Youth Festival 2018

This year's youth festival was a spectrum of the various talents and the celebration of young energy and spirit. Every event had something new to project before the people. Whether it was poetry or drama or folk music, every competition was full of sportsman's spirit. The joy of participation was greater than the motive to win and that's what made the three day festival enjoyable. Most importantly, the winner and loser both received applause for their efforts which helped keep up the spirit of participation. I was able to be a part of these events:

1) Drama [2 plays]

2) Poetry recitation

3) Western solo singing

Drama: The plays ranged from the ones set in classical times to the ones dealing with modern day social problems. Bhrugu Samhita dealt with the themes of entanglement of relations, the importance of progeny and also how parentage formed the most important parameter of one's identity, etc. Analyzing the play based on Aristotelian or Platonic parameters would reveal that though the play was set in classical times, it was structured as a modern play. Neither of the dramatic Unities were followed. And yet the play left its impression on the thinking audience with its intriguing message i.e humans should not intervene in the workings of fate. Something which almost all the major classical dramatic compositions of those times would reflect. But this theory would rather do injustice to the play since its context is of Indian origin and not of western method of dramatization.

The other play was the one dealing with the issues of  what we call the 'third gender', in this case hermaphrodites. Again the idea of progeny and its biased generalized gender obsession. The play poses questions at every stereotype about gender still prevalent in society. The question of what is understood as natural and what unnatural is also a poignant one. The style of narration, is somewhat of a biographical one, one highlighting the fact that literature is the medium to vent out emotions regarding the incidents of life, whether positive or negative. The author as the narrator as well as the central character does justice to the entire flow of the plot-line. The character which attracted the  most attention was the one portraying the side of the queer themselves, a representative of the marginalized. Following are some the highlights of the play, Sikka Ni Triji Baju as discussed above:

We can say that both the plays, in their own unique way, dealt with existential question of identity, prevalent in popular modern literature and society.

Poetry Recitation: It was more of a learning process rather than a competition. Poetry has this particular impression on people's mind, a set picture which they usually adhere to even if it is not so. We usually believe poetry to be a projection of ideas in rhyme and rhythm with this fixed length of a single side of a paper. Well that is a false assumption, every literature student would understand that poetry is a flow of ideas, where rhyme, rhythm, and length are secondary parameters. Thus, this competition proved to be an ice breaker for all those people. It was interesting to hear how every other individual had its own way of dealing of with the provided topics. On one side where some of them made up poems from quotations of famous personalities, others applied their own 'creative genius'. The session ended with helpful remarks from the judges as well as a recitation of their own poetic composition.

Western Solo Singing: Well, there's not much to say about this event. I must say the efforts were great. But, personally, I didn't find it convincing. Most participants were not able to pronounce the lyrics properly, which lead them not being able to deliver the feel of the song. They knew the tunes but failed to stress on the lyrical part, which is also an essential part, whether it is western or Indian singing.

I think this fest would prove memorable for all of us.