Celebration of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat with paired states of Maharashtra and Odisha at IIT Bhubaneswar on 01st April 2018

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar has celebrated 6th cultural day out of scheduled 16 days of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat series of events, with paired states of Maharashtra and Odisha in its Campus at Argul on 01st April 2018. Incidentally the event was coincided with an auspicious day of Odisha i.e. Utkal Diwas.
Odisha and Maharashtra both are costal states having huge coast line, ancient heritage, rich in their own history, culture and tradition. There was huge participation from all groups of IIT Bhubaneswar family. On this occasion, 42 performers including students, staffs, faculty and their family members from different age groups, cultures, and states participated in the social and cultural events of these paired states.
There was a exhibition of art and crafts items of Odisha were made outside the venue for display and sale.
Quiz completions based on the paired states at different level of difficulties for participants including students, staffs, faculty, residents of IIT Bhubaneswar were organized in the institute on 27th March 2018 with the help of Quiz Club of IIT Bhubanewar and coordinated by Dr. Seema and Dr. Sasmita and winners were awarded on this occasion.
Dr. Manaswini Behera, on behalf of the EBSB coordinating team, welcomed the audience on this occasion of EBSB event and Utkal Diwas. She expressed her sincere gratitude to Prof. R.V. Rajakumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar for his able guidance and motivation to organize this event with good standards. She thanked Prof. V.R. Pedireddi for his constant support, and thanked all EBSB coordinating committee members, student volunteers for organizing the event in full enthusiasm. She also mentioned that without whole heartedly and active participation of all performers and absence of such lively audience, these series of events wouldn’t have been so successful. She elaborated on the significance of the EBSB events and highlighted about history, culture, heritage, festivals of the paired states.
Dr. R.R. Dash conveyed Director’s message and best wishes to the participants and audience on the occasion of Utkal Diwas and 6th event of EBSB.

The programme started with informative video display, and slideshow showing the photographs with information depicting the history, culture, flora, fauna, heritage, art and craft of the paired states.
The cultural extravaganza geared up by an awesome Odishi dance performance by a M.Tech. student, Ms. Ipsita Mohanty admiring Lord Jagannath followed by an energetic performance by Mr. Saswat Dipto Rath, praising Lord Vitthal. Another group Odishi dance performance was done on “”Odisha,mo Odisha” song. Boita bandana is a festival of Odisha, which depicts the reminiscent of maritime trade that once flourished in the State. The “boita bandana” performance was made by children and narrated by Mrs. Ispsita Das, member of IIT Bhubaneswar family very gracefully.

There were 4 different extraordinary group dance performances on different popular Marathi Songs depicting the festivals, dance forms (Lavani), Ganesh Bisarjan etc by a Ph.D. student Mrs. Kajari and her team (Mrs Archana, Mrs Shalini Singh, Ms. Anushka, Ms. Aditi Singh, Mr. Samarth); Mrs. Shalini and Mr. Brahannayaki; students Ms. Shreya and Ms. Himani; Ms. Avani, Ms. Meghna and Ms. Shipra.

There was an awesome Sambalpuri dance performance by Mrs. Suman, Mrs. Priti, Mrs. Priyanka, Mrs. Ipsita and Mrs. Palli on a very popular Oriya song “Rangabati”. Apart from that, there were group dance performances by children of faculty and staff members (Shuvam, Jayam, Suchet, Srijon, Samanwaya, Piyush, Sushree, Harshitha, Anuska, Aditi, Priyanka, Srijita, Ishita, Tanushree, Sanju) on popular Odia songs.

 

Several beautiful Odia and Marathi songs were sung by Mr. Gautam, Ms. Harshia, Mrs. Rojalin, Mrs. Niharika and Mrs. Sarmila. Mr. Malay, Mr. Ashutoh, Mrs. Niharika and Mr. Saswat recited their own poems and Mr. Srijon played violin.
More than 300 audiences witnessed the brilliant event and appreciated the entertaining performances. Prof. Bramha Deo in presence of EBSB team members awarded the participants with a participation certificate and a mementos.

Dr. R.R. Dash and Dr. S. Bahinipati, Coordinators, EBSB coordinated the event with the help of other EBSB team members present on this occasion, Dr. Manaswini, Dr. Sankarshan, Dr. Ankur, Dr. Yogesh and Dr. Sourav and core team members of student volunteers Mr. Malay, Mr. Kundan, Mr. Rishi and Mr. Alok.

At the end of the event, snacks comprising of one popular food item of each of the paired states (Bada Pav for Maharastra and Chennapoda for Odisa) were served to ensure that the audience left with a taste of the unique cuisine of both the states.
The video clips of the event can be watched in the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_8pESYx36Y&t=75s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwCd3EFr0Q8