African dance treat for Times Evening audience

KOLKATA: It was a unique Times Evening Food and Folk Festival 2009 at Lake Palli of Santoshpur in south Kolkata with 15 youths performing an African tribal dance to the beats of the Mugarman drum in full traditional gear.
The youths from Ahmedabad belong to the Siddi tribe, whose ancestors had been bought from Africa by local landlords as slaves around 750 years ago.On Sunday, they stole the hearts of the residents of Lake Palli. The festival was organized by The Times of India at the initiative of Disha, the local cultural body, in collaboration with the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre on Saturday and Sunday.
"We organize such programmes throughout the year to involve the youth of our locality in several constructive activities. The food and folk festival is just one of them," said Rana Dasgupta, the convener of Disha.
The programme kicked off on Saturday with theatre personality Usha Ganguly inaugurating a webpage for the club. Around 70 women of the locality took part in the food festival that was divided into five categories fish, sweets, rice, vegetable and chicken/mutton.
"Each participant brought at least 120-140 plates for sale. We maintained a strict vigil on the quantity as anyone violating the rules would have been disqualified," said Dasgupta. There was also a sit-and-draw competition for local kids. On Sunday, apart from the Siddi tribe, harbola' Anil Chatterjee and mime artist Shatimoy Pal entertained the audience with their performance.
"Such programmes not only generate cultural awareness in the locality, it also helps in creating a bond in the neighbourhood," said Amit Bagchi, a local resident.