School Fest: Appeals mar Natya rasa

THRISSUR: Despite the plea from the Education Minister to keep the spirit of  the competition healthy, the Kerala State School Youth Festival opened on a noisy note, with appeals filed in hundreds. About 30 events saw 14 districts vying for the gold cup, while students matched talents for the first three prizes on Tuesday.The festival opened with five events, which saw about 130 contestants competing in Mohiniyattam, Bharatanatyam, Kuchippudi, Keralanatanam and Sanskrit poem recital. Competitions went late into the night, and some were deferred to the next day.There was glaring apathy on the part of the officials as the various coordinating committees had no coordination at all. As a result, parents and students were seen thronging the media centre, enquiring about the status of the results. Hundreds of people were seen arguing with the officials who were helpless as the public were informed that all results would be promptly updated online. It took hours for the website to publish the results.All the venues were jam-packed with audience from all over the state. The hotels as well as other services had a field day, with participants staying in town along with their families. The competition was stiff between parents, who had splurged money to fly down accompaniment for dance events. The losers were seen crying.The silver lining was, however, the instant redressal of appeals by the lower and higher hearing committees. The state committee dismissed grievances as soon as possible.But there were wider concerns raised by participants.Indu K R from Ernakulam, who was the first to win an appeal after coming 6th in the D-Zone for Sanskrit poetry recital, said contestants should be allowed to participate in more than three items, which is the limit for individual events now. Indu is a student of violin, classical music, kathakali and ashtapathi music, but had to be content with three events.The competitions turned neck and neck on the second day and Thrissur overtook Alappuzha with a point, collecting 166 points.