Online contests keep Bhopalis busy with creative pursuits amid corona lockdown

BHOPAL: Online creative competitions and literary events are being organised in the state capital to give company to Bhopalis during the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.Kalakrit has started an awareness campaign and an online painting competition on their Instagram handle @kala_krit on which artists are advised to showcase their talent and also reach out to people in India and the world with a 45 second video on different precautions to be taken and how people can spread awareness through artworks. Sapna Kathfar and Chirag Nanda have taken the creative initiative in connecting artists where they are are advised to assess the situation on the theme ‘Stay home stay safe’ awareness online art competition. There is no age bar in the competition and many Bhopalis are enthusiastically sending their entries for the competition. Literary online events are also trending. Club Literati is all set to host the 6th edition of four-day Bhopal Shakespeare Festival named ‘Yours Virtually, William Shakespeare’. There will be quizzes on the Bard of Avon, podcasts on Shakespearean sonnets and self-composed sonnets. There will also be a virtual performances on the theme ‘The Globe Theatre’ in categories of soliloquies and monologues. The festival will be wrapped up with an event titled ‘Bard Goes Bollywood’, where famous plays of Shakespeare will be recasted in Bollywood flavour. Also, there will be a drawing competition titled ‘A Wish for William’.Vishwa Maitri Manch has also been organising Hindi short story recitals and prose evenings online where Indian as well as international artistes recited their work. The theme of these poetry pieces revolve aound the ongoing coronavirus lockdown and ‘quarantine life’. Artistes such as Santosh Shrivastav, Gopesh Vajpayee, Muzaffar Siddiqui, Pawan Jain, Anamika Singh and many others performed brilliant pieces defining their new ‘changed normal’.