It is never easy to bounce back to normality after a great tragedy. Kerala is finding that out, after the devastating floods in August.
The 59th State School Arts Festival, which concluded here on Sunday, proved that there are many ways to deal with such a disaster.
For instance, the concept of cost-cutting can be done imaginatively. It is not easy to conduct a festival of this scale at about one fourth of the budget of the previous edition.
And that some entertainment would do no harm to the people of a region that has been among the worst-hit. There was plenty of it, over the past three days.
Young dancers, singers and actors all came out with their best. But if you ask them whether they got the perfect stages for their performances, not all of them might answer in the affirmative.
That was because the organisers had to make do with the existing school auditoriums in the city.
A stage was erected at Leo XIII HSS, where some of the popular events were held. It was strange, however, to see that the hugely popular Group Dance, both HSS and HS categories, were held at indoor venues that could accommodate about a thousand. The organisers could have tried to conduct both those events at the main venue.
Festival’s sorrow
Then there was this sad scene outside the drama (HS) venue at Mary Immaculate HSS. A group of students, mostly girls, were in tears as they watched others perform.
Their rightful opportunity, which they earned by coming first at the Kozhikode Revenur District School Arts Festival representing Memunda HSS, had been taken away following objections raised by some Muslim groups.
Also, following protests, Essay Writing evaluation by Deepa Nisanth, the writer who has been accused of plagiarism, had to be cancelled.
But, those events should not take the sheen off a festival that was organised against heavy odds, including the move to abandon it this year.
Needless to say, that would have been quite unfair to the over 11,700 participants and Alappuzha itself.