Northeast festival begins in City on colourful note

A first-of-its-kind northeast cultural festival, ‘EESHAANYA’ was organised in the City on Saturday and if all goes well this is likely to become an annual affair in the cultural calendar of Bengaluru.

The cultural festival will also be a two-way exchange with a number of cultural troupes from Karnataka and other South Indian states set to and perform in the northeast, soon. 

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, a body under Ministry of Culture has organised the event. Vikram Sampath, the executive director of the Centre said that the cultural festival would soon become an annual feature. He said that as many as 100 artistes from northeastern states were taking part in the event and next year it would be even bigger.

Cultural exchangeUnion Minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals, Ananth Kumar who inaugurated the fest, said that such cultural exchange would strengthen the ties with the northeastern states of the country.

The two-day festival began with various dance forms such as the Hojagiri from Tripura, the Cheraw or famous Bamboo dance from Mizoram, Wangala from Meghalaya and Sattriya from Assam on the first day. A number of lectures and documentaries on the region was also showcased.  

Bishop Debbarma, a performer from Tripura felt that a cultural performance by troupes from South Indian states in the northeast would definitely be welcomed. “Yes, sure, I would like for our South Indian counterparts to showcase their cultural performances back home. It would be nice and quite exciting.” 

Krishnakashi Kashyap, a performer from Guwahati, Assam said: “We are extremely grateful to get a chance to showcase our danceforms. The  northeast is a very important part of India and such festivals and exchanges will definitely help us understand each other better,” he said. 

The second day of the festival will be attended by H T Sangliana, former Bengaluru Police Commissioner and will witness performances by dance troupes from Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur and Nagaland.