Bidar Utsav 2014

Bidar Utsav -2014

Bidar Utsav, of the fest to celebrate the essence of Bidar was celebrated with joy on February 1, 2 and 3, 2014 in Bidar, Karnataka, India.

The event proved that proactive initiatives by the government can help promote tourism, apart from quenching the people’s thirst for wholesome entertainment.

Run Up

Actually, the Bidar Utsav is a month long event. The cultural programmes however, are organized on the last three days of the Utsav.

Innovative methods were used to publicise the event. A team of senior officials and Utsav committee members visited villages to accord traditional welcomes to members of rural local bodies and women’s groups. They also went around colleges to invite the youth to perform at the event and watch it.

The run up included several interesting programmes that included a career fair and a job fair. The first one, Career Utsav, had experts from 12 disciplines introduce students to various interesting courses and careers. Resource persons from the Indian Air Force, Indian Railways, and private industries participated. Experts urged students to choose a subject of their liking and not just follow popular trends.

Mahila Utsav

A two day fest for women was held in the Rang Mandir, Jhira function hall and national college grounds. Women and girls participated in sports, cultural events and fun games.

Sports

Events like lawn tennis were held in the Bidar police tennis club. Shuttle badminton, Karate, and table tennis were held in the district indoor stadium. Cricket, football, basket ball and athletics were held in the Nehru stadium. Swimming competitions were held in the district swimming pool that a pool of Olympic standards. A special sports event was held for the physically disabled.

Over 300 girls and boys participated in the cycling event. They started from Ambedkar circle, went to Lalbagh, at the edge of the Khanapur reserve forest and returned.

Numbers

The numbers related to the festival were impressive. Over two hundred thousand people attended the three day event. Events like the marathon, inaugural procession, wrestling, kid zone, and food stalls saw the highest attendance.

The job Utsav provided a platform for employers interviewed young people and distributed job letters on the spot, and selected some for training. In two days, 714 youth got offer letters and 350 were selected for training. Over 4,500 had registered their names.

Venues

Programmes were held in several venues within the historic fort and outside.

Cultural programmes on the main stage included Indian popular music, folk music and dances, and performances by children.

Indian pop stars like Mika Singh, Raghu Dixit, Javed Ali, Harshdeep Kaur and Guru Kiran enthralled the audience with their songs. Teams also presented Indian classical music and classical dance, folk dances and skits. A conscious decision was made to provide opportunities on the main stage to local artists to perform.

Another venue was provided to local artists and youngsters in the Zilla Rang Mandir. They presented a bouquet of performances including songs, dances, folk art forms and one act plays.

Photo exhibition

A photo exhibition was held in memory of Gulam Muntaqa, senior photo journalist who died in 2013 front gallery of the Royal Kitchen. Over 300 pictures taken by Mr Muntaqa and his father Gulam Mustafa, who was police photographer, were on display. It covered the pictorial news history of the district for over a century. Mr Mustafa’s work included some photographs taken in the 1890s.

Mr Muntaqa held the distinction of capturing images using a eight feet logn negative on his hand made circuit camera. Three of his single frame, wide angle pictures that were taken from long negatives were featured. There were also pictures of wildlife and nature taken by some others.

Art camp

Around 22 artists from across the state stayed in Bidar for four days and visited the monuments around the city. They produced oil paintings on canvas and water colours. These were exhibited in the Photo exhibition venue. Artists included big names like K. K Makali, D. M Badiger, Kandan, Ashok G, and others.

Kite festival

Teams from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra participated in the Patang utsav held at the Barud Khana grounds in the fort. Winning teams had kites that were 30 feet wide. Another winner strung 220 kites to the same string.

Youth had a day of outing at the adventure sports events like para -sailing held in Shahapur on Hyderbad road.

Kid zone was among the most popular areas in the Bidar utsav. It had giant wheels, zorbin balls, merry go round, inflatable platforms, dinasour rides and other attractions. They also took part in fun games. 

Food court

Around 100 stalls were put up in the food court in front of the main stage. Visitors enjoyed various flavours including fast food, Indian native cuisine and Chinese dishes.

A calligraphy exhibition was held in the Interpretation centre campus. Women Self Help Group members trained by the Siasat foundation in Hyderabadhad produced the exhibits.

Bidar Utsav will be long remembered for the Mushayira or Urdu poetry recital organized on the second day. Big names in Indian Urdu poetry took part. They spoke of love and war, enlightenment and despair and contemporary politics.

A large gathering sat through the five-hour-long mushaira from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. on Sunday. Poetry lovers cheered the writers and encouraged them to read loudly.

Rahat Indori, film lyricist and popular Mushayira personality, had the crowd on tenterhooks. Octogenarian Nida Fazli, Hina Taimoori, Shabeena Adeeb, Mujaffar Hanfi and others recited poetry to loud applause.

Other famous poets like Waseem Barelvi, Gulzar Dehalvi, Iqbal Ashahar, Farhat Ehasas, `Popular’ Meerathi, Javed Musheeri, Sohail Lakhnavi, Saradar Ayagh, Habib Hashmi, Abdul Wahid Bahar, Syed Lateff Khaleesh, Abdul Mukhtadir Taj

On February 1, Mr Siddaramaiah Chief Minister of Karnataka, inaugurated the Bidar Utsav. He promised to promote tourism in Bidar in a big way. He promised to release matching grant funds to Bidar development in the light of the World Monument Watch recognition. Ms Umashree, minister for Kannada and culture and other dignitaries were present.

Hellen philon, author of the books Silent Splendour and Religious and political monuments of Early Behmanis, was the chief guest the valedictory function. She urged art lovers and civil society members to strive to protect the rich culture and monuments of the Deccan. She described Bidar as among the most important heritage cities of the country.

Member of Parliament N. Dharam Singh, members of the legislative assembly and council were present.

P. C Jaffer, deputy commissioner, Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh, Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer, Sunil Panwar, deputy conservator of forests and others were present.

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