Chandigarh
12 November 2017
DIVYA AZAD
The last day of the ongoing 9th edition of the Chandigarh National Crafts Mela, a joint initiative of the North Zone Cultural Centre (NZCC), Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and Chandigarh Administration, which concludes at Kalagram (Chandigarh) here today, witnessed an enthusiastic crowd of Mela buffs, who converged on the Mela ground with their families and friends to be a part of the colourful finale to the cultural fusion. Today being a holiday on account of Sunday, Mela buffs started converging on the venue since morning to enjoy the folk flavours of different parts of the country. This season’s theme being ‘Dadra and Nagar Haveli’ offered an insight into the rich folk traditions of the state.
The day activity, as usual, started with a string of colourful stage performances, included Rajasthan’s Kachi-ghori dance, ‘Been-jogis’ from Haryana. The traditional folk dance of Odisha – ‘Goti Pua’ – was followed by ‘Gaud Maria’ a peppy folk dance of Chhatisgarh, and ‘Bhangra’, ‘Jindua, and ‘Gidha’, electrifying folk dances of Punjab, which were highly appreciated by the delirious audience. ‘Rasso naritya’ of Uttrakhand and ‘Songi makhaute’ of Maharashtra were the show-stealers of the day activity. Earlier in the day, ‘Nachar’ party (Punjab) and ‘Been-Jogi’ (Haryana) , ‘Bajigars’, from Punjab, ‘Nagada’ party from Haryana gave their presentation and won accolades. ‘Bahurupiyas’ from Rajasthan, posing as ‘dacoit’, ‘Veer Hanumann’, ‘Lord Krishna and some other mythological figures entertained the gathering with their inimical style.
Today being the last day of the yearly feature, the incurable shoppers drawn from distance corners of the country, were seen storming the stalls selling handloom, handicraft, jewellery items, and designers’ crockery items, including phulkari from Patiala, Pochampali handloom, Ikat from Telangana, tussar and kosa from Maharashtra, stone painting from Jaipur, and Kohlapuri chappal from Maharashtra and Patiala Jutti from Patiala. The stalls put up by some SAARC countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh selling their traditional items were in great demand. Food lovers relished a fare of Punjabi, Rajasthani, Bihari, Gujarati, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and other parts of the country. Camel rides, swings, car/jeep rides and other kept the kids amused through the day.
The chief guest of the evening on the concluding day was Mr Vinod Bhandari, Tourism Officer-cum- Forest Officer of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, who enjoyed the haunting melodies of Punjab. He also took a round of the Mela ground and interacted with the artisans drawn from different parts of the country and appreciated their work. He also lauded the role of the hosts for holding such cultural Melas which, he said, offered a platform the dwindling clan of artists to showcase their art and craft.
The star performer of the evening today was Anmol Gagan, who started with an invocation ‘Oh mein tere wajhon mitti di dheri aan…teri aan ve teri ann saiyaan …’ She doled out her hit numbers to thousands of music lovers from the tricity and elsewhere, one after the other, . The invocatory number was followed by ‘Tur jaavan ikk vaar te mawan labhdiyan nahin….’, a tribute to motherhood. She presented her own version of ‘Jugni’ and ‘Chakk da bullet…’ her popular track and many more on public demand.
