registered initially but many more registered on the spot and hence the turnout was better than expected. This shows that traditional events still hold relevance in these times. The only drawback is that no one has taken the steps to do it. “I am extremely happy that as a part of this church, we were able to be the first to host an event like this,” he said and added that he was extremely happy about the fact that the maximum particpants in the open events were above 50 years of age. “Watching their enthusiasm and spirit made us very happy,” he said.

The highlight was a children’s event in which the partipants were asked to recognise more than 75 traditional household items and name them in Konkani. “Around 125 children participated in the event and it was wonderful to see that the children knew the names of so many of the traditional household items including vessels, griding stones, vegetables, fruits, seeds, agriculture equipment etc,” said Manisha, a member of the Youth committee who arranged for all of the household goods for the event.

“It was wonderful to see couples participate as a team in the ‘pulling race’. There should be many such events taking place in the church because it makes for a good get togther and entertainment,” said a member in the crowd.

The Lagori event was also well appreciated because of the level of competition and interest among the youngsters.  This particular event saw umpires from outside the city coming to judge the event. Puttur Government School Physical Education Teacher Sudhakar Rai, Puttur B E M School Sports faculty Madhav and Tharnath from Subramanya were of the opinion that the participants were incredibly professional and well prepared and that made it more interesting to judge.

Food fest

The sports day also sported a traditional food fest. All of the food items were prepared by the parish members itself according to Convener Noronha. “The preparations for the menu of traditional food items was started long ago. The parish members brought about several ideas as to what to include,” said Doreen Lewis, a volunteer of the fest.

On being asked about how the idea came to be, Noronha said, ”we see various places that conducted traditional sports but Catholic churches had never ventured into it. This gave us the idea to organise an event like this. Assistant Parish Priest Fr Vishal Monis helped us with developing this idea and Parish Priest Fr Valerian Pinto gave us all the support we needed.”

The sports day which was organised by the ICYM Cordel unit in collaboration with the youth committee of the church was officially inaugurated by Shree Devi Institutions Chairman Sadananda Shetty while Convenor of the programme Sushil Noronha, Vice president of the Parish Council Praveen Patrao, Assistant Parish Priest Fr Vishal Monis,  ICYM President Arun Pinto and ICYM Secretary Seema D’souza were also present during the inaugural.

“Being a church known for its innovation and unity among parish members, Cordel Church did a great job at bringing tradition to the fore,” said Walter, a parishoner of Cordel church. Events like this bring people together and help everyone socialise and work as a team, he added.

The crowd was also very much excited about the Indian Cultural and Traditional attire competition which was held the same evening, as a part of the ICYM anniversary celebrations.