 Manipal: The festive spirit of Utsav returned after a whole year as Manipal University’s cultural extravaganza began yesterday. The elaborate shamiana covering KMC Greens, the melodious music and frolic in the air all defined the first day of Utsav.
This year 17 colleges from Manipal and Mangalore are participating in Utsav. There are over a 30 events lined up ranging from literary, fine arts to theatre, quizzes as well as song and dance. It is all to be conducted over a span of six days. Unlike all the previous years, this time all the staff events are clubbed with the college events.
The info desk and the newsletter desk were ready by 9 am and various teams were rehearsing on the stage on Saturday morning. The first event of the day was Creative Writing. The participation was immense with over a hundred entries. The topic given was ‘rendezvous with an extra terrestrial being’. Later in the day, a staff cooking competition was conducted by ICAS. The staff churned out their teaching skills to cook some delicious food. There were many categories like Indian Vegetarian, and Chat. The food was good and the competition plenty.
The evening saw KMC Greens laden with colour as the Cultural Parade being a part of the inauguration of Utsav08 began. Around eleven teams registered for the event. The parade started with the flag bearers from various colleges marching to place their flags near the stage. The various teams were dressed in costumes coming from different cultures. The themes varied from forms of communication, to dances of Asia and world culture. Immediately after the cultural parade, Utsav was inaugurated and declared open by the chief guest for the evening, Vasanti Pai. The other dignitaries present were Ramdas Pai and Pushpa Kini.
The Culural Parade ended to pave way for Eastern Singing Solo and Group. The event was well appreciated by the audience. There was an orchestra to back the singers. Utsav has begun and all the festivities are ready to roll!
Sub-edited by Karishma Desai
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