Palakkad:A close fight between the districts ruled the third day of the state school youth festival with Tuesday’s events ending on a high note.
When the results were computed at 9.30 pm, Thrissur maintained its narrow lead at 350 points while Palakkad and Kozhikode followed closely with 345 points each.
Pathanmthitta and Idukki were positioned at the bottom of the table with 291 and 277 points respectively.
In the Sanskrit festival, Kottayam, Kollam, Malappuram and Kozhikode together stayed on top with 40 points, trailed by Ernakulam and Thrissur at 38 points each.
Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Kannur, led the show with 60 points, followed by Kasaragod at 58 points.
Even on Tuesday, competitions began at most of the venues more than an hour behind schedule.
At the main venue, although Oppana was scheduled to start at 2 p.m., the event could start only after a delay of four hours.
Earlier in the morning, the main venue witnessed a protest by parents of a couple of Bharathanatyam contestants over the inordinate delay in starting the competition.
Meanwhile, most of the competitions during the day were being held in an electric atmosphere as people turned up in large numbers, braving the fierce dust winds.
Over 10,000 people were present at the main venue, the Indira Gandhi Stadium, where Oppana competition for Higher Secondary Girls was staged in the evening. Further, the Kanikkamatha Convent School, which hosted the Kuchipudi (High School) event witnessed a pleasant turnout while a big and enthusiastic crowd enjoyed Chenda Thayambaka and Panchavadyam at the venue in Fort Ground.
Events like Folk Dance, Chakyar Koothu and Light Music also proved to be crowd pullers.
Next: Kuchipudi more real now: Anupama
Kuchipudi more real now: Anupama
Hiran Unnikrishnan | DC
Palakkad: As the young dancers performed with peerless grace and diversity, she sat in the audience to appreciate the warmth of their aestheticcommunication.
Renowned Kuchipudi dancer Anupama Mohan on Tuesday was in Palakkad to see the Kuchipudi competition (High School) at the 54th State School Youth Festival.
The one-time heroine of Mollywood, who originally hails from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, was the cynosure of all eyes at Kanikkamatha convent school, which hosted the event.
“I have been a keen follower of Kuchipudi in the School festival for the last 15 years and I feel the quality is improving. Things are quite different from those times when there was not much ‘real' Kuchipudi on festival stages’’, said the noted danseuse, a disciple of dance maestro Vempati Chinna Satyam.
In her opinion, the festival has been witnessing the birth of many talented artistes, who, after a point, fizzle out or leave the arena.
But still, there are a handful who stick to their art form and continue to achieve laurels.
The founder director of Sathyanjali Academy of Kuchipudi Dance in Kochi, three of her disciples are taking part in the Kuchipudi event in the High School and Higher secondary category. However, she is against grooming youngsters for festivals as it would spoil them as well the art form.
“Nowadays, the value of dance teachers are being assessed on the basis of the package of dance forms they offer and not on their expertise in one art. However, things are slowly taking a positive turn and I feel Kuchipudi is slowly returning to its uniqueness from the ‘Keralapudi’ that we often see in School festivals’’, she said.
Next: 38 LCD monitors stream live updates
38 LCD monitors stream live updates
Palakkad: There is some good news for students taking part in the State School festival. They will no longer have to wait at backstages for hours with make-ups on while events lag hours behind schedule.
The IT@School Project has set up a provision to provide updated information to participants and audience on status of events in all venues. For this, they have positioned 38 LCD monitors across the 17 venues to display the status of events live.
“With the new facility, we will be providing updates of all the events, which includes competitions taking place in different venues, chest number of the participant on stage, waiting time for the next contestant and the total time taken for completing one event'', said VN Pradeep, Academic officer, IT@ School.
Further, help - desks have been set up in all the venues to track and report live updates of the events on stages while Wi-Fi connectivity has been enabled to open the festival's official website. The system will enable the contestants to know about the time they have to report at the venue, organizers said.
Lunch here is no fun
Palakkad: Thanks to the unrestricted distribution of food coupons, the system of food service for participants of this year's state school festival has been thrown into complete disarray.
According to organizers, while facilities have been set up for about 9,000 people to have lunch at Victoria College, the venue has been witnessing a daily average turn out of around 14000 people. For instance, the number of people who had lunch on Monday stood at 14,590 , of which, only 2077 were the contestants.
The uncontrolled entries are also causing a shortage of food items.
“The flow of people to the dining hall during the lunchtime is so much that the cost of food will be at least double the budget allocation of Rs 25 lakhs '', said an official within the food committee.
Attributing the phenomenon to the pressure from different teacher's associations, he also pointed out that the unauthorized entry of friends, colleagues and relatives of the officials to the dining were adding to the problem.
Further, managing committees have arranged a tag for officials on their own without informing the organizing committee and gets it distributed among persons of their choice, the official added.
Petition before HC against stages set up for fest
Kochi: A petition has been filed before Kerala high Court against the stages constructed for the 54th Kerala State School Youth Festival being held at Palakkad.
Petitioner Ummer of Cheruthuruthy, Thrissur argued that most of the stages including the main stage of the festival were built in violation to the festival manual.
He argued that the festival authorities sabotaged the tender proceedings by rejecting his bid even though his bid was the lowest.
The tender was allotted to Yousaf M A of Cheruthuruthy for Rs 15.8 lakh while the he had quoted Rs 14,9 lakh.
The petitioner sought a comprehensive enquiry into the tender procedure and a directive to black list the winner of the tender.
