A cultural melange
The Symbiosis Vishwabhavan Auditorium premises witnessed a colourful gathering of youth from the North Eastern part of the country on Saturday evening. An event called ‘Harmony’ was organised by Symbiosis Ishanya Cultural & Educational Centre (SICEC), Pune & Sangeet Natak Akademi, Guwahati, for music, dance and martial arts performances by artists from North-East India. The event was conducted to spread the message of national unity among the people through the blend of North East India with the West India. Before the event, we tried to catch up the performers on various topics like arts, culture and education.
Chimglemba Thomgaon, a student, said, “We will be performing today with artists from Maharashtra and many people will be attending the event. They will come to know about our tradition along with the Maharashtrian tradition. This will strongly convey the message of ‘Unity in diversity’. Hence, we are glad to be a part of this team today.”
Noel Lalhmunsiami, very cheerfully, said, “We are feeling very happy and comfortable to be here. Most of us have come to Maharashtra for the first time and we don’t feel we have come faraway from home. We all are very excited to perform here tonight.”
Shalom Lalanmauri, another girl dressed in a colourful dress, said, “We are performing our traditionl Bamboo Dance form — Cheraw Buzhzaain today. We want people here to know about our colourful dance and art form.
In the same spirit of excitement, another girl, Lalrinmauri said, “Music and dance are the art forms that have the power to unite people and that is what we will be trying to convey through our art form. Also, it is really important for all of us to preserve and cherish our traditional art forms to keep alive the rich diverse Indian culture.”
Martial arts
Deepak Khanaehaobam, the coach for the martial arts team from Manipur, said, “Martial arts is a cultural sport which is a combination of custom, religion and tradition. We are trying to revive it in the form of performing art. With our performance at this event, we wish to tell people that our culturally rich art form is not only a fighting style but it also makes a strong positive impact on our emotional and national integrity.”
One of the participants, Zohny Nirgombaon, said, “We are very happy to perform here today and also we are very excited as this will be our first performance out of our state.”
Migration and education
A few participants spoke about migrating to other states for higher studies. Said Kunal Reang, “North East is basically a tribal part where 80-90 per cent of families depend on agriculture. Due to lack of infrastructure and basic facilities like transport, communication, etc, it becomes difficult to continue with our studies. States like Maharashtra have well developed cities like Mumbai and Pune, so we look forward to migrating to such cities for better education.”
