Aishwaryam Youth Festival 2018, MKBU

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University has celebrated the Aishwaryam youth festival of three days 26th, 27th, and 28th October. This whole festival of three days is hosted by Takshashila institute of commerce and Science collage. The whole university was spangling with lights. This festival is for young people. This is not only for watching. This festival let young generation show their talents through various competitions. In which they include every type of talents like writing, singing, dancing, drawing, acting, playing instruments and many things. It includes modern and folk both the theme. I was present in some of the events which here I am trying to look critically towards it.

I have witnessed poetry recitation, one act play, clay modeling, collage making, poster making, painting, cartooning, Rangoli and installation.

Poetry recitation

Judges and Anchor of the event

When it is come to recite the poem which is recently written and nobody has any idea of what the poem is about then recitation is the most important part which performer has to play. We have the competition of self written poetry and recitation. 20 to 25 students have participated in this competition. The subject on which poetry should be written is given on the spot. The subjects are like, story of a pen, song of rain which does not come, feelings of jungle girl, significance of friendship or love, life could may life will be homage and on Diwali. Most of them have wrote on friendship or love and the story of a pen. On Diwali as per my knowledge no one has written.

With this topics I have seen that most of them are using old metaphors like for pen they use sword and pen has seen the best of the best things and worst of the worst things. On friendship also almost all of them are praising their friends and some also has written on love. When everyone has recite their poem one of the judge who came to give their overall feelings has recite her one of poem which was titled as “Shyam Mari Windows Par Kem Na Ave?” and she also has used new metaphors like hang, memory, ram and many more. These new metaphors are missing in the poems.

We can apply the definition which Wordsworth has given that, “ Poetry is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings… recollected in tranquility.” In this competition also we can see that it is spontaneity which is working the most. Most of them have written in Gujarati language and they also has used high level of Gujarati words. We can not find that they have used the theory o depersonalization by T. S. Eliot. Almost all of them are singing the songs of their own life and experiences. So it is difficult to see the depersonalization in those poems. In some poems we can see the paradox has been used. In the subject like story of a pen they are describing the good and bad written by pen. One thing I have remembered in poem it is said that pen has written novels also and at some where judge of judiciary has broken the nib of pen after giving death to someone. So this is how they are trying to put things in binaries.

As far as recitation is concerned I found only four or five out of 25 who has recited well. Others are having some problems in reciting like they do not make the word feel. Their voice is too law or they are yelling. Some of them are just reading. They don’t make listeners feel the weightage of some words by stressing on it. Every word has been spoken with same loud or law voice. Some of them are good at reciting where after listening we can have the aesthetic delight of art. 

One Act Plays

I have seen three plays and only starting of last play. The participants have 30 minutes to perform their play. The plays which I have seen has names like “Sikka Ni Triji Baju” (Third side of the coin) which has theme of third gender, second one is “Aur Mujhe Fakr Hai” (And I am proud of it) which has theme of nationalism, third one is “Papan Vache Dariyo” (Sea between the lashes) which has theme on the life of a fisherman. Three of them are very well performed. Acting was very good by all the actors. We can feel the catharsis during play.

It seems the plays are following the traditional way of plays in which they have rising action, falling action and happy ending. It is like Aristotle’s Poetics. The play “Sikka Ni Triji Baju” can be view from the perspective of cultural studies as it includes the society and the dilemma and misery of third gender. In the play family even father don’t want his baby who is eunuch. The mother struggles and fight for equal right of the baby and she win. These types of play shows mirror to our society and also gives message to change the stereotypes. The performance was very good.

Second play “Aur Mujhe Fakr Hai” has a theme of nationalism. It also shows terrorism, violence, brain washing, suffering of innocent people, honesty of soldiers and suffering of their families. The fundamentalist ideas of terror group. It also has used the flashback techniques. It focuses on one religion. We can again study it from the angle of cultural studies where it shows nationalism and religion. Though the audience is very enthusiastic after the performance of the play all are hailing the name of country. The audience mostly includes youngsters, and this kind of attraction towards nationalism shows how youngsters can be easily flow in the stream of nationalism.

The third play “Papan Vache Dariyo” has theme on the life of fisherman. This play shows the life of a family of fisherman, who goes for fishing and don’t came back for many years and during that time how the family has suffered and survived. Theme is common but acting was very nice. They made us feel their pain. We can see the glimpses of “Robinson Crusoe” in this play as the ship was broken and the main character has dropped on the island where no one lives and after many years he came back. We can look at this play from the perspective of feminism. As for marry a girl two men are fighting, one who wins will marry the girl. The girl has her own choice but it doesn’t matter front of the male ego. And after marriage her husband was lost so she was also raped by the person who has lost the battle. After that girl has committed suicide. At the end the person who has lost came back home to his father and his son and play happily ends. This play has also used the flashback technique.

The play which I have only seen for first few minutes has done very dull performance. The actors are nog good in dialogue delivery and not in acting also. They don’t announce the name of play in beginning. I have seen first 5 to 7 minutes and we don’t understand what it is about because dialogues are not clearly heard, and it also don’t give any feelings. It was flat. Nothing has felt and nothing has understood in first few minutes. In short the actors are failed to connect the audience.

Clay Modeling

The art was very good. Most of the participants have followed only same themes like making idol of God, nature or persons who are playing instruments. Some are very nice. In modern themes one has made a car other than that we can not find any new or modern theme in it.

Installation

In this all are very good work but one which has grab my attention is with hat and boots, which suddenly reminds me of the play “Waiting For Godot” by Samuel Beckett. Though it don’t has that theme as per my interpretation it wants to show the necessary of money that money is the key of every lock.

Other work has themes like equality of all religions, cleanliness, countryside, farming and festivals. These all works are looking very good. They all have created it from newspapers and other useless things. I don’t find any experimental work there they all have followed the same tradition or may be they are bound to themes.

Rangoli

Rangoli is traditionally made from different colors and most of people have made it from colors only. Their theme is also mostly same like they have drown some figure or traditional Rangoli. Though some of them have tried well with other things rather than color. They have used puffed rice, chalks, different grains, rope, water color and clay, flowers, and candle wax. With all these things only few have did something different. One Rangoli has theme of equality of all religions and second one has theme of social media. This is how we cansee some of the different themes in this competition.

Painting/ Collage/ Cartooning/ Poster Making

Here we have some varieties in theme like we have political satire, mobile, social awareness, #MeToo movement, satire on education system, and some modern ideas. One person has drown that people are busy in eating while on the other hand ants are reaching at library. One has drown Shurpankha with mobile accusing that she is also the part of #MeToo movement. In collage almost they have followed traditional themes like nature or some figure. In cartooning we can see political satire that how the price of petrol is increasing and PM is on world tour. There is also a satire on education system that how it is corrupted. On technology we have positive negative and neutral views like some are favoring use of mobile phones others are rejecting it and some has said that it is good and bad both, it is our choice how we use it.  Child abuse and traffic rules was also a theme. These all themes are showing the mirror to the society and it also captures the current moment. With all these things many of them have stick to traditional way and drown festivals or natural world.

Thank you.